German federal election, 1928

German federal election, 1928

← December 1924 20 May 1928 (1928-05-20) 1930 →
All 491 seats in the Reichstag 246 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.6%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Otto Wels Kuno von Westarp Wilhelm Marx Party SPD DNVP Centre Leader since 1919 1924 1922 Last election 131 seats 103 seats 69 seats Seats won 153 73 61 Seat change 22 30 8 Popular vote 9,152,979 4,381,563 3,712,152 Percentage 29.8% 14.2% 12.1% Swing 3.8% 6.3% 1.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ernst Thälmann Gustav Stresemann Erich Koch-Weser Party KPD DVP DDP Leader since October 1925 1919 1924 Last election 45 seats 51 seats 32 seats Seats won 54 45 25 Seat change 9 6 7 Popular vote 3,264,793 2,679,703 1,479,374 Percentage 10.6% 8.7% 4.8% Swing 1.6% 1.4% 1.5%
Electoral map (in German)
Chancellor before election Wilhelm Marx Centre Resulting Chancellor Hermann Müller SPD

Wilhelm Marx
Centre

Hermann Müller
SPD

Federal elections were held in Germany on 20 May 1928. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) remained the largest party in the Reichstag after winning 153 of the 491 seats. Voter turnout was 75.6%.

The only two parties to gain significantly were the SPD, who polled almost a third of votes, and the Communist Party of Germany, completing a thorough victory of the left-wing. However, although the SPD now had 153 seats, they still failed to gain a clear majority, resulting in another coalition government led by Hermann Müller. Following his appointment, Müller, who had already been Germany's Chancellor for 4 months in 1920, created a Grand Coalition of members of the SPD, German Democratic Party, Centre Party and the German People's Party. The coalition was plagued by internal divisions right from the beginning, with each party more concerned with their self-interest than the interest of the government and eventually Müller asked President Paul von Hindenburg for emergency powers. When Hindenburg refused, Müller resigned, marking the end of the 'last genuinely democratic government of the Weimar Republic' on 27 March 1930.

The recently reformed Nazi Party contested the elections after the ban on the party was lifted in 1925. However, the party received less than 3% of the vote and won just 12 seats in the Reichstag. This was due to the fact that Adolf Hitler, who had been incarcerated in Landsberg prison for his involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch until Christmas 1924, had concentrated on re-establishing himself as the leader of the Nazi Party following his release rather than on the party's electability.