Politics of East Germany

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Politics of East Germany
Constitution 1949 1968
Leadership Socialist Unity Party General Secretary President (1949–1960) State Council (1960–1990) Head of State Council of Ministers Head of Government
Legislature President Chamber of States
Elections Referendums Constitutional Assembly 1949 General elections 1950 1954 1958 1963 1967 1971 1976 1981 1986 1990 Referendums 1951 1954 1968
Political parties Christian Democratic Union Democratic Farmers' Party Liberal Democratic Party National Democratic Party
Administrative divisions East Berlin (independent) Cottbus Dresden Erfurt Frankfurt Gera Halle Karl-Marx-Stadt Leipzig Magdeburg Neubrandenburg Potsdam Rostock Schwerin Suhl Leaders
Other countries
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The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), commonly known in English as East Germany) was created as a socialist republic on 7 October 1949 and began to institute a government based on the government of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. The equivalent of the Communist Party in East Germany was the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED), which along with other parties, was part of the National Front of Democratic Germany. It was created in 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany. Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which eventually merged with the West German Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice to form the modern Left Party.

The other political parties ran under the joint slate of the National Front, controlled by the SED, for elections to the Volkskammer, the East German parliament. The other parties were:

1. Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands (Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU), merged with the West German CDU after reunification
2. Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands (Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany, DBD), merged with the West German CDU after reunification
3. Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands (Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, LDPD), merged with the West German FDP after reunification
4. Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (National Democratic Party of Germany, NDPD), merged with the West German FDP after reunification

The purpose of the National Front was to give the impression that the GDR was a democracy governed by a broad-based coalition. In fact, all parties and mass organizations were subservient to the SED, and had to officially accept the SED's leading role as a condition of their existence. The other purpose was to catch parts of society that would ordinarily not be represented by the SED, a nominal workers party. For example, the CDU was directed to the large number Christians in the GDR, the NDPD was designed to catch former NSDAP members and so on. All of these parties were subservient to the SED, which per the GDRs constitution was the ruling party. All decisions, in practice, were made by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED, with the Central Committee of the SED and the Volkskammer rubber-stamping its decisions and the Council of Ministers of East Germany implementing them. In elections, voters only had the option of approving or rejecting a single "united list" of NF candidates. Elections were not secret and voters that rejected the National Front list or struck candidates from the list faced consequences. Two of the block parties were formerly independent (CDU and LDPD/LDP) and two others were established on the instigation of the SED (NDPD and DBD).

The Volkskammer also included representatives from the mass organisations like the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend or FDJ), or the Free German Trade Union Federation. In an attempt to include women in the political life in East Germany, there was even a Democratic Women's Federation of Germany with seats in the Volkskammer. The SED members on the list were always the majority because many candidates of the mass organizations were also SED members.^[1]

Non-parliamentary mass organizations which nevertheless played a key role in East German society included the German Gymnastics and Sports Association (Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund or DTSB) and People's Solidarity (Volkssolidarität, an organisation for the elderly). Another society of note was the Society for German-Soviet Friendship.