1959 Rhineland-Palatinate state election

West German state election The 1959 Rhineland-Palatinate state election was conducted on 19 April 1959 to elect members to the Landtag, the state legislature of Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany. In this election, far-right Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP) crossed the 5% electoral threshold and was thus able to send one deputy to the Landtag - Hans Schikora (1912-2005). The reason for this was the winegrowers' (Rhineland-Palatinate is Germany's most important winegrowing region) concerns that the European Economic Community (EEC) would intensify competition with better and cheaper French wines, thus threatening their livelihoods. Thus the DRP's protectionist propaganda resonated with the winegrowers, as did stirring up the anti-French sentiment with the slogan "Out with all the occupiers" ("Raus mit allen Besatzern") (Rhineland-Palatinate was formed out of the French occupation zone). However, the lone Schikora was quickly isolated by the other parties. After DRP members in the neighboring state of NRW defaced the Cologne synagogue with swastikas on Christmas Eve 1959, the Rhineland-Palatinate interior ministry banned DRP on 26 January 1960, so Schikora (who was also expelled from the national party) continued to sit in the Landtag as an unaffiliated member until the next elections.Sowinski Oliver Die Deutsche Reichspartei 1950–1965. Organisation und Ideologie einer rechtsradikalen Partei. Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften 1998 978-3631324752 Frankfurt am Main 79-87, 394 de Summary of the 19 April 1959 Rhineland-Palatinate state Landtag election results |- |colspan=15| center|300px |- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:left;" width=300px colspan=2|Party !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" width=50px |Vote % !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" width=50px |Vote % ± !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" width=50px |Seats !style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:right;" width=50px |Seats ± |- | width=5px style="background-color: Christian Democratic Union (Germany)" | | style="text-align:left;" | Christian Democratic Union | style="text-align:right;" | 48.4 | style="text-align:right;" | +1.6 | style="text-align:right;" | 52 | style="text-align:right;" | +1 |- | style="background-color: Social Democratic Party of Germany" | | style="text-align:left;" | Social Democratic Party | style="text-align:right;" | 34.9 | style="text-align:right;" | +3.2 | style="text-align:right;" | 37 | style="text-align:right;" | +1 |- | style="background-color: Free Democratic Party (Germany)" | | style="text-align:left;" | Free Democratic Party | style="text-align:right;" | 9.7 | style="text-align:right;" | –3.0 | style="text-align:right;" | 10 | style="text-align:right;" | –3 |- | style="background-color: Deutsche Reichspartei" | | style="text-align:left;" | Deutsche Reichspartei | style="text-align:right;" | 5.1 | style="text-align:right;" | N/A | style="text-align:right;" | 1 | style="text-align:right;" | N/A |- | style="background-color: Other parties" | | style="text-align:left;" | Others | style="text-align:right;" | 1.9 | style="text-align:right;" | –3.7 | style="text-align:right;" | 0 | style="text-align:right;" | ±0 |- style="background: #E9E9E9" ! style="text-align:left;" colspan=2| Total | 100.0 | — | 100 | ±0 |- | colspan=9 style="text-align:left;" | Source: parties-and-elections.de |} References 1959 Category:1959 elections in Germany Category:1959 in West Germany Category:20th century in Rhineland-Palatinate Category:April 1959 in Europe