German People's Congress

Last updated October 31, 2024

The German People's Congress (German : Deutscher Volkskongress) were a series of congresses held in Germany. They consisted of members of the Socialist Unity Party, the SED, and other political parties and mass organizations. Delegates from all over Germany gathered for the first time on 6 December 1947. Their main demand was the establishment of a German government.^[1]

Historical background

After the Second World War, the cooperation of the four victorious powers was soon superseded by East-West confrontation. The growing East-West conflict between the USSR and the Western powers, as well as a Soviet policy of building puppet regimes, led to distrust of Western powers in relation to the Soviet policy in Germany. U.S. demands in the Allied Control Council, to preserve the economic unity of Germany, were dismissed in July 1946 by the USSR as an attempt to influence. The four-power administration over Germany ended no later than the last meeting of the Supervisory Council on 20 March 1948.

The London 6-Power Conference held in the first half of 1948 set out principles for the establishment of a democratic German state (the Frankfurt documents). While in the three western zones of the reconstruction of democracy was, went in the Soviet zone of occupation, the increasing uniformity of the semi-free elections in the Soviet zone in 1946 elected democratic institutions vonstatten. Since freely elected governments were not established in the countries in the Soviet area of occupation, the Prime Minister summarized in the west of Koblenz decisions, according to which democratic West German state as a temporary part to the restoration of German unity should be established in the wild.

People's Congress movement

The People's Congress movement was at the initiative of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) founded in 1947 and served as its first political forum for Germany to incorporate elements of direct democracy and civic groups in a representative government. They also used the SED to the involvement of political parties, mass organizations, cultural associations and individuals to achieve their political goals and was directed against the American and British policy and the Marshall Plan. Emerged from the movement of the German people's congresses, the first on 6/7 December 1947 of "delegates" of all occupation zones was composed. Prohibited under review and resistances against these SED initiative on the part of the Christian Democratic Union, and the removal of its chairman Jakob Kaiser and Ernst Lemmer through SMAD Western occupying powers to mobilize the People's Congresses in "Trizonia".

First congress

The First German People's Congress for Unity and a Just Peace was started on the initiative of the SED. Delegates from political parties and mass organizations elected who came from the Soviet zone of occupation. Only a small proportion came from the western zones. The representatives met on 6 and 7 December 1947 in Berlin. Participation in the People's Congress, was a source of much discussion among the parties in the Soviet zone. The refusal of the CDU to participate was one of the reasons that led to the dismissal of Jacob Kaiser as CDU chairman by the SMAD. Under strong pressure from the occupying power against the will of the majority of national associations, the Liberal Democratic Party decided to participate. The crucial point of criticism was that the Congress should not be composed according to the election results. By including the mass organizations had a higher distribution of members of the SED, which were usually also members of mass organizations, possible from the outset.

According to estimates by Erich Gniffke was due to the political affiliation of most members of mass organizations to the SED 62% of the participant member of the SED, and another 10% member of the Communist Party. Although these estimates are at odds with the official figures (see table) are available, it is clear that the SED had a clear majority in the People's Congress. Topics included the rejection of the planned construction of a West German state and the criticism of the US-British occupation policy. They discussed the preparation of a peace treaty and an all-German government "composed of representatives of all democratic parties". Here, the Congress rejected much of the Soviet policy on Germany and supported this. This is the reason why this motion was approved by the Soviet Military Administration and supported by the SED. To represent the Congress appointed a 17-member delegation to the London Conference of Foreign Ministers (November–December 1947) the positions of the Congress. The foreign minister saw no legitimacy of the delegation and did not receive it.

Second congress

The Second German People's Congress was held on 17-18 March 1948, 18 March being the 100th anniversary of the German revolutions of 1848–1849. The Congress was attended by 1898 delegates, including 512 from the western zones.^[2] It rejected both the Marshall Plan and the Oder-Neisse line, and agreed to hold a German reunification petition campaign, which took place from 23 May to 13 June 1948.

Furthermore, the First German People's Council was elected, which included 400 members, of which 100 were from West Germany. It formed a constitutional committee led by Otto Grotewohl and tasked with drawing up a draft constitution for the future German Democratic Republic.

Third congress

The Third German People's Congress on the population of the Soviet occupation zone 15 and 16 May 1949 by one vote confirms'. The 'choice' for the People's Congress was to assent (Yes) or reject (No), the following statement:

"I am in favor of German unity and a just peace agreement. I agree about the following list of candidates for the Third German People's Congress."

More than four million of the approximately 13.5 million eligible voters have ticked no. On the approval (officially about 66% of votes) are still reasonable doubt, as about a million unfilled ballots were counted as agreement.^[3]

On 29–30 May 1949 the German People's Congress convened in Berlin. 1400 delegates came from the Soviet occupation zone, 610 from the western zones (Trizone) located on 23 May was constituted as a federal republic. The draft Constitution, the Constitutional Committee of the People's Council had been drawn up on 30 May approved with one vote against, selected [5] and the Second German People's Council. The People's Council was constituted under the influence of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (May 23, 1949) on the same day as the Provisional People's Chamber on 7 October 1949 newly founded German Democratic Republic.

Related Research Articles

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Marxist–Leninist communist party, established in 1946 as a merger of the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany.

The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone in Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in October 1949.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany was a political party in East Germany. Like the other allied bloc parties of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the National Front, it had 52 representatives in the People's Chamber.

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.

The Soviet occupation zone in Germany was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly referred to in English as East Germany, was established in the Soviet occupation zone.

The German Democratic Republic was created as a socialist republic on 7 October 1949 and began to institute a government based on the government of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. The equivalent of the Communist Party in East Germany was the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, which along with other parties, was part of the National Front of Democratic Germany. It was created in 1946 through the merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany. Following German reunification, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which eventually merged with the West German Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice to form the modern Left Party.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR), German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), often known in English as East Germany, existed from 1949 to 1990. It covered the area of the present-day German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, and Thüringen. This area was occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II excluding the former eastern lands annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union, with the remaining German territory to the west occupied by the British, American, and French armies. Following the economic and political unification of the three western occupation zones under a single administration and the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949, the German Democratic Republic was founded on 7 October 1949 as a sovereign nation.

Ferdinand Friedensburg was the interim Mayor of Berlin due to the illness of mayor Louise Schroeder during the Berlin Blockade in 1948.

The German People's Council was a consultative body in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany that operated in 1948-1949. The main task of the People’s Council was to draw up a constitution on the basis of a draft presented by the SED in 1946.

The Democratic Party of Germany was founded in 1947 as a German liberal party and is the forerunner of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the current Federal Republic of Germany.

The German Economic Commission was the top administrative body in the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany prior to the creation of the German Democratic Republic.

The Soviet Control Commission was a monitoring and management committee established by the Soviet Union in order to oversee the leadership of the German Democratic Republic. It was active from 10 October 1949 and 20 September 1955 and it was legitimated by the Potsdam Agreement between the Allies.

The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the east German branches of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) merged to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) on 21 April 1946. Although nominally a merger of equals, the merged party quickly fell under Communist domination and developed along lines similar to other Communist Parties in what became the Eastern Bloc. The SED would be the only party of the German Democratic Republic until the end of the republic in December 1989. In the course of the merger, about 5,000 Social Democrats who opposed it were detained and sent to labour camps and jails.

Arthur Lieutenant was a German Liberal politician.

Helmut Alfred Brandt was a Berlin city councillor and a leading German politician in the Christian Democratic Union , a political party of the centre right.

The State of Saxony-Anhalt was a subdivision of the Soviet occupation zone and state of East Germany which broadly corresponds with the present-day German state Saxony-Anhalt. After the retreat of the US troops from the Western parts - following the agreements of the Yalta Conference - it was formed as administrative division called Province of Saxony by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) in July 1945. The province was a re-establishment of the Province of Saxony which existed in Prussia from 1816 to 1944. On 1 July 1944, the Province of Saxony was divided along the lines of its three government districts of Halle-Merseburg, Magdeburg and Erfurt. The two provinces became part of the new state including small parts of Thuringia (Allstedt) and Soviet-occupied parts of Anhalt (Dessau) and Brunswick. Following the first election for the Landtag in October 1946, the state was renamed to Province of Saxony-Anhalt on the same day. With the abolition of Prussia in February 1947, it was named State of Saxony-Anhalt. Compared to the administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, it comprised the Gaue Magdeburg-Anhalt, Halle-Merseburg and small parts of Southern Hanover-Brunswick and Thuringia.

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.

The State of Brandenburg was a subdivision of the Soviet occupation zone and state of East Germany which corresponds widely to the present-day German state Brandenburg. The state was originally formed as administrative division Province of March Brandenburg by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) in July 1945, a re-establishment of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, excluding the Eastern parts behind the Oder–Neisse line to Poland. With the abolition of Prussia in February 1947, it was named State of March Brandenburg but in June 1947 the SMAD forced to change the name to State of Brandenburg. In August 1945, a transfer of territory was ruled out between Allied-occupied Berlin. Compared to the administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, it comprised the Western part of the Gau March Brandenburg and small parts of Berlin.

Arnold Gohr was a German clerical worker who became a trade unionist and activist. After 1945 he entered mainstream politics in East Berlin. As the Soviet occupation zone evolved into a Soviet sponsored one-party dictatorship, he never joined the ruling party, remaining instead a leading "collaborationist" member of the eastern version of the Christian Democratic Union. He became a party chairman and served between 1948 and 1958 as "deputy lord mayor" of Berlin, a period during which the increasingly divided city's constitutional status and future were contentious and ambiguous on a number of different levels.

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".

References

↑ Lexikon A–Z in zwei Bänden, Erster Band, Volkseigener Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1956, S. 375.
↑ Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus beim Zentralkomitee der SED: Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, Band 6, Von 1945 bis 1949. Autorenkollektiv: Walter Ulbricht u. A., Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1966, S. 240.
↑ Siegfried Suckut, Parteien in der SBZ/DDR 1945–1952. Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-384-2, S. 73.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Lexikon A–Z in zwei Bänden, Erster Band, Volkseigener Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1956, S. 375.

[2] Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus beim Zentralkomitee der SED: Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, Band 6, Von 1945 bis 1949. Autorenkollektiv: Walter Ulbricht u. A., Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1966, S. 240.

[3] Siegfried Suckut, Parteien in der SBZ/DDR 1945–1952. Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-384-2, S. 73.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	United States