1953 West German federal election

Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (who was also CDU leader) campaigned on his policies of economic reconstruction and growth, moderate conservatism or Christian democracy, and close relations with the United States. During the campaign he attacked the Social Democratic Party (SPD) ferociously. His staff had a comfortable coach on a train previously used only by Hermann Göring and behind that a dining car with sleeping berths for journalists.^[1] The new SPD leader (Kurt Schumacher had died in 1952) was Erich Ollenhauer, who was more moderate in his policies than Schumacher had been. He did not oppose, in principle, the United States' military presence in Western Europe. He later – in 1957 – supported a military alliance of most European countries, including Germany.^[2][3] On 3 September American Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said that "A defeat for Adenauer would have catastrophic consequences for the prospects for German reunification and the restoration of sovereignty" and that it would "trigger off such confusion in Germany that further delays in German efforts for reunification and freedom would be unavoidable."^[1] Adenauer managed to convince clearly more West German voters of his leadership abilities and economic and political success to easily win a second term, although he had to form a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party and the conservative German Party to gain a majority in the Bundestag.

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Elected	West Berlin	Total	+/–
	Christian Democratic Union	10,016,594	36.36	61	9,577,659	34.80	130	191	6	197	+80
	Social Democratic Party	7,944,943	28.84	106	8,131,257	29.55	45	151	11	162	+26
	Free Democratic Party	2,629,163	9.54	34	2,967,566	10.78	14	48	5	53	0
	Christian Social Union	2,427,387	8.81	10	2,450,286	8.90	42	52	0	52	+28
	All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights	1,616,953	5.87	27	1,613,215	5.86	0	27	0	27	New
	German Party	896,128	3.25	5	1,073,031	3.90	10	15	0	15	−2
	Communist Party	607,860	2.21	0	611,317	2.22	0	0	0	0	−15
	Bavaria Party	465,641	1.69	0	399,070	1.45	0	0	0	0	−17
	All-German People's Party	318,475	1.16	0	286,465	1.04	0	0	0	0	New
	Deutsche Reichspartei	295,739	1.07	0	204,725	0.74	0	0	0	0	−5
	Centre Party	217,078	0.79	2	55,835	0.20	1	3	0	3	−7
	Dachverband der Nationalen Sammlung	70,726	0.26	0	78,356	0.28	0	0	0	0	New
	South Schleswig Voters' Association	44,585	0.16	0	44,339	0.16	0	0	0	0	−1
	Schleswig-Holstein Farmers and Farmworkers Democracy				6,269	0.02	0	0	0	0	New
	Patriotic Union				2,531	0.01	0	0	0	0	New
	Party of the Good Germans				654	0.00	0	0	0	0	New
	Independents and voter groups				17,185	0.06	0	0	0	0	−3
Total		27,551,272	100.00	245	27,519,760	100.00	242	487	22	509	+99
Valid votes		27,551,272	96.74		27,519,760	96.63
Invalid/blank votes		928,278	3.26		959,790	3.37
Total votes		28,479,550	100.00		28,479,550	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		33,120,940	85.99		33,120,940	85.99
Source: Bundeswahlleiter

Results by state

Constituency seats

List seats

Konrad Adenauer remained Chancellor, governing in a broad coalition (two-thirds majority) with most of the minor parties except for the SPD and Centre Party.