1990 East German general election
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All 400 seats in the Volkskammer 201 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Maps showing the distribution of party votes per district. The map in the bottom right shows the largest party in each district. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Legislative elections were held in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) on 18 March 1990. It was the first and only free parliamentary election in the GDR, and the first truly free election held in that part of Germany since 1932. Four hundred deputies were elected to the Volkskammer.
The largest bloc was the Alliance for Germany, led by the East German branch of the Christian Democratic Union and running on a platform of speedy reunification with the West. The runner-up was the East German branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had been refounded only six months earlier. The former Socialist Unity Party of Germany, renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism, ran in a free election for the first time ever and finished in third place.
On 5 April 1990, the new Volkskammer elected the CDU's Sabine Bergmann-Pohl as its president. As the State Council was at the same time dissolved, she became East Germany's interim head of state. Lothar de Maizière (CDU) became prime minister, heading a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, the SPD, the Association of Free Democrats (BFD), Democratic Awakening (DA), the German Social Union (DSU) and one non-attached member.[1]
On 20 September of the same year, the parliament voted by a 299–80 margin to accept the unification treaty, which had earlier been approved on a 442–47 vote by the West German Bundestag, and unify its territory with the Federal Republic of Germany, meaning that East Germany, after 40 years of independence, would cease to exist. The treaty took effect on 3 October.[2]
Results
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| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alliance for Germany | Christian Democratic Union | 4,710,598 | 40.8 | 163 | ||
| German Social Union | 727,730 | 6.3 | 25 | |||
| Democratic Awakening | 106,146 | 0.9 | 4 | |||
| Total | 5,544,474 | 48.0 | 192 | |||
| Social Democratic Party | 2,525,534 | 21.9 | 88 | |||
| Party of Democratic Socialism | 1,892,381 | 16.4 | 66 | |||
| Association of Free Democrats | 608,935 | 5.3 | 21 | |||
| Alliance 90 | 336,074 | 2.9 | 12 | |||
| Democratic Farmers' Party | 251,226 | 2.2 | 9 | |||
| Green Party–Independent Women's Association | 226,932 | 2.0 | 8 | |||
| National Democratic Party | 44,292 | 0.4 | 2 | |||
| Democratic Women's League | 38,192 | 0.3 | 1 | |||
| United Left | 20,342 | 0.2 | 1 | |||
| Other parties | 52,773 | 0.5 | 0 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 33,263 | – | – | |||
| Total | 11,541,155 | 100 | 400 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 12,426,443 | 93.4 | – | |||
| Source: Pridham & Vanhanen,[3] Nohlen & Stöver,[4] IPU | ||||||
References
- ^ "History of German parliamentarianism: 1949–89: Volkskammer of the GDR (East-Germany)". German Bundestag. 2008-11-19.
- ^ "Politics in Germany: The Online Edition". University of California, Irvine. 2008-11-19.
- ^ Geoffrey Pridham, Tatu Vanhanen. Democratization in Eastern Europe Routledge, 1994. ISBN 0-415-11063-7 pp. 135
- ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p779 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
