1878 German federal election

none December 2023 1878 German federal election German Empire parliamentary no 1877 German federal election 1877 yes 1878 07 30 1881 German federal election 1881 All 397 seats in the Reichstag 199 9,128,305 2.07% 5,780,996 (63.33%) 2.69pp 130x130px Die Gartenlaube (1874) b 093 (cropped).jpg Rudolf von Bennigsen National Liberal Party (Germany) 1867 26.67%, 127 seats 97 30 22.41% 4.26 pp Ludwig Windthorst 1872 JS (cropped).jpg Ludwig Windthorst Centre Party (Germany) 26 May 1874 24.83%, 93 seats 94 1 22.84% 1.99 pp Otto von Helldorff.jpg Otto von Helldorff German Conservative Party 7 June 1876 9.59%, 40 seats 59 19 12.79% 3.20 pp Victor Herzog von Ratibor (cropped).jpg Viktor I, Duke of Ratibor Free Conservative Party 7.85%, 38 seats 57 19 13.64% 5.79 pp DFP German Progress Party 7.64%, 34 seats 26 8 6.86% 0.78 pp Polen Polish Party 4.00%, 14 seats 14 0 3.75% 0.25 pp File:Karte der Reichstagswahlen 1878.svg 450px Map of results (by constituencies) President of the Reichstag Max von Forckenbeck National Liberal Party (Germany) President of the Reichstag after election Max von Forckenbeck National Liberal Party (Germany) A federal election for the fourth Reichstag of the German Empire was held on 30 July 1878.Nohlen Dieter Dieter Nohlen Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook Stöver Philip Nomos 2010 978-3-8329-5609-7 Baden-Baden 773, 788 It took place 18 months ahead of schedule after two unsuccessful assassination attempts against Emperor Wilhelm I led Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to request an early dissolution of the Reichstag that had been elected in January 1877. Bismarck tried to tie the attacks on the Emperor to the Social Democrats and, indirectly, the National Liberals in order to weaken them and strengthen the conservative parties. Although the National Liberals lost 30 seats and the two main conservative parties gained 38, the National Liberals remained the strongest party in the Reichstag. It went on to pass Bismarck's harsh Anti-Socialist Law in October 1878. Historical background The 1878 election, held just 18 months after the previous Reichstag election, is often referred to as the "assassination-attempt election" (de Attentatswahl) because it was wholly dominated by the two unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Emperor Wilhelm I in the spring of 1878. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck took immediate political advantage of the public outrage to attack both the leftist Socialist Workers' Party (the forerunner of the Social Democratic Party, or SPD) and the centrist National Liberals. The first attempt on the Emperor's life, on 11 May, was the act of a disturbed individual (Max Hödel) who had had only very loose ties to the SPD, but as soon as Bismarck received word of it, he telegraphed his state secretary in Berlin: "Shouldn't the assassination attempt be taken as an opportunity to immediately start proceedings against socialists and their press?"Günsche Karl-Ludwig Lautermann Klaus 14 October 1978 100 Jahre Sozialistengesetz 100 Years of the Socialist Law https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/archiv/531011/100-jahre-sozialistengesetz/ 22 October 2025 Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung de On 20 May Bismarck presented a draft "Law on the Defence Against Social Democratic Outrages" (de Gesetz zur Abwehr sozialdemokratischer Ausschreitungen), which the Reichstag rejected by a vote of 251 to 57.Schmidt Jürgen https://www.demokratie-geschichte.de/extra/docs/tagungsbericht.pdf Einigkeit und Recht, doch Freiheit? 2021 Franz Steiner Verlag 978-3-515-13150-6 Braune Andreas Wiesbaden 63 de Unity and Justice, and yet Freedom? Das Sozialistengesetz – Demokratiegeschichtlicher "Sündenfall" des deutschen Kaiserreichs? The Socialist Law – The German Empire's " Fall from Grace" in the History of Democracy? Dreyer Michael Lang Markus Lappenküper Ulrich The law's wording was so broad that the National Liberals feared that it could be directed against them.Thümmler Heinzpeter https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112735114/html Sozialistengesetz §28: Ausweisungen und Ausgewiesene 1878–1890 De Gruyter 1979 978-3-112-73510-7 Berlin / Leiden 13 de Socialist Law §28: Expulsions and Expellees 1878–1890 10.1515/9783112735114 Bismarck had in fact expected that the party, which in 1876 had blocked a bill he had introduced to extend the range of politically criminal acts, would oppose the measure and that he could then brand them as accomplices of the social democrats. The second assassination attempt on 2 June was committed by a man named Karl Nobiling who was suffering under "personal delusions"."Reichstag Dissolution" (July 7, 1878) https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=1442 28 May 2025 German History in Documents and Images (GHDI)Linek Jenny Scriba Arnult 16 August 2016 Attentate auf Kaiser Wilhelm I. Attempted Assassinations of Emperor Wilhelm I https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/kaiserreich/innenpolitik/attentate-auf-kaiser-wilhelm-i 29 May 2025 Deutsches Historisches Museum de On the following morning, the Wolff semi-official news agency reported that Nobiling had confessed to having SPD sympathies. It was all but impossible that he could have done so, however, because he had been badly wounded during the attack and was not capable of responding to questions. Bismarck nevertheless used the situation to dissolve the Reichstag on 11 June. Some historians see evidence connecting Bismarck's ministry to Wolff's report and say that it marked the start of the campaign to link Social Democrats to the act and accuse the National Liberals of collusion with them. Campaign In the campaign for the new Reichstag, the majority of the National Liberals' candidates came from its conservative wing and had already committed themselves to voting for Bismarck's proposed anti-socialist law. Even some politicians from the left-of-center German Progress Party moved towards the Chancellor. One flyer it put out declared that "the social democratic fraud, along with its parasitic plants, is a disgrace to the entire German people". The Social Democrats for their part were severely hampered in their ability to campaign. Although no restrictive laws had yet been passed, prominent social democrats had their houses searched and papers confiscated. The party was forced to restrict its campaigning to electoral districts in which it already had a dominant position. Electoral system The election was held under general, equal, direct and secret suffrage. All German males over the age of 25 years were able to vote except for active members of the military and recipients of poor relief. The restrictions on the military were meant to keep it from becoming politicized, while men on relief were considered to be open to political manipulation. The constitutional guarantee of a secret vote was not safeguarded at the time, since ballot boxes and polling booths were not introduced until 1903.21 March 2016 21. März 1871 – Erster Reichstag konstituiert sich 21 March 1871 – The First Reichstag is Convened https://www1.wdr.de/stichtag/stichtag-reichstag-konstituierung-100.html 8 June 2025 WDR If no candidate in a district won an absolute majority of the votes, a runoff election was held between the first- and second-place finishers. It was possible for a replacement candidate to be introduced in a runoff.Steinsdorfer Helmut W-PWrXVOywQC 9 yes Die Liberale Reichspartei (LRP) von 1871 Steiner 2000 978-3-515-07566-4 Stuttgart 9 de The Imperial Liberty Party (LRP) of 1871 Results As Bismarck had hoped, conservative parties were the clear winners in the election. Both the German Reich Party (also known as the Free Conservative Party) and the German Conservative Party picked up 19 seats. The National Liberals lost 30 seats but with 97 remained the strongest party in the Reichstag. In spite of the attacks against it, the Socialist Workers' Party (Social Democrats) lost just four seats.Wahlen in Deutschland bis 1918. Reichstagswahlen. Ergebnisse reichsweit Elections in Germany until 1918. Reichstag Elections. Results Nationwide https://www.wahlen-in-deutschland.de/krtw.htm 31 October 2025 Wahlen in Deutschland de Turnout was 63%, only slightly higher than the previous two elections. #F8F9FA 9 Social Democratic Party of Germany 3 German People's Party (1868) 26 German Progress Party 12 Independent Liberals #EEDC82 0 1 Danish Party #FFA54F 14 Polish Party #FFA54F 15 Alsace-Lorraine Party #FFA54F 97 National Liberal Party (Germany) 0 0 94 Centre Party (Germany) 10 German-Hanoverian Party 57 German Reich Party 0 59 German Conservative Party Centre Party 1315720 94 −1.99 +1 National Liberal Party 1291161 97 −4.26 −30 German Reich Party 785631 57 +5.79 +19 German Conservative Party 736826 59 +3.20 +19 Socialist Workers' Party 437158 9 −1.55 −4 German Progress Party 395065 26 −0.78 −8 Polish Party 216148 14 −0.25 0 Alsace-Lorraine parties 178883 15 −0.59 0 German-Hanoverian Party 106555 10 +0.27 +6 Independent liberals #EEDC82 99511 7 +0.52 +2 Löwe-Berger Group Liberal Union (Germany) 78152 5 −0.37 −4 German People's Party 68851 3 +0.37 −1 Danish Party 16145 1 −0.04 0 Independent conservatives #007FFF 9936 0 −0.26 0 Old Liberals #008000 8496 0 +0.02 0 Christian Social Party 3229 0 New New Schleswig-Holstein Particularist Liberals #EEDC82 2258 0 −0.06 0 Others 10389 0 –0.05 0 Unknown 833 0 0.00 0 20049 0 +2.69 9128305 Wahlen in Deutschlandhttps://wahlen-in-deutschland.de/krtw.htm Reichstag 1867-1918 Wahlen in Deutschland Alsace-Lorraine Protesters #DCBFA3 70524 6 −11.14 −1 Clericals Centre Party (Germany) 59970 5 +2.10 +2 Autonomists #B59631 48389 4 −1.16 −1 German Reich Party 24437 0 +11.75 0 German Conservative Party 343 0 +0.14 0 Socialist Workers' Party 141 0 New New Others 478 0 −0.37 0 2247 0 322310 −0.08 Wahlen in Deutschlandhttps://wahlen-in-deutschland.de/kuRlElsass.htm Reichstag 1867-1918 - Elsass-Lothringen Wahlen in Deutschlande Aftermath On 19 October 1878, Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Law passed the new Reichstag 221 to 149. All National Liberals voted for the law, as did the members of the two conservative parties, while those from the German Progress Party, the Catholic Centre Party – which had been the object of Bismarck's anti-Catholic de Kulturkampf – and the Socialist Workers' Party voted against it.Schmidt Jürgen https://www.demokratie-geschichte.de/extra/docs/tagungsbericht.pdf Einigkeit und Recht, doch Freiheit? 2021 Franz Steiner Verlag 978-3-515-13150-6 Braune Andreas Wiesbaden 63 de Unity and Justice, and yet Freedom? Das Sozialistengesetz – Demokratiegeschichtlicher "Sündenfall" des deutschen Kaiserreichs? The Socialist Law – The German Empire's " Fall from Grace" in the History of Democracy? Dreyer Michael Lang Markus Lappenküper Ulrich The law prohibited societies, meetings, publications, public festivities and processions that "aim[ed] at the overthrow of the existing political or social order through social-democratic, socialist or communist endeavors". It also banned collecting or appealing for contributions to support such activities.Anti-Socialist Law (October 21, 1878) https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1843 31 October 2025 German History in Documents and Images (GHDI) Emperor Wilhelm I signed the law on 21 October 1878. It was subsequently renewed 4 times before it was allowed to expire on 30 September 1890, after Bismarck had resigned as chancellor. References Category:Federal elections in Germany Category:1878 elections in Germany Category:Elections in the German Empire Category:July 1878 in Europe