The 3rd German Bundestag, the lower house of parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, was elected on 15 September 1957, and existed from 15 October 1957 to 15 October 1961. It held a total of 168 parliamentary sittings; the last sitting was on 22 August 1961.
On 22 October 1957 the Bundestag elected Konrad Adenauer as federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on the fourth ballot, with 274 (+8) yes votes, 193 (+13) no votes and nine abstentions.
Presidium of the Bundestag
Marie-Elisabeth Lüders (FDP) served as Alterspräsidentin (Mother of the House), after Konrad Adenauer (CDU) who should have had this role, had rejected it, because he considered it inappropriate for the incumbent federal chancellor to serve as Alterspräsident. She presided over the first session of the 3rd Bundestag until Eugen Gerstenmaier was elected President of the Bundestag.
Carlo Schmid (SPD), Richard Jeager (CSU) and Max Becker (FDP) were elected as vice presidents of the Bundestag. They were elected almost unanimously, with only two abstentions.
Eugen Gerstenmaier was elected President of the Bundestag on the first ballot with 437 votes in favor, 54 abstentions and 3 invalid votes.
Composition of the Bundestag
The CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany/Christian Social Union in Bavaria) party gained the first — and to date, only — absolute majority for a single German parliamentary group in a free election. However the CDU/CDU still formed a coalition with the German Party (DP) until 1960 when nine of their 17 Bundestag members left the DP and joined the CDU. After that, the DP left the governing coalition. (Hans-Joachim von Merkatz, the Federal Minister of the Bundesrat and State Affairs, and Hans-Christoph Seebohm, the Federal Ministry for Transport, the DP members in the governing cabinet, had left in July 1960 and joined the CDU in September 1960.) The SPD won new seats as well. The FDP was the only party in the election that lost seats.
Changes
Members
This is a list of members of the 3rd Bundestag, whose members were in office from 1957 until 1961:
A
Ernst Achenbach, FDP
Annemarie Ackermann, CDU
Raban Adelmann, CDU
Konrad Adenauer, CDU
Heinrich Aigner, CSU
Luise Albertz, SPD
Lisa Albrecht, SPD (until 16 May 1958) Jakob Altmaier, SPD Wilhelm Altvater, SPD (from 22 September 1960) Josef Arndgen, CDU Adolf Arndt, SPD Karl Arnold, CDU (until 29 June 1958) Karl Atzenroth, FDP Heinrich Auge, SPD
B
C
Johannes Caspers, CDU
Adolf Cillien, CDU (until 29 April 1960) Kurt Conrad, SPD (until 20 July 1959) Hermann Conring, CDU Fritz Corterier, SPD Johann Cramer, SPD Herbert Czaja, CDU
D
Rolf Dahlgrün, FDP
Thomas Dehler, FDP
Heinrich Deist, SPD
Hans Demmelmeier, CSU
Arved Deringer, CDU
Georg Dewald, SPD
Hermann Diebäcker, CDU
Bruno Diekmann, SPD
Anton Diel, SPD (until 6 April 1959) Jakob Diel, CDU Emmy Diemer-Nicolaus, FDP Stefan Dittrich, CSU Clara Döhring, SPD Werner Dollinger, CSU Wilhelm Dopatka, SPD Wolfgang Döring, FDP Otto Dowidat, FDP Hans Drachsler, CSU Heinrich Draeger, CDU August Dresbach, CDU Wilhelm Dröscher, SPD Hermann Dürr, FDP
E
Anton Eberhard, FDP (from 4 November 1959) Walter Eckhardt, CSU (from 27 December 1957) Hermann Ehren, CDU Ernst Theodor Eichelbaum, CDU Elfriede Eilers, SPD Jan Eilers, FDP Otto Eisenmann, FDP Alexander Elbrächter, CDU Ernst Engelbrecht-Greve, CDU Margarete Engländer, CDU Arthur Enk, CDU Hermann A. Eplée, CDU (from 8 September 1958) Ludwig Erhard, CDU Fritz Erler, SPD Fritz Eschmann, SPD Franz Etzel, CDU Peter Etzenbach, CDU August-Martin Euler, DP (until 10 September 1958) Bert Even, CDU Johannes Even, CDU
F
Walter Faller, SPD
Josef Felder, SPD
Otto Freiherr von Feury, CSU (until 10 December 1957) Hermann Finckh, CDU Erwin Folger, SPD (from 19 May 1958) Egon Franke, SPD Ludwig Franz, CSU Jakob Franzen, CDU Günter Frede, SPD Heinz Frehsee, SPD Alfred Frenzel, SPD (until 4 November 1960) Martin Frey, CDU Ferdinand Friedensburg, CDU Lotte Friese-Korn, FDP Gerhard Fritz, CDU Friedrich Fritz, CDU Gustav Fuchs, CSU Friedrich Funk, CSU Hans Furler, CDU
G
H
I
Joseph Illerhaus, CDU
Wolfgang Imle, FDP (from 29 June 1960) Hans Iven, SPD
J
Werner Jacobi, SPD
Peter Jacobs, SPD
Richard Jaeger, CSU
Hans Jahn, SPD (until 10 July 1960) Artur Jahn, CDU Gerhard Jahn, SPD Wenzel Jaksch, SPD Pascual Jordan, CDU Johann Peter Josten, CDU Hans-Jürgen Junghans, SPD Hubert Jungherz, SPD (from 19 January 1960) Nikolaus Jürgensen, SPD