1912 German Federal Election
SPD becomes largest party12 January 1912 · The Imperial Reichstag · 397 seats, 199 for a majority
Federal elections were held in Germany on 12 January 1912. Although the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had received the most votes in every election since 1890, it had never won the most seats, and in the 1907 elections, it had won fewer than half the seats won by the Centre Party despite receiving over a million more votes.
Chancellor before
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
Independent
Chancellor (continued)
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
Independent
Largest force
SPD
110 of 397 seats
Turnout
84.9%
The result
| Share of the chamber | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPD | August Bebel & | 110 | +67 | 4.250.400 | 34.8% | +5.9 | |
| Centre | — | 90 | -11 | 1.988.504 | 16.3% | -2.5 | |
| NLP | — | 45 | -11 | 1.662.700 | 13.5% | -1.3 | |
| FVp | Otto Fischbeck | 41 | -9 | 1.448.097 | 11.9% | +1.2 | |
| DKP | Ernst von Heydebrand | 41 | -18 | 1.006.570 | 8.3% | -1.2 | |
| PP | Ferdynand Radziwiłł | 18 | -2 | 441.744 | 3.6% | -0.4 |
52 further seats went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.