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After the Second World War, the new Constitution of Bavaria was enacted and the first new Landtag elections took place on 1 December 1946. Between 1946 and 1999 there was again an upper house, the Senate of Bavaria. The CSU has dominated the Bavarian Landtag for nearly the entire post-war period.
The December 1946 Bavarian state election was held on 1 December 1946 to elect the members of the First Bavarian Landtag. The election came after the dissolution of the Bavarian Constituent Assembly after the passing of the Constitution, which stipulated that a democratically elected Landtag would elect the Minister-President.
At that time, Dr Wilhelm Hoegner had been installed as Minister-President by the military government. Then, on 30 June, a Constitutional State Assembly was elected for the first time in Bavaria’s history. It was made up of members of the CSU, SPD, FDP and KPD parties.
Bavaria has a unicameral Landtag, or state parliament. The 180 members of the Landtag [1] (plus additional overhang and leveling seats) are elected for a period of five years by universal suffrage. The Landtag may dissolve itself with a majority vote of its legal number of members or be dissolved by means of a state-wide referendum.
The members of the Bavarian State Parliament are elected in general, equal, direct and secret election by secret ballot according to an improved proportional representation (PR) system by citizens eligible to vote in the Bavarian State elections.
The Free State of Bavaria is expressly committed to a united Europe. With the Constitutional Reform Act of 20 February 1998, decided by referendum, this state objective obtained constitutional status in article 3a of the Bavarian Constitution.
The Electorate of Bavaria (German: Kurfürstentum Bayern) was a quasi-independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Bavaria was the younger branch of the family which also ruled the Electoral Palatinate.
