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BundestagTwenty-one federal elections · 1949–2025

In twenty-one federal elections, only one parliamentary group has ever won a majority of the Bundestag: Adenauer’s CDU/CSU, in 1957

Germans have elected a new Bundestag twenty-one times since 1949. Just once, in 1957, did one group take more than half the seats: 270 of 497 seats, 54.3%. Every other result left the largest group needing partners.

Scroll through every Bundestag

The plenary chamber of the Bundestag in the Reichstag building, Berlin, April 2022, under the federal eagle.Gerd Eichmann, 2022. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

01The only majority

“No experiments”, said the CDU in 1957. Voters gave it the only Bundestag majority there has ever been

The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, sit in the Bundestag as one parliamentary group, the CDU/CSU; the CSU stands for election only in Bavaria. In 1957, under Konrad Adenauer, that group won 270 of 497 seats: 54.3%, an absolute majority.

No group had done it before, in 1949 or 1953, and none has done it since. The CDU/CSU’s worst result came in 2021: 26.8% of the seats. At the last election, in 2025, it won 33.0%, and still leads the government.

A dark blue poster with the words Keine Experimente in white handwriting and CDU in large yellow capitals.
“Keine Experimente” (“No experiments”): the CDU’s poster for the 1957 Bundestag election.KAS/ACDP Bild 357-2 / CDU / CC BY-SA 3.0 de
54.3%of Bundestag seats for the CDU/CSU in 1957, the only majority
21federal elections, 1949 to 2025
26.8%the CDU/CSU’s lowest seat share, in 2021

02Every Bundestag, seat by seat

Twenty-one parliaments, one line. The CDU/CSU crossed it once

Each row is one Bundestag, as long as it had seats, from 402 in 1949 to 736 in 2021. Yellow is the CDU/CSU, grey everyone else. The white mark is a majority: one seat more than half. Scroll, and the Republic votes.

CDU/CSU seatsall other seatsmajority: more than half
21elections1949 → 2025
CDU/CSU share of seats
One row for every Bundestag since the first, each as long as the chamber had seats. The CDU/CSU's seats are yellow, all other seats grey, and a white mark on each row shows where a majority begins. As you read, the rows fill in election by election; only the row for Adenauer's majority election reaches past its mark.
Elections shown: 0 of 21Majorities: 0

03West Berlin’s members

Count West Berlin’s members too, and 1957 is still the only majority

From 1949 to 1987 the official results list the members for Berlin (West) separately, in brackets, and the rows above leave them out. In 1957 there were 22 of them. Put them back, and the CDU/CSU held 277 of 519 seats, 53.4%: still a majority, and still the only one.

CDU/CSU seats in 1957, against a majority

The domeless Reichstag building seen across a wide lawn, with trees on either side.
The Reichstag building, which stood in West Berlin, around 1990, before its dome was added.Dietmar Rabich, 1990. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

04Seats and power

49.0% of the seats in 1976 did not win the CDU/CSU the chancellery. 33.0% in 2025 did

Measured against half the chamber, the CDU/CSU has been above the line once and within one point of it three times. But in the Bundestag, coalitions decide who governs. After fourteen of the twenty-one elections the chancellor came from the CDU, after the other seven from the SPD, and the size of the CDU/CSU’s share did not decide which.

CDU/CSU seat share above or below half, percentage points, and the chancellor’s party after each election

chancellor from the CDUchancellor from the SPD
The Bundestag chamber from the visitors’ gallery, packed with rows of blue seats to its back walls.
The plenary chamber on 22 October 2017, seated for the Bundestag elected that autumn.Echtner, 2017. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 3.0.

05A growing chamber

The Bundestag swelled from 402 seats to 736. A reform cut it back to 630

Every Bundestag has had a different size. Overhang and equalisation seats, added on top of the standard size by the electoral law, pushed it to 709 in 2017 and 736 in 2021, the largest it has ever been. The electoral reform of 2023 fixed it at 630 seats, starting with the election of 2025.

Seats in each Bundestag, with the CDU/CSU’s share

06The Bundestag today

The largest group now holds a third of the seats. Governing takes 328

The 2025 Bundestag has 630 members; a majority is 316. The CDU/CSU’s 208 are the most of any group, but less than two-thirds of a majority. With the SPD’s 120, Friedrich Merz’s coalition holds 328, 52.1%: twelve seats more than it needs. This is still the latest federal election: the next must be held between 26 January 2029 and 25 March 2029.

The 2025 Bundestag, one dot per seat

Friedrich Merz in glasses and a blue suit against a turquoise background.
Friedrich Merz (CDU) on election night, 23 February 2025, at the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus in Berlin.Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bundestag · 1949–2025

In twenty-one elections, German voters have handed one group a majority of the Bundestag only once, in 1957. Every other time, a majority had to be built from partners.

The chancellors these parliaments elected, from Adenauer to Merz: Germany’s federal chancellors.

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Berlinfographics (2026). “One majority in 21 elections: the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag, 1949–2025”. Berlin Experiences. https://berlinfographics.com/bundestag-seat-shares/

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{{cite web |title=One majority in 21 elections: the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag, 1949–2025 |url=https://berlinfographics.com/bundestag-seat-shares/ |website=Berlinfographics |publisher=Berlin Experiences |date=2026-11-07 |access-date=2026-11-07}}