1971 European Athletics Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The women's 400 metres at the 1971 European Athletics Championships was held in Helsinki, Finland, at Helsinki Olympic Stadium on 10, 11, and 12 August 1971.^[1]

Gold	Helga Seidler  East Germany
Silver	Inge Bödding  West Germany
Bronze	Ingelore Lohse  East Germany

12 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Helga Seidler	East Germany	52.14	NR
	Inge Bödding	West Germany	52.90
	Ingelore Lohse	East Germany	52.93
4	Maria Sykora	Austria	53.01
5	Natalya Chistyakova	Soviet Union	53.19
6	Marika Eklund	Finland	53.35
7	Colette Besson	France	53.70
8	Rita Kühne	East Germany	53.91

11 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Helga Seidler	East Germany	52.77	Q
2	Colette Besson	France	52.88	Q
3	Marika Eklund	Finland	53.11	Q
4	Natalya Chistyakova	Soviet Union	53.16	Q
5	Karoline Käfer	Austria	53.70
6	Marianne Burggraaf	Netherlands	53.77
7	Karin Lundgren	Sweden	53.95
8	Anette Rückes	West Germany	54.36

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ingelore Lohse	East Germany	52.99	Q
2	Inge Bödding	West Germany	53.16	Q
3	Maria Sykora	Austria	53.27	Q
4	Rita Kühne	East Germany	53.75	Q
5	Mona-Lisa Strandvall	Finland	54.03
6	Christel Frese	West Germany	54.11
7	Jannette Roscoe	Great Britain	54.59
8	Elisabeth Randerz	Sweden	54.88

10 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Rita Kühne	East Germany	53.17	Q
2	Colette Besson	France	53.18	Q
3	Anette Rückes	West Germany	53.56	Q
4	Karin Lundgren	Sweden	53.77	Q
5	Svetla Zlateva	Bulgaria	54.03
6	Mariana Suman	Romania	54.33
7	Bożena Zientarska	Poland	55.04

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Helga Seidler	East Germany	52.70	Q
2	Inge Bödding	West Germany	53.01	Q
3	Natalya Chistyakova	Soviet Union	53.18	Q
4	Marianne Burggraaf	Netherlands	53.57	Q
5	Bernadette Martin	France	53.72
6	Danuta Piecyk	Poland	54.30
7	Stefka Yordanova	Bulgaria	55.14

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Marika Eklund	Finland	54.35	Q
2	Christel Frese	West Germany	54.42	Q
3	Karoline Käfer	Austria	54.48	Q
4	Elisabeth Randerz	Sweden	54.50	Q
5	Krystyna Hryniewicka	Poland	54.67
6	Lyubov Aksenova	Soviet Union	54.91
7	Josefina Salgado	Spain	56.27

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ingelore Lohse	East Germany	53.34	Q
2	Maria Sykora	Austria	53.49	Q
3	Mona-Lisa Strandvall	Finland	53.69	Q
4	Jannette Roscoe	Great Britain	53.95	Q
5	Nadezhda Kolesnikova	Soviet Union	54.35
6	Eva-Charlotte Malmström	Sweden	54.65
7	Ingunn Einarsdóttir	Iceland	1:00.33

According to an unofficial count, 28 athletes from 14 countries participated in the event.