German federal election, 1919

German federal election, 1919

← 1912 19 January 1919 (1919-01-19) 1920 →
All 423 seats in the Weimar National Assembly 212 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	83.0%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Hermann Müller Friedrich von Payer Party SPD Centre DDP Leader since 1919 1917 1918 Seats won 165 91 75 Popular vote 11,509,048 5,980,216 5,641,825 Percentage 37.9% 19.7% 18.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner Hugo Haase Rudolf Heinze Party DNVP USPD DVP Leader since 1919 1917 1919 Seats won 44 22 19 Popular vote 3,121,479 2,317,290 1,345,638 Percentage 10.3% 7.6% 4.4%
Electoral results by districts (in German), strongest parties: ■ – SPD ■ – USPD ■ – Centre/BVP ■ – DNVP Hatched: occupied territory (Alsace-Lorraine, Posen) pending Treaty of Versailles
Chancellor/Chairman Council of the People's Deputies before election Friedrich Ebert SPD Resulting head of government Philipp Scheidemann, Ministerpräsident SPD

■ – SPD ■ – USPD ■ – Centre/BVP ■ – DNVP

Friedrich Ebert
SPD

Philipp Scheidemann, Ministerpräsident
SPD

Federal elections were held in Germany on 19 January 1919, although members of the standing army in the east voted for their representatives only on 2 February. The elections were the first of the new Weimar Republic following World War I and the Revolution of 1918–19. It was also the first German election held using proportional representation and with women's suffrage. It is also reckoned as the first truly free and fair all-German election, as it was the first to be held after the scrapping of the old constituencies that grossly over-represented rural areas. The voting age was lowered to 20 from 25 in the last Reichstag election of 1912.

Austrian citizens living in Germany were allowed to vote, in the same way that German citizens living in Austria were also allowed to vote in the Austrian Constitutional Assembly election in the same year.

From its inaugural session on 6 February, the National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) functioned as both a constituent assembly and unicameral legislature. On 13 February, provisional Reichspräsident (President) Friedrich Ebert appointed Philipp Scheidemann Reichsministerpräsident (Minister President, the office was renamed Chancellor only when the Weimar Constitution came into force in August 1919). Scheidemann's government replaced the revolutionary Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of the People's Deputies). The supporting parties of the "Weimar Coalition" (SPD, Zentrum and DDP) together won 76.2% of the votes cast. Voter turnout was 83.0%.