Socialist Unity Party of Germany
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
| Socialist Unity Party of Germany | |
|---|---|
| Sozialitstische Einheitspartei Deutschlands | |
 |
|
| Former East German National Party | |
| Political ideology | Communism, Marxism-Leninism |
| Official Newspaper | {{{newspaper}}} |
| See also | Politics of Germany Political parties in Germany |
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) (German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) was the governing party of East Germany from 1949, when East Germany was created, until the elections of 1990.
The SED was created in 1946 when the Soviet Union forced the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) members and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) members who lived in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany and Berlin. After 1990, the party reformed itself as the Party of Democratic Socialism (later in 2005, the Left Party.PDS). It is still popular in the former East German territory, winning seats at state and local elections. In the September 2005 Bundestag election the PDS was in coalition with WASG (Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice), which was formed by Oskar Lafontaine who left the SPD. The PDS and WASG are joining together in 2007.
A famous SED poster read: To learn from Stalin means to learn how to win. Later, the word Stalin was replaced with the USSR. When Gorbachev was president of the USSR the famous slogan was abandoned, as the SED did not believe there was anything to learn from his ideas about [[perestroika.
At first the SED had a branch in West Berlin, but in 1962 the West Berlin branch was separated from the SED proper and became a "separate" party called the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Westberlins - SEW).
[change] The Final Days
Between the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the election in March 1990, the old Social Democratic Party was re-established as a separate party, while the rest of the SED lost a lot of members and renamed itself the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) at a special party meeting in December 1989. By becoming the PDS the party survived the reuniting of East Germany any West Germany, and eventually started growing again, managing to get representatives elected to the Bundestag.
[change] General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the SED
(known as "First Secretary" from 1953 - 1976)
- Walter Ulbricht (July 1950 – May 3 1971)
- Erich Honecker (May 3 1971 – October 18 1989)
- Egon Krenz (October 18 1989 – December 3 1989)
These three party leaders are also the equivalent of the Prime Minister or President in other countries.
