Federal elections were held in West Germany on 6 March 1983 to elect the members of the 10th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU alliance led by Helmut Kohl remained the largest faction in parliament, with Kohl remaining Chancellor.

Quick Facts All 498 seats in the Bundestag 250 seats needed for a majority, Registered ...

1983 West German federal election

← 1980 6 March 1983 (1983-03-06) 1987 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 498 seats in the Bundestag[lower-alpha 1] 250 seats needed for a majority
Registered	44,088,935 2.0%
Turnout	39,279,529 (89.1%) 0.5pp
First party Second party   Candidate Helmut Kohl Hans-Jochen Vogel Party CDU/CSU SPD Last election 44.5%, 226 seats 42.9%, 218 seats Seats won 244[lower-alpha 2] 193[lower-alpha 3] Seat change 18 25 Popular vote 18,998,545 14,865,807 Percentage 48.8% 38.2% Swing 4.3pp 4.7pp   Third party Fourth party   Candidate Hans-Dietrich Genscher Petra Kelly Party FDP Greens Last election 10.6%, 53 seats 1.5%, 0 seats Seats won 34[lower-alpha 4] 27[lower-alpha 5] Seat change 19 27 Popular vote 2,706,942 2,167,431 Percentage 6.9% 5.6% Swing 3.7pp 4.1pp
The left side shows the winning party vote in the constituencies, the right side shows the seats won by parties in each of the states. The pie chart over West Berlin shows the partisan composition of its legislature.
Government before election First Kohl cabinet CDU/CSU–FDP Government after election Second Kohl cabinet CDU/CSU–FDP

Close

The SPD/FDP coalition under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was returned to power in the 1980 West German federal election. The coalition parties grew more and more apart over economic policies. Schmidt asked for and won a motion of no confidence on 5 February 1982. The FDP cabinet ministers resigned on 17 September 1982 and the SPD formed a minority government. On 1 October, Schmidt and the SPD government were dismissed from office by a constructive vote of no confidence by the votes of the CDU/CSU Union parties and a majority of the FDP deputies in the Bundestag. The Leader of the Christian Democratic Union and Leader of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag Helmut Kohl succeeded Schmidt. The new coalition had a majority in the Bundestag but early elections were arranged to legitimize it. Neither the Bundestag itself nor the Chancellor has a right to dissolve the Bundestag, so Kohl did this by deliberately losing a vote of no confidence on 17 December 1982. Federal President Karl Carstens then dissolved the Bundestag and held new elections. The Federal Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the dissolution.

The FDP was split by its change of coalition partners. The party leadership under Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Otto Graf Lambsdorff drove the new policy, but they were rejected by a minority under Gerhart Baum, Günter Verheugen and Ingrid Matthäus-Maier. The FDP was defeated in the 1982 Hessian state election on 26 September 1982, losing half its voters by gaining only 3.1 percent of the vote and failing to enter the state parliament thanks to an SPD campaign against the FDP's "betrayal in Bonn". The FDP was defeated again and lost all of its seats in the 1982 Bavarian state election on 10 October 1982.

Helmut Schmidt renounced his chancellor candidacy and was replaced by former Federal Minister of Justice Hans-Jochen Vogel. The SPD encountered difficulties because of the emergence of the Greens. A major issue in this election was the armament question after the NATO Double-Track Decision, something the SPD was deeply split on.

The coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP returned to government, gaining 55.7% of the vote and 55.8% of the seats, with Helmut Kohl as Chancellor. This was the first election in which the Greens secured representation in the Bundestag, and the first which saw a fourth (fifth) party in the parliament since 1960.