Politics of East Germany

The political system of the GDR united the characteristics of real socialism with the principles of the so-called democratic centralism, that is, the actual power passed by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED ) from. The German Democratic Republic was a socialist state in the self-understanding and realized the basic principles of a People's Republic. Since the government was dominated by one-party rule, the so-called state party, it is called in the GDR by one party dictatorship.

Structure and functions of state organs

People's Chamber

Formally, the highest governing body was the People's Chamber, the parliament of the German Democratic Republic, which no parliament in terms of a representative democracy, however, was but supposedly the undivided sovereignty of the people should embody in radical democracy and the balance of social groups. These elected the members of the State Council as a collective Head of State and the Council of Ministers as a government of the GDR. They also elected the president and judges of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General, who could be recalled by the People's Chamber, at any time, without judicial independence. They met only about four times a year and decided to 1989, with one exception (1972 introducing the term solution for abortions by the law on termination of pregnancy ) unanimously. An opposition was not allowed in the SED dictatorship.

The 500 deputies of the People's Chamber were, as of 1971 five years elected every four by universal, equal choice, but choosing only the constitutional claim was secret after. The composition of the parliament had already decided before the elections, because the distribution of seats was fixed at the parties and mass organizations of the Democratic Bloc in advance of a unit list. The democratic form was canceled by the choice form with a single list of the National Front, whose result is a comprehensive leadership of the SED has been saved. The East German electoral system did not provide for free elections and no secret ballot in practice. It was common to use means " folding " all proposed candidates without using a voting booth, deviations were sometimes noted, and could have negative consequences. From the list of individual names could be deleted, but this was hardly practiced. Even the use of the voting booth could stand out as suspicious. Elections were a mere acclamation of the alleged will of the people, which usually led to official election results, with 99 percent approval. On top of that, however, the counted results were falsified nor in the sense of the SED for publication, as has been demonstrated in the last local elections in May 1989.

State party and block parties

As in other socialist states, the state power did not lie with the formally at the relevant level highest bodies, but in fact in the ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. She agreed to the procedure closely with the Soviet Union on where the power lay with the CPSU. In fact, the power was therefore on the structure of the State party, the SED, ie the members of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the SED, exercised. The absolute leadership of the SED was officially enshrined in the Constitution of the GDR since 6 April 1968, was canceled on 1 December 1989 at the turn of the old people still chamber. In Article 1 of the Constitution of the GDR it was said:

" The German Democratic Republic is a socialist state of workers and peasants. It is the political organization of the working people in town and country under the leadership of the working class and its Marxist -Leninist party. "

In addition to the SED, there were four other parties, the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU), the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ( Liberal Democratic Party ), the National Democratic Party of Germany ( NDPD ) and the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany ( DBD). They were called block parties because they were affiliated with the SED in the National Front; this was originally arose from the anti- Fascist - Democratic Bloc.

These also included the mass organizations of Free German Trade Union Federation ( fdgb ), Free German Youth ( FDJ), Democratic Women's Federation of Germany ( DFD ) and the Cultural Association. The mass organizations had their own MPs in the GDR People's Representatives. These were mostly SED members and thus amplified the actual power of the SED. However, completed the block parties, the policies of the SED with. The block parties each got a minister in the government.

Government bodies

The Council of Ministers of the GDR had almost 40 members, most of them from the SED since 1971 and only one from each of the block parties since 1967. His primary focus was on the planning and management of the nationalized economy, were responsible for numerous ministries.

The collective head of state since 1960, the State Council of the GDR, consisted of 22-29 members under the chairman Walter Ulbricht, from 1973 Willi Stoph or from 1976 Erich Honecker. He had purely ceremonial duties since 1974. Before Wilhelm Pieck was the representative of the GDR.

The real power lay with the SED leadership: The approximately 25 -strong center of power, the Politburo of the SED, the Secretary-General was standing in front. There were strict party discipline and a so-called prohibition of factions, that is, it had to be reached unanimity. The members and candidates were formally elected by the Central Committee of the SED, which, met two to three times a year between party congresses, held every five years. The Secretariat of the Central Committee was a bureaucratic apparatus of about 2,000 officials under eleven secretaries, representing various disciplines and members of the Politburo. This and Party was a double structure of government (ministries etc.) ( Politburo, Secretaries, etc.) before, in which the party had priority. The intra-party elections were determined by the proposal lists the apparatus in advance. A Central Party Control Commission oversaw the expected behavior of all 2.26 million members of the SED (1989 ), and practiced through regular exchange of party control of books.

Another power center formed since 1960, a National Defence Council, chaired by the Secretary General, which only could belong SED members. He had the sole right to issue instructions to the central management areas and the district lines. He was also responsible responsibility for border security by the order to shoot at the Berlin Wall and the inner German border.

State-building

The strictly centralist state structure continued to the administrative divisions into 15 districts and 217 counties in the state and the SED. The elected by the county council District Council was dominated by the SED district leadership under the 1st district secretary, who were subordinated to the central SED line. A District Planning Commission carried out the requirements of the State Planning Commission. One level down were the counties and cities ( urban districts ) with the same structures ( district council, the district council / City Council, SED district leadership with the 1st District Secretary, District Planning Commission ), among these, the municipalities (or municipalities ). A municipal autonomy and self-government was not so. The boundaries between party and state organs have been deliberately obscured in order without administrative constraints to always decide according to political criteria.

Justice and security institutions

The right of the GDR did not match the Western conception of the rule of law. There was no legal guarantee nor administrative courts to complain against government measures. Should replace it to make under Article 103 of the Constitution, an extensive right to petition or petitions to state bodies, but whose decision was subject to government arbitrariness. In the GDR lawyers were not independent of the state. They had no right of access to documents. Lawyers began to see how the judges, only a summary report. The ability to let even check the files by a lawyer (especially in criminal cases ), did not exist. Citizens who stood out for political reasons by oppositional statements and acts were criminalized and imprisoned as criminals. The Criminal Code was formulated in some politically relevant paragraphs so arbitrarily extensible, that apparently legal convictions were easy, especially because of the " gum paragraphs " § 106 ( " subversive agitation ").

Under particularly close control of the SED was the direct state security organs such as the National People's Army, the police as well as the extensive monitoring and spy apparatus of the Ministry for State Security ( Stasi). The key posts in all areas needed her confirmation ( nomenklatura ), to its subordination to the Party came to no doubt.

Society

Addition was made to the rule securing a politicization of the whole society. With the totalitarian ideology and the associated censorship in the media, literature and art was the same with a new terminology an enemy propagated, directed against the West and which should internalize especially the youth. The delineation of the Federal Republic was a question of survival for the GDR. Political dissidents were subjected to repression. The entire education system in the GDR was under the ideological guidelines of the SED, in the educational content, the almost complete collection in the Free German Youth, the military instruction and compulsory training of all students in Marxism -Leninism.

Foreign policy integration

The GDR was involved internationally in the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA ) and since 1973 a member of the United Nations. Of significance was the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in Helsinki in 1975, in which the GDR undertook again to mandatory compliance with human rights.

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