1958 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

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1958 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

← 1954 6 July 1958 1962 →
All 200 seats in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia 101 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	8,046,198 (76.6% 3.9pp)
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Karl Arnold† Fritz Steinhoff Willi Weyer Party CDU SPD FDP Last election 90 seats, 41.3% 76 seats, 34.5% 25 seats, 11.5% Seats won 104 81 15 Seat change 14 5 10 Popular vote 4,011,419 3,115,738 566,258 Percentage 50.5% 39.2% 7.1% Swing 9.2pp 4.7pp 4.4pp
Results for the single-member constituencies.
Government before election Steinhoff cabinet SPD–FDP–Centre Government after election First Meyers cabinet CDU

The 1958 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 6 July 1958 to elect the 4th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Centre Party led by Minister-President Fritz Steinhoff.

The result was a landslide victory for the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which won an absolute majority of both votes and seats on a swing of over nine percentage points. Despite its defeat, the SPD also improved its vote share to 39%. The main losses were felt by minor parties: the FDP fell to 7%, while the Centre Party collapsed to 1% and left the Landtag for good. Other parties which had fallen short of entering parliament in 1954, the KPD and BHE, no longer ran.

The CDU's lead candidate was former Minister-President Karl Arnold, who had served from 1947 until being removed by a motion of no confidence partway through the previous term in 1956. His government was replaced by a new SPD-led coalition. Arnold unexpectedly died just before the election on 29 June, leaving the CDU without an official leader. After the election, former interior minister Franz Meyers became Minister-President of the new CDU majority government.