# 1950 Hessian state election

The 1950 Hessian state election was held on 19 November 1950 to elect the 2nd Landtag of Hesse. The outgoing government was a grand coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Minister-President Christian Stock, who retired at the election. He was succeeded as SPD lead candidate by Georg-August Zinn.
The SPD won a clear majority of seats thanks to quirks of the electoral system, which had been modified since 1946 to a form of mixed-member proportional representation. The Hessian CDU, who took a left-of-centre course in government with the SPD, were heavily defeated and pushed to third place with 19%. An alliance of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and All-German Bloc/League of Expellees (GB/HBE) emerged as the second-largest party with 32%, but were unable to prevent the SPD from achieving its majority. Further, the Communist Party (KPD) slipped just below the 5% electoral threshold and lost their seats. After the election, Minister-President Stock retired and was succeeded by justice minister Georg-August Zinn, who led an SPD majority government.

## Electoral system

The Landtag was elected via mixed-member proportional representation. 48 members were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting, and 32 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 1 December 1946, the SPD remained the largest party with 43%, followed by the CDU on 31%, FDP on 16%, and KPD on 11%. The SPD subsequently formed a grand coalition with the CDU.

## Parties

The table below lists parties represented in the 1st Landtag of Hesse.
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | 1946 result | 1946 result |
| Name | Name | Name | Ideology | Lead candidate | Votes (%) | Seats |
| | SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands | Social democracy | Georg-August Zinn | 42.7% | 38 / 90 |
| | CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands | Christian democracy | Werner Hilpert | 31.0% | 28 / 90 |
| | FDP | Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei | Classical liberalism | August-Martin Euler | 15.7% | 14 / 90 |
| | KPD | Communist Party of Germany Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands | Communism | | 10.7% | 10 / 90 |

## Results

| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | Seats | Seats | Seats |
| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/– | Con. | List | Total | +– |
| | Social Democratic Party | 821,268 | 44.37 | +1.65 | 36 | 11 | 47 | +9 |
| | Free Democratic Party–All-German Bloc/League of Expellees | 588,739 | 31.81 | +16.13 | 8 | 13 | 21 | +7 |
| | Christian Democratic Union | 348,148 | 18.81 | –12.15 | 4 | 8 | 12 | –16 |
| | Communist Party | 87,878 | 4.75 | –5.91 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –10 |
| | National Democratic Party–German Reich Party | 1,989 | 0.11 | New | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Hessian Farmers' and Peasants' Party | 1,219 | 0.07 | New | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Bloc of Fatherland Unification | 765 | 0.04 | New | 0 | 0 | 0 | New |
| | Independents | 1,081 | 0.06 | +0.06 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 1,851,087 | 100.00 | – | 48 | 32 | 80 | –10 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,851,087 | 95.58 | | | | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 85,675 | 4.42 | | | | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 1,936,762 | 100.00 | | | | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 2,985,021 | 64.88 | | | | | |