A federal election was held in West Germany on 14 August 1949 to elect the members of the first Bundestag, with a further eight seats elected in West Berlin between 1949 and January 1952 and another eleven between February 1952 and 1953.
Campaign
After World War II, the German Instrument of Surrender and the country's division into four Allied occupation zones, the elections were held in the Federal Republic of Germany, established under occupation statute in the three Western zones with the proclamation of its Basic Law by the Parlamentarischer Rat assembly of the West German states on 23 May 1949. Most West German parties at the time of the 1949 Bundestag election were committed to democracy, but they disagreed on what kind of democracy West Germany should become.
thumb|CDU election poster: With Adenauer for peace, freedom and unity in Germany.
The Christian Democratic (CDU) leader, 73-year-old Konrad Adenauer, former mayor of Cologne and party chairman in the British Zone since March 1946, believed in moderate, non-denominational and Christian democracy, social market economy and integration with the West. In 1948 he had become president of the Parlamentarischer Rat, an office that added to his popularity as protagonist of a "state-to-be". He attacked social democracy and the British, especially, dismantling of industry.
thumb|SPD election poster: All millionaires vote for CDU-FDP. All other millions of Germans for the SPD
The Social Democratic (SPD) leader, Kurt Schumacher, wanted a united, democratic and socialist Germany. Schumacher had heavily agitated against the forced merger of the Communist Party (KPD) and SPD (both in the Soviet occupation zone) into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and he had also turned the party's course away from the working class advocacy group of the Weimar Republic towards a left-wing big tent party with distinct patriotic features. He constantly accused Adenauer of betraying national interests,
Results by state
Constituency seats
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 0.9em;"
! rowspan="3" |State
! rowspan="3" |Total<br />seats
! colspan="7" |Seats won
|-
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |SPD
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |CDU
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |CSU
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |FDP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |BP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |DP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |Ind.
|-
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Baden
!7
|
|7
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Bavaria
!47
|12
|
|24
|
|11
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Bremen
!3
|3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Hamburg
!8
|4
|3
|
|1
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Hesse
!22
|12
|3
|
|7
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Lower Saxony
!34
|24
|4
|
|1
|
|5
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |North Rhine-Westphalia
!66
|25
|40
|
|1
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Rhineland-Palatinate
!15
|4
|11
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Schleswig-Holstein
!14
|6
|7
|
|
|
|
|1
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Württemberg-Baden
!20
|5
|11
|
|2
|
|
|2
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Württemberg-Hohenzollern
!6
|1
|5
|
|
|
|
|
|- class="sortbottom"
! style="text-align: left;" |Total
!242
!96
!91
!24
!12
!11
!5
!3
|}
List seats
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 0.9em;"
! rowspan="3" |State
! rowspan="3" |Total<br />seats
! colspan="10" |Seats won
|-
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |FDP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |SPD
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |CDU
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |KPD
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |DP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |WAV
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |DZP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |BP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |DRP
! class="unsortable" style="width:30px;" |SSW
|-
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Baden
!5
|2
|3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Bavaria
!31
|7
|6
|
|
|
|12
|
|6
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Bremen
!2
|
|
|1
|
|1
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Hamburg
!5
|1
|2
|
|1
|1
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Hesse
!14
|5
|1
|6
|2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Lower Saxony
!24
|4
|
|8
|
|7
|
|
|
|5
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |North Rhine-Westphalia
!43
|9
|12
|3
|9
|
|
|10
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Rhineland-Palatinate
!10
|4
|3
|2
|1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Schleswig-Holstein
!9
|2
|2
|1
|
|3
|
|
|
|
|1
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Württemberg-Baden
!13
|5
|5
|1
|2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Württemberg-Hohenzollern
!4
|1
|1
|2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|- class="sortbottom"
! style="text-align: left;" |Total
!160
!40
!35
!24
!15
!12
!12
!10
!6
!5
!1
|}
Aftermath
Schumacher had explicitly refused a grand coalition and led his party into opposition, where it would remain until December 1966, assuming the chair of the SPD parliamentary group as minority leader. On 12 September 1949, he lost the indirect German presidential election, defeated by FDP chairman Theodor Heuss in the second ballot. Schumacher died on 20 August 1952 of the long-term consequences of his concentration camp imprisonment during the Nazi years.
Adenauer had favoured the formation of a smaller centre-right coalition from the beginning. Nominated by the CDU/CSU faction, he was elected the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on 15 September 1949 by an absolute majority of 202 of 402 votes. Adenauer had ensured that the votes of the predominantly Social Democrat West Berlin deputies did not count and later stated that he "naturally" had voted for himself. On 20 September, he formed the Cabinet Adenauer I of CDU/CSU, FDP, and DP ministers. Chosen as an interim Chancellor, he held the office until 1963, being re-elected three times (in 1953, in 1957 and in 1961).