The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties which existed in Germany before World War II, namely the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the second half of the 20th century, the FDP held the balance of power in the Bundestag. It was a junior coalition partner to the &lt;a href="CDU/CSU"&gt;CDU/CSU&lt;/a&gt; (1949–1956, 1961–1966, 1982–1998 and 2009–2013) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (1969–1982). In the 2013 federal election, the FDP failed to win any directly elected seats in the Bundestag and came up short of the 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation, being left without representation in the Bundestag for the first time in its history. In the 2017 federal election, the FDP regained its representation in the Bundestag, receiving 10.6% of the vote.