1890 German federal election

none December 2023 German Empire parliamentary 1887 German federal election 1887 yes 1890 02 20 1893 German federal election 1893 All 397 seats in the Reichstag 199 10,145,402 71.58% ( 5.91pp) 130x130px Ludwig Windthorst JS.jpg 170 105 130 25 32 Ludwig Windthorst Centre Party (Germany) 19.91%, 98 seats 107 9 18.55% 1.36 pp Otto von Helldorff.jpg 230 105 130 40 65 Otto von Helldorff German Conservative Party 15.21%, 80 seats 71 9 12.21% 3.00 pp Rudolf_Virchow_NLM4.jpg 135 105 130 0 12 Rudolf Virchow German Free-minded Party 12.62%, 32 seats 67 35 15.89% 3.27 pp R. v. Bennigsen (3x4 cropped).jpg 115 105 130 0 0 Rudolf von Bennigsen NLP 21.90%, 98 seats 38 60 15.64% Singer Gerisch Composite.jpg 100 105 130 0 0 Paul SingerAlwin Gerisch Social Democratic Party of Germany 10.12%, 11 seats 35 24 19.75% 9.63 pp Victor Herzog von Ratibor (cropped).jpg 320 105 130 25 104 Viktor I, Duke of Ratibor Free Conservative Party 9.77%, 41 seats 19 22 6.38% 3.39 pp Karte der Reichstagswahlen 1890.svg 400px Results by constituency President of the Reichstag Albert von Levetzow German Conservative Party President of the Reichstag after election Albert von Levetzow German Conservative Party 6.26 pp A federal election for the eighth Reichstag of the German Empire was held on 20 February 1890. It was an early election called after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck requested that the Reichstag elected in February 1887 be dissolved because it had refused to extend the Anti-Socialist Laws. He thought that a newly elected Reichstag would be more likely to pass the bill, but the parties that supported him – the German Conservative Party, German Reich Party and National Liberals, known as the Cartel parties de Kartellparteien – lost 91 seats and their majority in parliament. The Centre Party regained its position as the largest party, winning 107 of the 397 seats and 18.6% of the vote, while the National Liberal Party, formerly the largest party, was reduced to 38 seats. The Social Democratic Party won the most votes with 19.8%, but that translated to only 35 seats due to the lack of redistricting and the first-past-the-post voting system. Voter turnout was 71.5%. The 1890 Reichstag was the first to be elected after the 1888 constitutional change of term lengths from three to five years. Background The previous Reichstag election in 1887 was held early after Emperor Wilhelm I, at Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's request, dissolved the Reichstag when it failed to pass Bismarck's seven-year military budget. Bismarck hoped, with good reason, that a new Reichstag would approve the bill. The three Cartel parties de Kartellparteien – the German Conservative Party, German Reich Party (Free Conservatives) and National Liberals – picked up 53 additional seats in the election for a total of 219 out of 397, giving them a 55% majority. On 11 March 1887, just a few weeks after the election, the Reichstag approved Bismarck's military budget with the seven-year period he wanted.9. Februar 1888: Reichstag verlängert Wahlperiode von drei auf fünf Jahre 9 February 1888: The Reichstag Lengthens the Election Period from Three to Five Years https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1888-02-09-legislaturperiode-541740 21 December 2025 Deutscher Bundestag de On 9 February 1888, the Reichstag amended the Reich constitution to extend the legislative term from three to five years. The move was taken to extend the life of the existing majority coalition and with it Bismarck's ability to govern.Dorlis Blume 3 September 2014 Chronik 1888 1888 Chronicle https://www.dhm.de/lemo/jahreschronik/1888 22 April 2026 Deutsches Historisches Museum de Wilhelm I died on 9 March 1888 and his son Frederick III, who was gravely ill when he ascended the throne, died on 15 June, leaving the crown to Wilhelm II. Unlike his grandfather, Wilhelm II involved himself in day-to-day politics and in doing so came into conflict with Chancellor Bismarck. Bismarck's attempt to make the Anti-Socialist Laws permanent was defeated in the Reichstag on 25 January 1890, a failure that was the result of divisions within the Cartel parties. Wilhelm immediately dissolved the Reichstag at Bismarck's request even though he disapproved of the Anti-Socialist Laws and wanted to introduce labour protection legislation. He was willing to follow Bismarck because he wanted to increase the military budget and knew that Bismarck could help him see it through the Reichstag.Röhl J. C. G. 1966 The Disintegration of the Kartell and the Politics of Bismarck's Fall from Power, 1887–90 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637730 The Historical Journal 9 1 82 f 10.1017/S0018246X00026376 2637730 JSTORDorlis Blume 3 September 2014 Chronik 1890 1890 Chronicle https://www.dhm.de/lemo/jahreschronik/1890 24 April 2026 Deutsches Historisches Museum deClark Christopher Christopher Clark Wilhelm II. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 2008 Kindle Munich 68–70 de Juraschitz Norbert Wilhelm II 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 The election was a major defeat for Bismarck and the Cartel parties, which together lost 91 seats. The Centre Party remained the strongest party, winning 106 constituencies (27.2% of seats) with 18.6% of the popular vote. The left-liberal parties also made significant gains in votes and representation. For the first time, a member of a German party (the SPD) won a seat in Alsace-Lorraine.Deutschland vor 1918. Reichstagswahlen. Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen Germany before 1918. Reichstag Elections. Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine https://wahlen-in-deutschland.de/kuRlElsass.htm 28 April 2026 Wahlen in Deutschland de Regionalists made gains off the decline of the Cartel parties.April 2026 Antisemites gained only 0.7% of the votes but won five constituencies.April 2026 The table shows 1 anti-semite seat, but the map shows 5 in the Hesse region, corresponding to this statement, which is unsourced. Their strongholds were the Grand Duchy of Hesse and Hesse-Nassau.April 2026 The Social Democrats nearly doubled their vote share compared to the 1887 election and won the popular vote for the first time with over 1.4 million votes, or 19.75% of the total. From his London exile, Friedrich Engels proclaimed that the day of polling was “the day the German revolution began”.Friedrich Engels an eine Tochter von Karl Marx Friedrich Engels to a Daughter of Karl Marx https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/pdf/deu/738_Engels%20an%20Tochter%20von%20Marx_243.pdf 26 April 2026 German History in Documents and Images (GHDI) de In spite of the SPD's popular vote, the party won only 35 seats (8.8% of the 397). One of the reasons for the low seat count was that Germany had not redistricted since 1871, when each district had about 100,000 voters. In the 20 intervening years, there had been considerable rural to urban migration due to industrialisation. The SPD, with its predominantly urban electorate, suffered disproportionately because each vote in a heavily populated urban district carried less weight than a vote in a sparsely populated rural district. A second reason was that the German Empire used a first-past-the-post voting system in which a candidate in a district could win in the first round only by obtaining an absolute majority of the votes cast. If a second round was necessary, the conservative and national liberal parties generally formed electoral alliances, often against the SPD candidate. The SPD seldom entered into such alliances.Ulrich Bernd 20 February 2015 Reichstagswahl 1890. Aufstieg der SPD im Kaiserreich Reichstag Election 1890. Rise of the SPD in the Empire https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/reichstagswahl-1890-aufstieg-der-spd-im-kaiserreich-100.html 26 April 2026 Deutschlandfunk de Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck from office a month after the election and replaced him with Leo von Caprivi. The Reichstag allowed the Anti-Socialist Laws to lapse on 30 September 1890.Anti-Socialist Law (October 21, 1878) https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1843 29 April 2026 German History in Documents and Images (GHDI) #F8F9FA 35 Social Democratic Party of Germany 10 German People's Party (1868) 67 German Free-minded Party 4 Independent Liberals #EEDC82 0 1 Danish Party #FFA54F 16 Polish Party #FFA54F 14 Alsace-Lorraine Party #FFA54F 38 National Liberal Party (Germany) 0 0 107 Centre Party (Germany) 11 German-Hanoverian Party 19 German Reich Party 0 71 German Conservative Party 4 Anti-semites #964B00 Social Democratic Party 1427323 35 +9.63 +24 Centre Party 1340688 107 −1.36 +9 German Free-minded Party 1148468 67 +3.27 +35 National Liberal Party 1130842 38 −6.26 −60 German Conservative Party 882820 71 −3.00 −9 German Reich Party 461307 19 −3.39 −22 Independent Polish Polish Party 185417 11 New New Alsace-Lorraine parties 153667 14 −0.97 −1 German People's Party 147570 10 +0.86 +10 German-Hanoverian Party 112675 11 −0.02 +7 Independent liberals #EEDC82 78762 4 +0.12 +1 Polish Court Party Polish Party 61356 5 New New German Reform Party Nazi Party 21918 3 New New Independent conservatives #007FFF 21413 0 −0.12 0 German Social Party Nazi Party 20573 0 New New Danish Party 13672 1 +0.03 0 Independent anti-semites #964B00 5045 1 −0.08 0 Others 14845 0 +0.09 0 Unknown 209 0 0.00 0 33127 0 10145402 Wahlen in DeutschlandWahlen in Deutschland Alsace-Lorraine Clericals Centre Party (Germany) 82164 9 +23.22 +4 Alsatian autonomists #B59631 52791 4 +19.55 +4 Social Democratic Party 19182 1 +10.46 +1 Alsace-Lorraine protesters #DCBFA3 18663 1 −49.02 −9 National Liberal Party 1850 0 +0.30 0 German Reich Party 1148 0 −6.01 0 German Conservative Party 1055 0 New 0 Others 1875 0 +0.87 0 Unknown 56 0 +0.03 0 12771 0 316894 Wahlen in DeutschlandWahlen in Deutschland References Category:Federal elections in Germany Category:1890 elections in Germany Category:Elections in the German Empire Category:February 1890 in Europe