November 10, 1911 was a special day in German history. In Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, for the first time, a social democratic majority was voted into a German state parliament and the political system of the empire was voted out. Nevertheless, this day has been forgotten in research. The study fills this gap by reconstructing the development of the Reich and Landtag elections in Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt with regard to freedom of choice, election campaigns and election results. The inclusion of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, which is geographically closely interlinked with the principality, extends the basis of the investigation. In addition, the comparison with the development in other federal states makes it possible to overcome the one-sided focus of historical electoral research on the Rhine Province and southern Germany, which has often been lamented, and to arrive at a perspective that is more appropriate to the overall German development.