| Country: | Weimar Republic |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Previous Election: | May 1924 German federal election |
| Previous Year: | May 1924 |
| Next Election: | 1928 German federal election |
| Next Year: | 1928 |
| Seats For Election: | All 493 seats in the Reichstag |
| Majority Seats: | 247 |
| Registered: | 38,987,324 (1.6%) |
| Turnout: | 78.8% (1.4pp) |
| Leader1: | Hermann Müller Otto Wels Arthur Crispien |
| Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Last Election1: | 20.5%, 100 seats |
| Seats1: | 131 |
| Seat Change1: | 31 |
| Popular Vote1: | 7,881,041 |
| Percentage1: | 26.0% |
| Swing1: | 5.5 pp |
| Leader2: | Kuno von Westarp |
| Party2: | German National People's Party |
| Last Election2: | 19.5%, 95 seats |
| Seats2: | 103 |
| Seat Change2: | 8 |
| Popular Vote2: | 6,205,802 |
| Percentage2: | 20.5% |
| Swing2: | 1.0 pp |
| Leader3: | Wilhelm Marx |
| Party3: | Centre Party (Germany) |
| Last Election3: | 13.4%, 65 seats |
| Seats3: | 69 |
| Seat Change3: | 4 |
| Popular Vote3: | 4,118,849 |
| Percentage3: | 13.6% |
| Swing3: | 0.2 pp |
| Party4: | German People's Party |
| Last Election4: | 9.2%, 45 seats |
| Seats4: | 51 |
| Seat Change4: | 6 |
| Popular Vote4: | 3,049,064 |
| Percentage4: | 10.1% |
| Swing4: | 0.9 pp |
| Leader5: | Ruth Fischer & Arkadi Maslow |
| Party5: | Communist Party of Germany |
| Last Election5: | 12.6%, 62 seats |
| Seats5: | 45 |
| Seat Change5: | 17 |
| Popular Vote5: | 2,709,086 |
| Percentage5: | 8.9% |
| Swing5: | 3.7 pp |
| Leader6: | Erich Koch-Weser |
| Party6: | German Democratic Party |
| Last Election6: | 5.7%, 28 seats |
| Seats6: | 32 |
| Seat Change6: | 4 |
| Popular Vote6: | 1,919,829 |
| Percentage6: | 6.3% |
| Swing6: | 0.6 pp |
| Government | |
| Before Election: | Second Marx cabinet |
| Before Party: | Z–DVP–DDP |
| Posttitle: | Government after election |
| After Election: | First Luther cabinet |
| After Party: | DVP–DNVP–Z–DDP–BVP |
Federal elections were held in Germany on 7 December 1924 to elect the third Reichstag of the Weimar Republic.[1] [2] [3]
The elections took place just six months after the previous elections in May due to the political impasse following the passage of the Dawes Plan. The result was a decline in strength for the parties of the far right and far left, the Nazi Party and Communists, who lost 18 and 17 seats respectively. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) made the largest gains, rising to 26%, followed by the radical nationalist German National People's Party (DNVP). The Catholic Centre Party, conservative German People's Party (DVP), and German Democratic Party (DDP) also saw a small upswing.[3]
Following the elections, the balance of power lay with the DVP, who announced they would only join a government of the bourgeois right. This time, negotiations with the DNVP were successful, and in January a new majority cabinet was formed under Hans Luther – an independent close to the DVP – as a coalition between the Centre Party, DNVP, DVP, and Bavarian People's Party.[3] For the following three years, until the collapse of the fourth Marx cabinet in February 1928, Germany was governed by cabinets of this conservative orientation.
The Reichstag was elected via party list proportional representation. For this purpose, the country was divided into 35 multi-member electoral districts. A party was entitled to a seat for every 60,000 votes won. This was calculated via a three-step process on the constituency level, an intermediary level which combined multiple constituencies, and finally nationwide, where all parties' excess votes were combined. In the third nationwide step, parties could not be awarded more seats than they had already won on the two lower constituency levels. Due to the fixed number of votes per seat, the size of the Reichstag fluctuated between elections based on the number of voters and turnout. The voting age was 25 years.[4]