First Brandt cabinet
SPD–FDP

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Germany
Constitution (Basic Law) Federal Constitutional Court Human rights
Head of State President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD)
Executive Chancellor of Germany (list) Olaf Scholz (SPD) Vice Chancellor of Germany Robert Habeck (Grüne) Cabinet Scholz Federal agencies
Legislature Bundestag constituencies members Bundesrat Vermittlungsausschuss Gemeinsamer Ausschuss
Judiciary Federal Constitutional Court Federal courts Ordinary Administrative Fiscal Labour Social Joint Senate Other courts
Subdivisions State (Land) Minister president State Parliament (Landtag) composition Regierungsbezirk District (Kreis) list Collective municipality (Amt) Municipality (Gemeinde) list
Elections Electoral system Political parties Referendums Coalitions Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung) Presidential elections Weimar Republic (1919–1933) 1919 1925 1932 East Germany (1949–1960) 1949 1953 1957 Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949) 1949 1954 1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2010 2012 2017 2022 Parliamentary election 1867 (Feb) 1867 (Aug) 1868 1871 1874 1877 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1898 1903 1907 1912 1919 1920 1924 (May) 1924 (Dec) 1928 1930 1932 (July) 1932 (Nov) 1933 (Mar) 1933 (Nov) 1936 1938 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1983 1987 1990 1994 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 2025 European elections 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
State and local politics State Politics Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia
Foreign relations Foreign relations by country France Italy UK USA China Russia International Relations Politics of the European Union Visa Passport
Political ideologies Political culture / Federalism Communism Conservatism (Agrarian Conservatism) Far-right Liberalism Social Democracy
Germany portal Politics portal Other countries
v t e

Federal elections were held in West Germany on 28 September 1969 to elect the members of the 6th Bundestag. The CDU/CSU remained the largest faction and the Social Democratic Party remained the largest single party in the Bundestag, winning 237 of the 518 seats. After the election, the SPD formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party and SPD leader Willy Brandt became Chancellor.

The federal election resulted in the election of the first ever SPD Chancellor in West Germany Willy Brandt.

Upon the resignation of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard on 1 December 1966, a grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats had governed West Germany under Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) with SPD chairman Willy Brandt as vice-chancellor and foreign minister.

Economics Minister Karl Schiller (SPD) had proposed revaluing (increasing the external value of) the Deutsche Mark, West Germany's currency, to reduce the country's inflation rate and the rate of growth of the country's businesses' income. He also wanted to reduce West Germany's economic dependence on the exports. However, his counterpart Finance Minister Franz-Josef Strauss (CSU) rejected the Deutsche Mark's revaluation, because his strong constituents, the Bavarian farmers, also opposed it. After all, the European Economic Community's foodstuffs prices were paid in US dollars, and the Deutsche Mark's revaluation would have made them less favourable for the West German farmers (i.e. more expensive for other Western Europeans to buy).

The coalition effectively ended already before the regular 1969 Bundestag elections, because of this revaluation conflict. In addition, enough West German voters were at last willing to give the Social Democratic leader, Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, a chance to govern West Germany. Brandt, who ran for the third time after 1961 and 1965, had shown sympathy towards those groups, like left-wing intellectuals and activists of the German student movement, who had felt ignored by the Christian Democrat-led coalition governments. In addition, his clear intellect, remarkable self-control and honest manner appealed to ordinary West Germans.

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Elected	West Berlin	Total	+/–
	Social Democratic Party	14,065,716	42.67	97	14,402,374	44.03	127	224	13	237	+20
	Christian Democratic Union	12,079,535	36.64	106	12,137,148	37.10	87	193	8	201	–1
	Christian Social Union	3,115,652	9.45	15	3,094,176	9.46	34	49	0	49	0
	Free Democratic Party	1,903,422	5.77	30	1,554,651	4.75	0	30	1	31	–19
	National Democratic Party	1,422,010	4.31	0	1,189,375	3.64	0	0	0	0	0
	Campaign for Democratic Progress	197,331	0.60	0	209,180	0.64	0	0	0	0	New
	Bavaria Party	49,694	0.15	0	54,940	0.17	0	0	0	0	New
	European Federalist Party	49,650	0.15	0	20,927	0.06	0	0	0	0	0
	All-German Party	45,401	0.14	0				0	0	0	New
	Free Social Union	16,371	0.05	0	10,192	0.03	0	0	0	0	0
	Centre Party	15,933	0.05	0				0	0	0	New
	Independent Workers' Party	5,309	0.02	0	1,531	0.00	0	0	0	0	0
	German People's Party				461	0.00	0	0	0	0	New
	Independents and voter groups				38,561	0.12	0	0	0	0	0
Total		32,966,024	100.00	248	32,713,516	100.00	248	496	22	518	0
Valid votes		32,966,024	98.34		32,713,516	97.59
Invalid/blank votes		557,040	1.66		809,548	2.41
Total votes		33,523,064	100.00		33,523,064	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		38,677,235	86.67		38,677,235	86.67
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

Willy Brandt, against the will of several party fellows like Herbert Wehner or Helmut Schmidt, chose to leave the grand coalition with the CDU/CSU, forming a social-liberal coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) instead. On 21 October 1969 he was elected Chancellor of Germany, the first SPD chancellor in the postwar period, after the last Social Democrat holding this position had been Hermann Müller from 1928 to 1930. FDP chairman Walter Scheel succeeded Brandt as vice-chancellor and foreign minister. Brandt's government proceeded with the revaluation Schiller had proposed, raising the value of the mark by 9.3% in late October.

Disappointed Kiesinger bitterly complained about the faithless liberals. Though he had again achieved the plurality of votes for the CDU, he had to lead his party into opposition. He was succeeded as chairman by Rainer Barzel in 1971.

However the Cabinet Brandt I could only rely on an absolute majority (Kanzlermehrheit) of twelve votes in the Bundestag. Several party switches in protest against Brandt's Ostpolitik of FDP and SPD members resulted in the snap election of 1972.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1969 Germany Bundestagswahl.