Editing Volkskammer (section)

==Membership==
In October 1949 the '''Volksrat''' ("People's Council"), charged with drafting the [[Constitution of East Germany]], proclaimed itself the ''Volkskammer'' and requested official recognition as a [[Legislature|national legislature]] from the [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany]]. This was granted by Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister [[Andrei Gromyko]]. The Volkskammer then convened with the Länderkammer to elect [[Wilhelm Pieck]] as the first [[President of East Germany]] and [[Otto Grotewohl]] as the first [[Prime Minister of East Germany]].<ref>Naimark, Norman M. ''The Russians In Germany: a History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949.'' E-book, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995</ref>

From its founding in 1949 until the first [[competitive election]]s in [[1990 East German general election|March 1990]], all members of the Volkskammer were elected via a single list from the [[National Front (East Germany)|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]]. Effectively, the SED held control over the composition of the Volkskammer.<ref>Kurt Sontheimer & Wilhelm Bleek. ''The Government and Politics of East Germany''. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1975. p. 66.</ref> In any event, the minor parties in the National Front were largely subservient to the SED, and were required to accept the SED's "[[Vanguard party|leading role]]" as a condition of their continued existence.<ref>[http://www.bpb.de/izpb/48519/der-ausbau-des-neuen-systems-1949-bis-1961 Andreas Malchya: Der Ausba des neuen Systems 1949 bis 1961], ''Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung'', last retrieved 2022-07-28.</ref>

The members of the People's Chamber were elected in multi-member [[Electoral district|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 [[Two-round system|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 vacancy|casual vacancies]] which might occur during a legislative period.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/GERMAN_DEMOCRATIC_REPUBLIC_1986.PDF | title=German Democratic Republic | pages=75–77 | work = Chron. XX (1985-1986) | publisher=Inter-Parliamentary Union | access-date=29 April 2020 }}</ref>

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 National Front list had to vote using a separate ballot box, without any secrecy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sebestyen|first=Victor|title=Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|location=New York City|year=2009|isbn=978-0-375-42532-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/revolution1989fa00sebe}}{{page needed|date=February 2025}}</ref> The table below shows an overview of the reported results of all parliamentary elections before 1990, with the resulting disposition of parliamentary seats.

{| class="wikitable"

!scope="col" rowspan="2" | Election

!scope="col" rowspan="2" | Turnout

!scope="col" rowspan="2" | Agree

!colspan="12"| Distribution of parliamentary seats
|-
![[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]]
![[Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)|CDU]]
![[Liberal Democratic Party of Germany|LDPD]]
![[Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany|DBD]]
![[NDPD]]
![[FDGB]]
![[Free German Youth|FDJ]]
![[Kulturbund|KB]]
![[Democratic Women's League of Germany|DFD]]
![[Social Democratic Party in the GDR#Foundation|SPD]]
![[Peasants Mutual Aid Association|VdgB]]
![[Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime|VVN]]
|-
| [[1950 East German general election|1950]] || 98.53%
|99.9%||110||67||66||33||35||49||25||24||20||6||12||19
|-
| [[1954 East German general election|1954]] || 98.51%
|99.4%||117||52||52||52||52||53||29||29||18||||12||
|-
| [[1958 East German general election|1958]] || 98.90%
|99.9%||117||52||52||52||52||53||29||29||18||||12||
|-
| [[1963 East German general election|1963]] || 99.25%
|99.9%||127||52||52||52||52||68||40||35||22||||||
|-
| [[1967 East German general election|1967]] || 99.82%
|99.9%||127||52||52||52||52||68||40||35||22||||||
|-
| [[1971 East German general election|1971]] || 98.48%
|99.5%||127||52||52||52||52||68||40||35||22||||||
|-
| [[1976 East German general election|1976]] || 98.58%
|99.8%||127||52||52||52||52||68||40||35||22||||||
|-
| [[1981 East German general election|1981]] || 99.21%
|99.9%||127||52||52||52||52||68||40||35||22||||||
|-
| [[1986 East German general election|1986]] || 99.74%
|99.9%||127||52||52||52||52||68||37||21||32||||14||
|}

In 1976, the Volkskammer moved into a specially constructed building on Marx-Engels-Platz (now [[Schloßplatz (Berlin)|Schloßplatz]] again), the [[Palace of the Republic (Berlin)|Palace of the Republic]] (''Palast der Republik''). Prior to this, the Volkskammer met at {{ill|Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus|de}} 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e4uwCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT244 |page=244 |title=Longman Companion to Germany since 1945 |isbn=9781317884231 |last1=Webb |first1=Adrian |date=9 September 2014 |publisher=Routledge }}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0111-046, Berlin, Demonstrant vor Volkskammer.jpg|thumb|Protester, January 1990]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0312-021, Berlin, Volkskammerwahl, Stimmzettel Wahlkreis I.jpg|thumb|Ballot for the 1990 elections (written text reads "Sample")]]

With the advent of the [[Peaceful revolution]], a new electoral law was passed on 20 February 1990, reducing the Volkskammer to 400 members and establishing their competitive election using [[party-list proportional representation]], with no [[electoral threshold]]. Seats were calculated nationally using the [[largest remainder method]], and distributed in multi-member constituencies corresponding to the fifteen [[Administrative divisions of East Germany#List of Bezirke|''Bezirke'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kai-hamm.de/recht/019-20.pdf|title=People's Chamber Election Law|date=20 February 1990}}</ref>
{{Wikisource|Translation:Law on the Elections to the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic (1990)|Law on the Elections to the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic (1990)}}

After the [[1990 East German general election|1990 election]], the disposition of the parties was as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
!Party/Group
!Acronym
!Members
|-
|[[Alliance for Germany]]
|[[Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)|CDU]], [[Democratic Awakening|DA]], [[German Social Union (East Germany)|DSU]]
|192
|-
|[[Social Democratic Party in the GDR]]
|SPD
|88
|-
|[[The Left Party.PDS|Party of Democratic Socialism]]
|PDS, former SED
|66
|-
|[[Association of Free Democrats]]<td>[[German Forum Party|DFP]], [[Free Democratic Party (East Germany)|FDP]], [[Liberal Democratic Party of Germany|LDP]]
|21
|-
|[[Alliance 90]]
|B90
|12
|-
|[[East German Green Party|Green Party]] and [[Independent Women's Association]]
|Grüne, UFV
|8
|-
|[[National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)|National Democratic Party of Germany]]
|NDPD
|2
|-
|[[Democratic Women's League of Germany]]
|DFD
|1
|-
|[[United Left (East Germany)|United Left]]
|VL
|1
|}