| Country: | German Empire |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | 1907 German federal election |
| Previous Year: | 1907 |
| Next Election: | 1919 German federal election |
| Next Year: | 1919 |
| Seats For Election: | All 397 seats in the Reichstag |
| Majority Seats: | 199 |
| Registered: | 14,442,387 8.16% |
| Turnout: | 12,260,731 (84.89%) 0.24pp |
| Image1: | |
| Leader1: | August Bebel Hugo Haase |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Leader Since1: | 21 November 1892 & 1911 |
| Last Election1: | 28.94%, 43 seats |
| Seats1: | 110 |
| Seat Change1: | 67 |
| Popular Vote1: | 4,250,400 |
| Percentage1: | 34.82% |
| Swing1: | 5.88pp |
| Leader2: | Georg von Hertling |
| Party2: | Centre Party (Germany) |
| Leader Since2: | 1909 |
| Last Election2: | 18.79%, 101 seats |
| Seats2: | 90 |
| Seat Change2: | 11 |
| Popular Vote2: | 1,988,504 |
| Percentage2: | 16.29% |
| Swing2: | 2.50pp |
| Image3: | Portrait of Ernst Bassermann.jpg |
| Leader3: | Ernst Bassermann |
| Party3: | National Liberal Party (Germany) |
| Leader Since3: | 1898 |
| Last Election3: | 14.80%, 56 seats |
| Seats3: | 45 |
| Seat Change3: | 11 |
| Popular Vote3: | 1,662,700 |
| Percentage3: | 13.53% |
| Swing3: | 1.27pp |
| Image4: | Ernst von Heydebrand und der Lasa by E. Bieber.jpg |
| Leader4: | Ernst von Heydebrand und der Lasa |
| Party4: | German Conservative Party |
| Leader Since4: | 1911 |
| Last Election4: | 9.41%, 59 seats |
| Seats4: | 41 |
| Seat Change4: | 18 |
| Popular Vote4: | 1,006,570 |
| Percentage4: | 8.25% |
| Swing4: | 1.16pp |
| Image5: | Otto Fischbeck LCCN2014714907.jpg |
| Leader5: | Otto Fischbeck |
| Party5: | Progressive People's Party (Germany) |
| Leader Since5: | 6 March 1910 |
| Last Election5: | 10.66%, 50 seats[1] |
| Seats5: | 41 |
| Seat Change5: | 9 |
| Popular Vote5: | 1,448,097 |
| Percentage5: | 11.86% |
| Swing5: | 1.20pp |
| Image6: | Ferdynand Radziwi%C5%82%C5%82 c1914.jpg |
| Leader6: | Ferdynand Radziwiłł |
| Party6: | Polish Party |
| Leader Since6: | 1889 |
| Last Election6: | 4.03%, 20 seats |
| Seats6: | 18 |
| Seat Change6: | 2 |
| Popular Vote6: | 441,744 |
| Percentage6: | 3.62% |
| Swing6: | 0.41pp |
| Map Size: | 450px |
| President of the Reichstag | |
| Before Election: | Hans Graf von Schwerin-Löwitz |
| Before Party: | German Conservative Party |
| Posttitle: | President of the Reichstag after election |
| After Election: | Johannes Kaempf |
| After Party: | Progressive People's Party (Germany) |
Federal elections were held in Germany on 12 January 1912.[2] Although the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had received the most votes in every election since 1890, it had never won the most seats, and in the 1907 elections, it had won fewer than half the seats won by the Centre Party despite receiving over a million more votes.[3] However, the 1912 elections saw the SPD retain its position as the most voted-for party and become the largest party in the Reichstag, winning 110 of the 397 seats.[4]
Parties hostile or ambivalent to the ruling elites of the German Empire – the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, and the left-liberal Progressives – together won a majority of the seats. This allowed a successful censure vote against the government of Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg over the Saverne Affair in 1913 and the passage of the Reichstag Peace Resolution of 1917. However, the Centre and the Progressives were unwilling to act consistently in opposition, which left the government largely free to do as it wished.
Some historians, such as Fritz Fischer, have theorized that the First World War was partly a result of the strategy of the conservative Prussian Junkers to deal with the result.[5] In an attempt to increase support for conservative parties and policies and to distract the population from the SPD, they hoped to drum up patriotism in an external conflict with Russia or another Eastern European state such as Serbia.
Georges Weill, an SPD candidate who won a seat in Metz, defected to France at the start of World War I.
The members of the Reichstag were elected in single-member constituencies via the two-round system. There was no requirement that constituencies had to be of equal sizes population sizes, meaning that rural constituencies, which tended to have smaller populations, were overrepresented.
Since 1869, suffrage was available to all residents who:
Since 1888, a constitutional amendment required elections to be held every five years.