State elections in West Berlin 1948

The West Berlin state election of December 5, 1948 was carried out under exceptional circumstances. It was convened due to the political division of the city after being divided into West Berlin and East Berlin two years earlier. The elections were held only in West Berlin accordingly. This was compounded by the fact that Mayor Otto Ostrowski had been removed from power on 11 April 1947 at the request of his own faction in the town hall after a vote of censure, due to not having dismissed the parliamentarians of the SED of the Parliament. His successor in 1947 was Transport Minister Ernst Reuter, but due to a veto by the Soviet Military Administration he could not run for re-election in the 1948 elections.

The SPD, despite this, postulated Reuter, the CDU postulated Ferdinand Friedensburg.

The SPD experienced its greatest electoral success: it rose by 15.8 percentage points and reached 64.5% of the vote, the highest score ever received by a party in democratic elections in Germany. The CDU fell by 2.8 percentage points, to 19.4% of the vote, while the LPD reached 16.1% of the vote. Other parties (including SED) did not participate.

In these elections the Berlin Chamber of Deputies was not elected, but the Berliner Stadtverordnetenversammlung, parliament of the city at that time. Although the SPD had a significant absolute majority, it formed a black-yellow-red coalition with the CDU and the LDP due to the crisis situation. As a result, Ernst Reuter was elected mayor, and this time he was allowed to officially perform his duties. Results

The results were:

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