1982 vote of no confidence in the government of Helmut Schmidt

Germany's Basic Law provides that a Chancellor can be removed mid-term by a constructive vote of no confidence if a majority of the Bundestag votes for confidence in an alternate candidate for Chancellor.

(1) The Bundestag may express its lack of confidence in the Federal Chancellor only by electing a successor by the vote of a majority of its Members and requesting the Federal President to dismiss the Federal Chancellor. The Federal President must comply with the request and appoint the person elected.
(2) Forty-eight hours shall elapse between the motion and the election.

— Article 67 of the Basic Law^[2]

The SDP-FDP coalition, first formed in 1969, had been growing apart since its re-election in 1980. Following Walter Scheel's election to the presidency, Hans-Dietrich Genscher was elected as the new leader of the Free Democratic Party. More conservative than his predecessor, he proved less willing to greenlight further government spending.^[3]

Tensions between the two parties worsened following the state elections in West Berlin in 1981, when the state FDP branch formed a coalition with the opposition Christian Democratic Union, under Genscher's orders.^[4]

Ongoing talks in the media of the coalition's frailty eventually compelled Schmidt to force his FDP ministers to resign on the 17th of September, which prompted Genscher to begin coalition negotiations with the CDU, which introduced a no-confidence motion against the government just two weeks later.