Socialist Unity Party of Germany
communist political party and ruling state party of the GDR / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, shortened: SED) was the governing party of East Germany from 1949, when East Germany was created, until the elections of 1990. It was formed in 1946 a year after World War 2 ended in 1945 and after Nazi Germany was defeated and after the Nazi Party was banned .
Socialist Unity Party of Germany Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Dissolved | 1990 (renamed PDS) |
| Merger of | Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) |
| Succeeded by | Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) |
| Newspaper | Neues Deutschland |
| Youth wing | Free German Youth |
| Ideology | Marxism–Leninism |
| International affiliation | Cominform |
| Colors | Red |
The SED was created in april 1946 in the Berliner Admiralspalast 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 somewhat popular in parts the former East German territory, frequently 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 joined 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) but with the same ideas as the parent party.