Federal elections were held in West Germany on 3 October 1976 to elect the members of the 8th Bundestag. Although the CDU/CSU alliance became the largest faction in parliament, Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party remained Chancellor.

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Quick Facts All 496 seats in the Bundestag 249 seats needed for a majority, Registered ...

1976 West German federal election

← 1972 3 October 1976 (1976-10-03) 1980 →
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All 496 seats in the Bundestag[lower-alpha 1] 249 seats needed for a majority
Registered	42,058,015 1.5%
Turnout	38,165,753 (90.7%) 0.4pp
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Helmut Kohl Helmut Schmidt Hans-Dietrich Genscher Party CDU/CSU SPD FDP Last election 44.9%, 225 seats 45.8%, 230 seats 8.4%, 41 seats Seats won 243[lower-alpha 2] 214[lower-alpha 3] 39[lower-alpha 4] Seat change 18 16 2 Popular vote 18,394,801 16,099,019 2,995,085 Percentage 48.6% 42.6% 7.9% Swing 3.7pp 3.2pp 0.5pp
Results by constituency for the first votes. Grey denotes seats won by the CDU/CSU; red denotes seats won by the SPD.
Government before election First Schmidt cabinet SPD–FDP Government after election Second Schmidt cabinet SPD–FDP

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The coalition of the SPD and the FDP wanted to be re-elected, with the SPD, since 1974 led by Helmut Schmidt, the party's candidate for Chancellor. The CDU and the CSU tried to achieve an absolute majority of the votes to make CDU chairman Helmut Kohl Chancellor.

The coalition between the SPD and the FDP remained in government, with Helmut Schmidt as Chancellor. Between the "sister parties" of CDU and Bavarian CSU there emerged a critical conflict, as the CSU leader Franz Josef Strauß wanted to break both the united Bundestag group of the parties and the agreement not to compete against each other in any Land. Later, this attack was withdrawn, while Strauß became candidate for chancellor for the 1980 elections.