Federal Parliament Election 1969 (Pre-Election Investigation, September 1969 und Follow-Up Survey, October - November 1969)

Change in attitude of the voters from the election campaign and other conditions for voter movements.

Topics: 1. pre-election investigation: subjective assessment of personal economic situation; opinion leadership; political interest and sources of political information; judgement on the political content of advertising materials in the election campaign such as e.g. posters, hand bills and direct-mail advertising; reading newspapers; naming competent and sympathetic politicians; party affiliation of the politicians named; naming significant personalities of the FDP; most important problems of the FRG; personal interest in the current problems of the FRG; judgement on the revaluation of the DM; aspects of the revaluation discussion; sympathy scale for CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP und NPD and comparison between pairs of parties; knowledge about the time of the next Federal Parliament election; voting intent, broken down according to first and second votes; knowledge about the significance of first and second votes; attitude to co-determination, to recognition of the GDR, to orientation of foreign policy, to firmer action against demonstrators, to the influence of the churches, e. g. in education policy; issue competence of parties and politicians; preferred Federal Government; expected result of the Federal Parliament election; preferred federal chancellor; behavior at the polls in the Federal Parliament election 1965; evaluation of the grand coalition; extensive determination of the relation between one´s own political attitude and family and friends; religiousness; membership in clubs, trade unions and professional organizations; regional origins.

Interviewer rating: social class of respondent; description of household; manner of living; city size; spontaneousness of stating income; interviewer characteristics.

2. Follow-up survey: majority opinion at place of residence; surprise about the election result; assumed voting behavior of selected social groups; political interest; most important problems of the FRG; sympathy scale for CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and NPD; semantic differential for CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP; reasons for lesser or stronger sympathy for the parties as well as change of sympathy since the Federal Parliament election; judgement on election campaign advertising; issue competence of the parties; preferred government coalition and advantages or disadvantages of an SPD/FDP coalition; task of the CDU/CSU in the opposition; attitude to the NPD; behavior at the polls since 1949 and in the Federal Parliament election 1969, broken down according to first and second votes; time of voting decision; party allegiance; indecision before the election and reasons for this; party preference and political attitude of father; local residency. Beyond these questions further parts from the pre-election investigation were repeated in the follow-up survey.

Also encoded were: date of interview of the follow-up; participation in pre-election and follow-up investigation; identification of interviewer; municipality code; in addition the following regional data from the census of 1970: residential population; population change; proportion of foreigners; average age; distribution of marital status; religious denominations; employment according to area of business; households with telephone and average size of household.

Demography: age (classified); sex; marital status; religious denomination; school education; vocational training; occupation; professional position; employment; household income; composition of household; head of household; state; refugee status.