# 1970 Hessian state election

The 1970 Hessian state election was held on 8 November 1970 to elect the 7th Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a majority of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Minister-President Albert Osswald.
The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which had taken a hard line against the SPD under new leader Alfred Dregger, recorded a major swing of 13 percentage points in its favour, to the detriment of the SPD and National Democratic Party, the latter losing all its seats after a single term in the Landtag. The SPD remained the largest party with 46%, and subsequently formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party, following in the footsteps of the federal government formed the previous year.

## Electoral system

The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. The size of the Landtag was increased in this election from 96 to 110 members. 55 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 55 then allocated using compensatory proportional representation. A single ballot was used for both. An electoral threshold of 5% of valid votes is applied to the Landtag; parties that fall below this threshold are ineligible to receive seats.

## Background

In the previous election held on 6 November 1966, the SPD retained its majority with 51% of the vote. The CDU and FDP both stagnated on 26% and 10% respectively, while the new right-wing NPD capitalised on discontent over the economy and the major parties and entered the Landtag with 8%. This marked the party's first success in an election and was followed by a string of similar showings in other states over the following two years. In October 1969, long-serving Minister-President Georg-August Zinn resigned after 19 years in office after suffering a severe stroke. He was succeeded by finance minister Albert Osswald.

## Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 6th Landtag of Hesse.
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | 1966 result | 1966 result |
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | Votes (%) | Seats |
| | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands | Social democracy | Albert Osswald | 51.0% | 52 / 96 |
| | CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands | Christian democracy | Alfred Dregger | 26.4% | 26 / 96 |
| | FDP | Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei | Classical liberalism | Heinz Herbert Karry | 10.4% | 10 / 96 |
| | NPD | National Democratic Party of Germany Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands | German nationalism | | 7.9% | 8 / 96 |

## Results

| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | Seats | Seats | Seats |
| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/– | Con. | List | Total | +– |
| | Social Democratic Party | 1,442,201 | 45.90 | –5.10 | 38 | 15 | 53 | +1 |
| | Christian Democratic Union | 1,248,453 | 39.74 | +13.38 | 17 | 29 | 46 | +20 |
| | Free Democratic Party | 316,270 | 10.07 | –0.33 | 0 | 11 | 11 | +1 |
| | National Democratic Party | 94,531 | 3.01 | –4.94 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –8 |
| | German Communist Party | 36,712 | 1.17 | New | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | European Workers' Party | 3,649 | 0.12 | New | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| Total | Total | 3,141,816 | 100.00 | – | 55 | 55 | 110 | +14 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 3,141,816 | 99.07 | | | | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 29,411 | 0.93 | | | | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 3,171,227 | 100.00 | | | | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 3,828,701 | 82.83 | | | | | |