1958 East German general election

Last updated

1958 East German general election
Flag of Germany.svg
  1954 16 November 1958 (1958-11-16) 1963  

All 466 seats in the Volkskammer
Turnout98.90% (Increase2.svg0.49pp)
 First party
  Fotothek df pk 0000079 077.jpg
Leader Walter Ulbricht
Party SED
Alliance National Front
Leader since25 July 1950
Seats won117
Seat changeSteady2.svg

Chairman of the Council of Ministers before election

Otto Grotewohl
SED

Chairman of the Council of Ministers after election

Otto Grotewohl
SED

General elections were held in East Germany on 16 November 1958. There were 466 deputies in the Volkskammer, including 66 from East Berlin who were not directly elected. All were candidates of the single-list National Front, dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The list received the approval of 99.9% of voters, with turnout reported to be 98.9%. [1]

Results

1954-1958 Volkskammer.svg
Party or allianceVotes%Seats+/–
National Front Socialist Unity Party of Germany 11,689,11099.871170
Free German Trade Union Federation 530
Christian Democratic Union 520
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany 520
National Democratic Party of Germany 520
Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany 520
Democratic Women's League of Germany 290
Free German Youth 290
Cultural Association of the GDR 180
Peasants Mutual Aid Association 120
Against14,8570.13
Total11,703,967100.004660
Valid votes11,703,96799.88
Invalid/blank votes13,9950.12
Total votes11,717,962100.00
Registered voters/turnout11,848,60298.90
Source: German Federal Archives, Nohlen & Stöver [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkskammer</span> Unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic

The Volkskammer was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of East Germany</span> Constitution of the German Democratic Republic

The original Constitution of East Germany was promulgated on 7 October 1949. It was heavily based on the Weimar Constitution and nominally established the GDR as a liberal democratic republic. In 1968, the East German government adopted a new, fully Communist constitution that was based on Marxism–Leninism, political unitarism, and collective leadership. There were further amendments to the 1968 constitution in 1974. With the political events of 1989, there were attempts to draft a new constitution for East Germany, but these efforts never materialized due to the dissolution of East Germany and the accession of its states into the neighboring Federal Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Modrow</span> German politician (1928–2023)

Hans Modrow was a German politician best known as the last communist premier of East Germany.

The National Front of the German Democratic Republic was officially an alliance of parties and mass organisations (1950–1990). In fact, only one party held power in the GDR, namely the communist SED. The National Front was an instrument to exercise control over the other parties and organisations. The precursor of the National Front was the Democratic Bloc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Beginning</span> 1989–1990 East German political party

Democratic Beginning was an East German political movement and political party that was active during the Revolutions of 1989 and in the period leading up to the German reunification. While it was a relatively minor party, it took part in the first democratically elected government in East Germany in 1990, and is especially known because future Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel started her political career within the party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of East Germany</span> Head of state of the German Democratic Republic

The president of the German Democratic Republic was the head of state of the German Democratic Republic, commonly known as East Germany, from 1949 until 1960. The office was created by the Constitution of 1949. The president of the Republic was elected by the People's Chamber (Volkskammer) and the Chamber of States (Länderkammer), the two chambers of parliament. The office was mostly ceremonial in nature. If necessary, the President of the Volkskammer acted as the president of the Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1990 East German general election</span>

General elections were held in East Germany on 18 March 1990, and were the first and only free elections held in the state before German reunification. The Alliance for Germany, led by the new East German branch of the right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU), won 192 seats and emerged as the largest bloc in the 400-seat Volkskammer, having run on a platform of speedy reunification with West Germany. The East German branch of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which had been dissolved in 1946 and refounded only six months before the elections, finished second with 88 seats despite being widely expected to win. The former Socialist Unity Party of Germany, restyled as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), finished third with 66 seats the first free election in which it participated.

General elections were held in East Germany on 8 June 1986. 500 deputies were elected to the Volkskammer, with all of them being candidates of the single-list National Front. 703 Front candidates were put forward, with 500 being elected and 203 becoming substitute deputies. At its first session on 16 June, the Volkskammer re-elected Willi Stoph as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, while Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party, was also re-elected Chairman of the State Council.

General elections were held in East Germany on 14 November 1971. 434 deputies were elected to the Volkskammer, with all of them being candidates of the single-list National Front. 584 Front candidates were put forward, with 434 being elected. The allocation of seats remained unchanged from previous elections.

General elections were held in East Germany on 2 July 1967. 434 deputies were elected to the Volkskammer, with all of them being candidates of the single-list National Front, dominated by the communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). 583 Front candidates were put forward, with 434 being elected. The allocation of seats remained unchanged from the 1963 election.

General elections were held in East Germany on 15 October 1950. They were the first held since the founding of the country on 7 October 1949. There were 466 deputies in the Volkskammer, including 66 from East Berlin who were not directly elected.

Marlies Deneke is a German politician.

Ursula Fischer is a German former national politician (PDS).

Christa Schmidt is a retired German politician (CDU). She served as a minister in the last government of East Germany. She had built an earlier career as a teacher and educationalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State of Mecklenburg (1945–1952)</span> Subdivision of the Soviet occupation zone and one of the states of East Germany

The State of Mecklenburg was a subdivision of the Soviet occupation zone and one of the states of East Germany which corresponds widely to the present-day German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The state was originally formed as an administrative division, the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) in July 1945. It consisted of the 1934-established Mecklenburg and parts of the former Prussian provinces of Pommern and Hanover. The city of Swinemünde was handed over to Poland in October 1945, becoming part of Szczecin Voivodeship. In November 1945, a transfer of small territories along the Inner German border to the former Province of Schleswig-Holstein was carried out as part of the Barber–Lyashchenko Agreement. About 2.1 million people were estimated to live in Mecklenburg in 1946. From 1947, the term Vorpommern was excluded from the official name as the SMAD feared that this would support revisionist actions against formerly German parts of Poland. Compared to the administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Mecklenburg comprised the Gaue Mecklenburg and parts of Pomerania and Eastern Hanover.

Bertram Wieczorek is a German physician and former politician (CDU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietmar Keller</span> East German politician (born 1942)

Dietmar Keller was an East German politician (SED/PDS) who served as Minister for Culture in the Modrow government. After reunification he sat as a member of the German parliament ("Bundestag") between 1990 and 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharina Kern</span> German anti-government activist

Katharina "Käthe" Kern became a German anti-government activist during the Hitler years. After 1945 she quickly emerged as a senior politician and party loyalist in the Soviet occupation zone. She served between 1946 and 1985 as a member of what became the powerful Party Central Committee. A long-standing leading figure in the Ministry for the Health Service), she also served, between 1949 and 1970, as head of the national "Mother and Child department".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hansjoachim Walther</span> German politician (1939–2005)

Hansjoachim Walther was a German politician and mathematician. He was leader of the German Social Union, a right-wing party modelled after the Bavarian CSU, during the Wende, serving as their parliamentary leader in the Volkskammer. After German reunification, he was co-opted to the Bundestag and appointed as Minister for Special Affairs.

References

  1. Analyse üver due Vorbereitung der Wahlen zue Volkskammer und zu den Bezirkstagen am 16. November 1958 Ministry of the Interior
  2. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p792 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7