Country: | Weimar Republic |
Type: | parliamentary |
Previous Election: | 1920 German federal election |
Previous Year: | 1920 |
Next Election: | December 1924 German federal election |
Next Year: | December 1924 |
Seats For Election: | All 472 seats in the Reichstag |
Majority Seats: | 237 |
Registered: | 38,374,983 (6.7%) |
Turnout: | 77.4% (1.8pp) |
Leader1: | Hermann Müller Otto Wels Arthur Crispien |
Party1: | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
Last Election1: | 39.5%, 186 seats |
Seats1: | 100 |
Seat Change1: | 86 |
Popular Vote1: | 6,008,905 |
Percentage1: | 20.5% |
Swing1: | 19.0pp |
Leader2: | Oskar Hergt |
Party2: | German National People's Party |
Last Election2: | 15.1%, 71 seats |
Seats2: | 95 |
Seat Change2: | 24 |
Popular Vote2: | 5,696,475 |
Percentage2: | 19.5% |
Swing2: | 4.4pp |
Leader3: | Constantin Fehrenbach |
Party3: | Centre Party (Germany) |
Last Election3: | 13.6%, 64 seats |
Seats3: | 65 |
Seat Change3: | 1 |
Popular Vote3: | 3,914,379 |
Percentage3: | 13.4% |
Swing3: | 0.2pp |
Leader4: | Ruth Fischer & Arkadi Maslow |
Party4: | Communist Party of Germany |
Last Election4: | 2.1%, 4 seats |
Seats4: | 62 |
Seat Change4: | 58 |
Popular Vote4: | 3,693,280 |
Percentage4: | 12.6% |
Swing4: | 10.5pp |
Leader5: | Gustav Stresemann |
Party5: | German People's Party |
Last Election5: | 13.9%, 65 seats |
Seats5: | 45 |
Seat Change5: | 20 |
Popular Vote5: | 2,694,381 |
Percentage5: | 9.2% |
Swing5: | 4.7pp |
Leader6: | Erich Ludendorff |
Party6: | National Socialist Freedom Movement |
Last Election6: | Did not exist |
Seats6: | 32 |
Seat Change6: | New party |
Popular Vote6: | 1,918,329 |
Percentage6: | 6.5% |
Swing6: | New party |
Government | |
Before Election: | First Marx cabinet |
Before Party: | Z–DVP–BVP–DDP |
Posttitle: | Government after election |
After Election: | Second Marx cabinet |
After Party: | Z–DVP–DDP |
Federal elections were held in Germany on 4 May 1924,[1] after the Reichstag had been dissolved on 13 March. The Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 100 of the 472 seats.[2] [3] Voter turnout was 77.4%.[4]
The members of the Reichstag were elected by two methods. A total of 35 multi-member constituencies were to have representatives elected via party-list proportional representation. A party was entitled to a seat via this method for every 60,000 votes they obtained in a constituency. At the second level, the 35 constituencies were combined into 16 constituency associations. A party could claim an additional seat if its vote remainder in the electoral district after distribution of seats by the first method was more than 30,000. As seats were allocated based on vote count, there was not a set number of seats in the chamber.[5]
People who were under the age of 25, incapacitated according to the Civil Code, who were under guardianship or provisional guardianship, or who had lost their civil rights of honour after a criminal court ruling were not eligible to vote.
Between 4,514 and 4,638 candidates were nominated by at least 32 parties.