Politics of East Germany - Historical Background

Historical Background

The resurrection of German political activity in the Soviet zone, began with the formation of four political parties on June 10, 1945, the Communists, the Social Democrats, the Christian Democratic Union, and the Liberal Democratic Party. In April 1946 the Social Democrats were forced to join the Communists in the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, which soon became completely dominated by its Communist minority. The first general elections to the Lönder Diets in the Soviet zone took place on Oct 20, 1946, and resulted in a slight majority of the two non-Communist parties over the S.E.D. As early as July 1945, a German Central Administration had been attached to the Soviet Military Administration. It lasted until February 1948, when it was transformed into the German Economic Commission, with unlimited powers over the States. All these developments were carried out on direct instructions from Russian occupation authorities.

To maintain an appearance of democratic procedure, the Party Committee of the S.E.D. called two German People's Congresses, in November 1947 and in March 1948. At the latter, a German People's Council was created as a consultative and policy-making body. In March 1949, while the Parliamentary Council in Western Germany was still debating the Basic Law of the Federal Republic, the People's Council accepted the draft Constitution of the German Democratic Republic. In May 1949 the first general elections to the German People's Congress were held, in form of a referendum asking the voters to approve or reject a prepared list of delegates and to vote on a united or divided Germany. The results claimed a two-thirds majority for the official delegates, two-thirds of which were controlled by the SED In the course of 1949 the newly elected People's Congress created the German People's Council and a Provisional People's Chamber (Volkskammer), both with a SED majority.