User:IchAiBims/4th German Bundestag

The 4th German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, was elected on 17 September 1961 and existed between 17 October 1961 and 17 October 1965. It held a total of 198 parliamentary sessions, with the last one being held on 23 July 1965. On 7 November 1961 the Bundestag elected Konrad Adenauer as federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on the first ballot with 258 yes votes, 206 no votes and 16 abstentions. After Adenauer resigned on 15 October 1963 Ludwig Erhard (CDU) was elected as his sucessor on 16 October 1963.

Presidium of the Bundestag
Robert Pferdmenges of the CDU served as Alterspräsident (Father of the House), after Konrad Adneuauer (CDU) who should have had this role, had rejected it, because he considered it inappropriate for the incumbent federal chancellor to serve as Alterspräsident. He presided over the konstituierende Sitzung of the Bundestag, the first session of a new legislative Term, until Eugen Gerstenmeier was elected as President of the Bundestag.

The Members of the Bundestag Carlo Schmid, Erwin Schoettle (both from the SPD), Richard Jeager (CSU) and Thomas Dehler (FDP) were nominated to serve as vice-presidents of the Bundestag. All of the candidates except for Schoettle had held this office during the previous legislative term, the 3rd German Bundestag. Before the election arose a short discussion over the fact that the SPD parliamentary caucaus demanded to vice-presidents. All of the candidates were elected with a large majority in a non-secret ballot. All of the candidates participated in the election.

Eugen Gerstenmaier was agian elected president of the Bundestag with 463 yes votes, 36 abstensions and 5 invald votes. He was elected by a larger vote share than in 1957.

Composition of the Bundestag


Although the CDU/CSU lost their absolute majority, they still remained the largest party. They won a total of 242 seats aswell as 9 non-voting delegates from West Berlin. The SPD increased their seats winning 190 and 13 non-voting delegates from West Berlin. It was the first time that the SPD did not nominate their chairman as Chancellor candidate. Instead they chose Willy Brandt who was Governing Mayor of Berlin at that time and who would later become the first SPD Chancellor in the Federla Republic of Germany. With 67 seats the FDP had also won more seats than they had won in the previous election.