Rdxfbgrtj

People's Chamber Volkskammer
Legislature of German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
Type
Type	Unicameral parliament (until 1958 lower house)
History
Established	1949
Disbanded	1990
Preceded by	Reichstag (1933–1945)
Succeeded by	Bundestag (1990–today)
Seats	400
Elections
Last election	18 March 1990
Meeting place
Palast der Republik

East Germany
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of East Germany
Constitution 1949 1968
Leadership Socialist Unity Party General Secretary President (1949–1960) State Council (1960–1990) Head of State Council of Ministers Head of Government
Legislature President Chamber of States
Elections Referendums Constitutional Assembly 1949 General elections 1950 1954 1958 1963 1967 1971 1976 1981 1986 1990 Referendums 1951 1954 1968
Political parties Christian Democratic Union Democratic Farmers' Party Liberal Democratic Party National Democratic Party
Administrative divisions East Berlin (independent) Cottbus Dresden Erfurt Frankfurt Gera Halle Karl-Marx-Stadt Leipzig Magdeburg Neubrandenburg Potsdam Rostock Schwerin Suhl
Other countries Atlas
v t e

The Volkskammer (German: [ˈfɔlkskamɐ], People's Chamber) was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (popularly called East Germany).

The Volkskammer was initially the lower house of a bicameral legislature. The upper house was the Chamber of States, or Länderkammer, but in 1952 the states of East Germany were dissolved, and the Chamber was abolished in 1958. Constitutionally, the Volkskammer was the highest organ of state power in the GDR, and both constitutions vested it with great lawmaking powers. All other branches of government, including the judiciary, were theoretically responsible to it. By 1960, the chamber appointed the Council of the State, the Council of Ministers, and the National Defence Council.

In practice, the People's Chamber was a rubber stamp that did little more than give legal sanction to decisions already made by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and its Politburo. This was standard operating procedure in nearly all Communist legislatures. All parties were expected to respect the principles of democratic centralism and the leading role of the SED. As a result, all but two measures put before it prior to the Peaceful Revolution passed unanimously.

Membership

From its founding in 1949 until the first competitive elections in March 1990, all members of the Volkskammer were elected via a single list from the National Front, a popular front/electoral alliance dominated by the SED. In addition, seats were also allocated to various organizations affiliated with the SED, such as the Free German Youth.

The members of the chamber were elected in multi-member constituencies, with four to eight seats. To be elected, a candidate needed to receive half of the valid votes cast in their constituency. If, within a constituency, an insufficient number of candidates got the majority needed to fill all the seats, a second round was held within 90 days. If the number of candidates getting this majority exceeds the number of seats in the respective constituency, the order of the candidates on the election list decided who got to sit in the Volkskammer. Candidates who lost out on a seat because of this would become successor candidates who would fill casual vacancies which might occur during a legislative period.

Only one list of candidates appeared on a ballot paper; voters simply took the ballot paper and dropped it into the ballot box. Those who wanted to vote against the ruling party's list of candidates had to vote using a separate ballot box, without any secrecy.^[1] Seats were apportioned based on a set quota, not actual vote totals.^[2] By ensuring that its candidates dominated the list, the SED effectively predetermined the composition of the Volkskammer.

The table below shows an overview of the reported results of all parliamentary elections before 1990, with the resulting disposition of parliamentary seats.

¹Eastern Bureau of the Social Democratic Party of Germany

In 1976, the Volkskammer moved into a specially-constructed building on Marx-Engels-Platz (now Schloßplatz again), the Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic). Prior to the opening of the Palast der Republik the Volkskammer meet at Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus in the Mitte district of Berlin.

Initially, voters in East Berlin could not take part in elections to the Volkskammer, in which they were represented by indirectly-elected non-voting members, but in 1979 the electoral law was changed to provide for 66 directly elected deputies with full voting rights.^[3]

Protestor, January 1990

Ballot for the 1990 elections (written text reads "Sample")

After the 1990 election, the disposition of the parties was as follows:

Presidents of the People's Chamber

The presidency of the People's Chamber was held by a non-Communist for most of that body's existence; only one SED member ever held the title. This was to keep up the appearance that the GDR was governed by a broad-based coalition [citation needed]. The president of the People's Chamber was the third-highest state post in the GDR (after the chairman of the Council of Ministers and the chairman of the State Council) and was ex-officio vice president of the country.

The last president of the People's Chamber, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, was also interim head of state during the last six months of East Germany's existence due to the State Council having been abolished.

See also

• Presidium of the People's Chamber


• Show election

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic.

• 
  A Successful Policy Seared to the Needs of the People "Deliberations" of the Volkskammer on nuclear disarmament, 1981.