Grand coalition (Germany)

In modern Germany, grand coalition (German: Große Koalition) describes a governing coalition of the two main centre-right and centre-left parties, that is the Christian Democrats (consisting of the sister parties CDU and CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD).

In the Weimar Republic of 1919–1933, the term "grand coalition" was used for a coalition that included the Social Democratic Party, SPD, the Catholic Centre Party and the liberal parties Democratic Party, DDP and People's Party, DVP. Such a coalition was in power in 1923 and in 1928–1930, although the latter was a conglomerate of parties with somewhat conflicting interests, that banded together to as a safeguard for democracy against the radical political parties, the KPD and the NSDAP.

In the post-war politics of Germany, three grand coalitions (Große Koalitionen) have been formed at the federal level through the Bundestag.

On 1 December 1966, the government was formed by the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, the two major political parties in the Federal Republic of Germany. It was the result of arguments about tax increases between the CDU/CSU–FDP coalition of the time. The FDP ministers stood down and a new government was formed with the SPD under Kurt Georg Kiesinger of the CDU. The grand coalition was in control of 95% of the Bundestag, leaving some politically active students disillusioned; this disillusionment led to the formation of the Außerparlamentarische Opposition which formed a core of the German student movement. The Kiesinger grand coalition lasted until 1969.

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