1919 German federal election

1919 German federal election

19 January 1919 (1919-01-19)
All 423 seats in the Weimar National Assembly 212 seats needed for a majority
Registered	36,779,888 154.7%
Turnout	30,538,236 (83.0%) 1.9 pp
First party Second party Third party   150x151px 150x151px Leader Friedrich Ebert & Philipp Scheidemann Adolf Gröber Friedrich von Payer Party SPD Centre DDP Leader since 1919 1917 1918 Seats won 165 91 75 Popular vote 11,516,852 5,980,259 5,643,506 Percentage 37.9% 19.7% 18.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   150x150px 150x150px Leader Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner Hugo Haase Rudolf Heinze Party DNVP USPD DVP Leader since 1919 1917 1919 Seats won 44 22 19 Popular vote 3,121,541 2,319,235 1,345,712 Percentage 10.3% 7.6% 4.4%
350px Electoral results by constituencies Hatched: Occupied territory (Alsace-Lorraine, Posen) pending Treaty of Versailles
Chancellor/Chairman of the Council of the People's Deputies before election Friedrich Ebert SPD Minister-President after election Philipp Scheidemann SPD

Federal elections were held in Germany on 19 January 1919, although members of the standing army in the east did not vote until 2 February. The elections were the first of the new Weimar Republic, which had been established after World War I and the Revolution of 1918–19, and the first with women's suffrage. The previous constituencies, which heavily overrepresented rural areas, were scrapped, and the elections held using proportional representation. The voting age was also lowered from 25 to 20. Austrian citizens living in Germany were allowed to vote, with German citizens living in Austria being allowed to vote in the February 1919 Constitutional Assembly elections.

From its inaugural session on 6 February, the National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) functioned as both a constituent assembly and unicameral legislature. The supporting parties of the "Weimar Coalition" (SPD, Zentrum and DDP) together won 76.2% of the votes cast; on 13 February, provisional president Friedrich Ebert appointed Philipp Scheidemann, of the SPD, as Minister-President. The office was later renamed Chancellor when the Weimar Constitution came into force in August 1919. The Scheidemann cabinet replaced the revolutionary Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of the People's Deputies). Voter turnout was 83.0%.