Constitution of East Germany

The Constitution of East Germany refers to the constitution of the German Democratic Republic (Verfassung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik), commonly known as East Germany. Its original constitution was promulgated on 7 October 1949. It was heavily based on the "Weimarer Reichsverfassung", (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 Länder (or states) into the neighboring Federal Republic. German People's Congress In 1947 the German People's Congress met in Berlin. The People's Congress was meant to be an alternative to the Western London Conference of Foreign Ministers taking place at the same time. The People's Congress' aim was to establish an assembly which would represent the entire German nation and determine the nation's political future and prevent the division of post-war Germany. In all there were 2215 delegates sent to the congress (664 of whom represented Germans in zones occupied by the Western Powers). The second Congress, which had by this point been outlawed in Western occupied zones, met a year later and elected a Council (Volksrat). This council would seek to serve as an assembly representing the entire country, irrespective of occupying nation. This assembly designated a committee whose task it was to develop a constitution. Future Minister-President Otto Grotewohl was the chairman of this committee. An election was held in May 1949 to designate a People's Council. The German People's Congress met for a third time in 1949 and accepted the drafted constitution.

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Related concepts (11)

Volkskammer

The Volkskammer (ˈfɔlkskamɐ, People's Chamber) was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (colloquially known as 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.

Revolutions of 1989

The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nations, a play on the term Spring of Nations that is sometimes used to describe the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe.

Constitution of East Germany