East German general election, 1990

The parliamentary elections in 1990 was the last election to the People's Chamber of the GDR and the only one that corresponded to democratic principles. It took place on 18 March 1990. Originally, the election for May 6, 1990, provided, however due to the tumult of events and the need for the production of an effective and legitimate government, the parliamentary elections were brought forward one and a half months.

The turnout was 93.4 %. The winner was the coalition Alliance for Germany, consisting of the former block party CDU with the top candidates Lothar de Maizière, the newly founded the Bavarian CSU and related German Social Union (DSU ) and the Democratic Awakening (DA ). Top candidate of the DSU was Hans -Wilhelm Ebeling, the top candidate of the DA was Wolfgang Schnur, the three days before the election his work as informer of the Ministry for State Security ( Stasi) was demonstrated.

The newly founded and Rated until Election Day as favorite Social Democratic Party in the GDR (originally SDP, abbreviated at the time of the election as SPD) - under the top candidate Ibrahim Böhme, who was also later revealed as unofficial collaborator of the Stasi - was unexpected only to nearly 22 % of votes.

Mode choice and election procedures

At stake were 400 seats. It was a pure proportional representation. A restrictive clause did not exist. List associations were permitted. This possibility was, for example in the form of the Alliance of Free Democrats, the Alliance 90, a union list of the open and up independent women's association, the Action Alliance United Left and Alternative Youth list ( AJL ), also used. The entire East was a constituency. The seat is allocated by Hare - Niemeyer method. Thus, parties and associations have already been from about the corresponding half a mandate votes (0.125 %) send deputies to the People's Chamber.

Result

• Otherwise:. 11
• PDS: 66
• SPD: 88
• Alliance 90/Grüne: 20
• BFD / NDPD: 23
• CDU / DA: 167
• DSU: 25

Notes:

The European Union, the German Democratic Republic was allowed to vote, but did not appear to.

Election programs

For the first time citizens had a choice between parties with different objectives and party programs.

The Alliance for Germany presented its manifesto under the title " No more socialism." Key points were the requirement after German reunification on the basis of the Basic Law, the immediate introduction of the Deutschmark at a conversion of savings in the ratio of 1 to 1, private ownership and unrestricted freedom of trade, elimination of all barriers to access for Western investors, building a social safety net ( unemployment insurance, health insurance, participation, dynamic pension), an emergency program for the environment and energy security as well as the unification of the law of the Federal Republic of Germany and in particular the abolition of the political criminal law. Further points were the promoting historic preservation, education reform, the maintenance of nurseries, the re-introduction of the federal states and the freedom of the press.

In the first, Leipzig party ( 22 to 25 February 1990) then the basic program of the Eastern SPD and its manifesto for the People's Chamber elections were adopted. Core was the requirement for an ecologically oriented social market economy.

The election program of the PDS was titled " Democratic Freedom for All - Social security for everyone." The PDS described himself as a left / socialist party, which campaigns for a humane work environment, and a socially and ecologically oriented market economy aiming, which has based on high performance social security for all, especially for the most vulnerable to the destination. She also addressed the need for more radical disarmament in East and West, solidarity between the people and the responsible use of man with nature. This should respect the social values ​​and achievements of the GDR remain. Among understood the PDS including the right to work, the system of children's institutions, co-operative and public ownership in the economy and the anti-fascism and internationalism. Central were also demands for the preservation of the status quo with regard to the continued employment of the former SED members and the results of the land reform. Instead of the German reunification, education confederal structures while respecting the sovereignty, the gradual transition to a neutral and demilitarized German confederation in the context of European integration was required.

Electioneering

The election campaign for the parliamentary elections was short and provided the parties with major organizational challenges. Originally released in 1990 provided for May election was brought forward on January 28, 1990 in negotiations between representatives of the Round Table and the Modrow government on 18 March. This just seven weeks were available to set up a campaign organization and to contest the election campaign.

Only the renamed PDS SED had a party apparatus, which was used immediately, and with substantial financial resources for the campaign. The SPD seemed to have by far the best playing field in this election: In particular, the Saxon and Thuringian territories had been strongholds of the SPD during the Weimar Republic. The GDR disposal (except in calibration field ) without any strong Catholic milieu that the Christian Democrats a natural base could have been. One reason why the election polls predicted a clear victory for the Social Democrats.

In front of a massive dilemma the bourgeois parties were: Founded in 1945 liberal and Christian democratic parties had been brought into line in the late 1940s to block parties. This " Recorders " Although possessed functioning organizations. At the ability of these parties to symbolize a believable change, however, there was considerable doubt. The newly formed groups and citizens' movements had no well-established organization, put some still in the middle of program debates and had only a minimal infrastructure. For the Union parties, two further issues have emerged: The CSU had with the DSU found a partner for the parliamentary elections. The success of the DSU had the discussion about the Fourth Party ( Kreuther the specter of nationwide expansion of the CSU) rekindled. And above all: The CDU ( Ost) had the name, and thus the hallmark of Western CDU. As a stopgap measure the Alliance of Free Democrats, the FDP and the Alliance for Germany was launched. These alliances, forged six weeks before the election, had to organize against the excessive power of the PDS their campaign in no time.

In many places the civil rights had prevailed that their offices were (often as houses of democracy ) provided. It lacked both the new groups as well as the parties to infrastructure but also less of experience in election campaigns. This gap was filled by a massive commitment of the Western parties.

All parties in the West support their partner parties in the GDR to a large extent and could thereby the organizational advantage of the SED / PDS more than make up. The CDU was formed as closed partnerships: Every county in the GDR was supported by a circle in the Federal Republic of Germany. Many Western members took leave of absence to assist in the election campaign, the Alliance.

But was not decisive, the strength of the organization, but the credibility of the promise of convergence of economic conditions and the creation of national unity. While the SPD chancellor candidate Oskar Lafontaine faced a reunion skeptical ( he warned at the Berlin Congress of the SPD on 18 December 1989 in front of " national drunkenness " and assessed a membership of a united Germany in NATO as " historical nonsense " ), for operation of the CDU Chairman and Chancellor Helmut Kohl reunification offensive (including his ten-point program).

In order to advertise for this position, found nearly 400 events with about 80 leaders of the Union shall be held during the election campaign. Also there have been 1,400 election events of the Alliance. Was addressed in the support of sections of the SPD to give in to Gera demands Honecker and, for example, to stop funding the Central Registry of State Judicial Administrations by the SPD countries.

Choice was decisive ultimately the desire of the majority of the population according to an economic and political unification. A clear sign of this was the numbers of visitors to the campaign events of Helmut Kohl. February 20, 1990 cheered him 150,000 followers in Erfurt, 200,000 in Chemnitz, hundreds of thousands more followed in the large cities of the GDR.

The final phase of the campaign was determined by the unveiling of the Stasi employees Wolfgang Schnur through the mirror a few days before the election.

These elections, their preparation and the condition of the social environment in which they took place, there were also critical voices. The writer Michael Schneider described by some examples the massive intervention of the federal policy in the GDR - election campaign:

" About 40 million DM was spent on the party political advertising campaign in the GDR, of which a considerable part from tax proceeds of German citizens. (...) 100,000 records and tapes with three speeches Helmut Kohl (...) were partly sent in a single delivery over there, distributed directly under his Leipzig and Erfurt fans partly at Kohl's campaign appearances. (...) In Erfurt, for example, have Hessian CDUler that were trucked with eight buses, in one night 80,000 posters glued. ( ... ) The Federal German ( discovered ) in the accessible suddenly become them GDR a terrain on which a piece of colonial history can make up for a missed (...). "

Civil rights activist Jens Reich, one of the founders of the New Forum, comments on the question of the development of democracy in the GDR as:

" The Bonn hippo has come in a massiveness that it was simply helpless. During the election campaign has been placed on the East simply the entire Apparatismus of the West. We had nothing to oppose. These were exported to East Germany West elections. "

Government formation

Lothar de Maizière formed after lengthy negotiations, a grand coalition of the Alliance, the Social Democrats and the Liberals. On April 12, 1990, he was elected by the people chamber with 265 votes in favor, 108 votes against and 9 abstentions as Prime Minister of the GDR. Deputies confirmed after en bloc, the government de Maizière whose deputy government spokeswoman Angela Merkel was.

Milestones of parliamentary activity, the adoption of the municipal constitution of the GDR of 17 May 1990, the Constitutional Principles Act of 17 June 1990, and the Treaty on monetary, economic and social union with the Federal Republic of Germany of 18 May 1990 apply, the 1 July 1990 came into force. On 21 June 1990, the People's Chamber formed a special committee to control the resolution of the MfS / AfNS; Chairman was Joachim Gauck, who was then one of the initiators of the Stasi Records Act.

On 23 August 1990, the GDR joined with effect from 3 October 1990, the Federal Republic (compliant pursuant to Article 23 of the Basic Law, old version, see Unification Treaty ), and the People's Chamber broke up. Your legislature thus took just over six months. 144 of 400 people chamber deputies were from 3 October 1990 Member of Parliament: 63 of the CDU, 8 of the DSU, 9 by the Liberals, 33 of the SPD, 7 together by the Alliance 90 and the Green Party as well as 24 of the PDS. Their mandates ended a few months later with the first all-German Bundestag elections on 2 December 1990.

On October 2, 1990, the last day of the existence of the GDR, Gauck was elected by the People's Chamber of the Special Representative for the personal documents of the former State Security of the GDR and the next day by Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor Helmut Kohl as the Special Representative of the Federal Government for the personal documents of the former State Security Service confirmed in this function.