Fourth Adenauer cabinet

Fourth Cabinet of Konrad Adenauer Cabinet Adenauer IV
4th Cabinet of West Germany
14 November 1961 – 15 October 1963 (until 17 October 1963 as caretaker government)
Date formed	14 November 1961 (1961-11-14)
Date dissolved	15 October 1963 (1963-10-15) (1 year, 11 months and 1 day)
People and organisations
President	Heinrich Lübke
Chancellor	Konrad Adenauer
Vice-Chancellor	Ludwig Erhard
Member parties	Christian Democratic Union Christian Social Union FDP
Status in legislature	Coalition majority 309/499 (62%)
Opposition party	Social Democratic Party
Opposition leader	Erich Ollenhauer (SPD)
History
Election	1961 West German federal election
Legislature term	4th Bundestag
Predecessor	Adenauer III
Successor	Erhard I

The Fourth Adenauer cabinet (German: Kabinett Adenauer IV) was formed by incumbent Chancellor Konrad Adenauer after the 1961 federal election. The cabinet was sworn in on 14 November 1961.

The Spiegel affair in 1962 caused the coalition to fall apart over Defence Minister Franz Josef Strauss' actions which violated press freedom, leading to all FDP ministers resigning in protest. As a result, the cabinet was a minority government of the CDU/CSU for just under a month in the fall of 1962 before Adenauer was able to convince the FDP to return to the coalition by assuring Strauß' resignation.

Shortly after the Spiegel affair, the resignation of Defence Minister Franz Josef Strauss was required to gain back the FDP's support for the cabinet, leading to a reshuffle. The heavily reshuffled cabinet is sometimes referred to as cabinet Adenauer V;^[1] however, this is not constitutionally correct, since no new election of the chancellor took place. The government still drew its constitutional legitimacy from Adenauer's election on 14 November 1961. Adenauer decided to retire just a few months later, following which Ludwig Erhard was elected as Chancellor and formed the first Erhard cabinet on 17 October 1963.

• "Kabinette Adenauer". election.de (in German). Retrieved 18 November 2019.