Heats

Held on 8 March.
First 2 from each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Alfons Brijdenbach	Belgium	48.47	Q
2	1	Semyon Kocher	Soviet Union	48.55	Q
3	1	Stavros Tziortzis	Greece	48.69	Q
4	2	Hermann Köhler	West Germany	48.88	Q
5	3	Josip Alebić	Yugoslavia	49.00	Q
6	3	Michael Fredriksson	Sweden	49.00	q
7	1	Ossi Karttunen	Finland	49.30	q
8	2	Józef Laskowski	Poland	49.46	Q
9	2	Flavio Borghi	Italy	49.92

Semifinals

Held on 8 March.
First 2 from each heat (Q) qualified directly for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Josip Alebić	Yugoslavia	48.07	Q
2	1	Hermann Köhler	West Germany	48.19	Q
3	1	Alfons Brijdenbach	Belgium	48.39
4	1	Michael Fredriksson	Sweden	49.18
1	2	Stavros Tziortzis	Greece	50.13	Q
2	2	Józef Laskowski	Poland	50.16	Q
1	3	Semyon Kocher	Soviet Union	48.64	q
2	3	Ossi Karttunen	Finland	49.52

Note: Only two athletes started in semifinal 2 because the other two were not informed about it. A special third heat was run on 9 March to let those compete for one extra spot in the final.^[3]

Final

Held on 9 March.

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Hermann Köhler	West Germany	48.76
	Josip Alebić	Yugoslavia	49.04
	Semyon Kocher	Soviet Union	49.33
4	Józef Laskowski	Poland	49.72
5	Stavros Tziortzis	Greece	50.90