National Front of the German Democratic Republic

The National Front of the German Democratic Republic (German: Nationale Front der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) was officially an alliance of parties and mass organisations (1950–1990). In fact, only one party held power in the GDR, namely the communist SED. The National Front was an instrument to exercise control over the other parties and organisations. The precursor of the National Front was the Democratic Bloc (since 1945).

The main task of the National Front was to draw up a common electoral list ("Einheitsliste") in elections to the East German parliament, the Volkskammer ("People's Chamber"). This "unity list" was the only list that citizens could vote for. Other parties or lists were prohibited. The National Front system was intended to give to the outside world the impression that there was a democracy with a multi-party system in the GDR.

After the Second World War, the Allies initially allowed four parties: the Communists, the Social Democrats, the Christian Democratic Union and the Liberal Democratic Party. In the Soviet Occupation Zone, the Communist Party forced the Social Democrats to merge (1946). Thus the communist-dominated Socialist Unity Party (SED) was formed.

The other two parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Liberal Democratic Party, were initially independent. The SED, with the help of the Soviet occupation authorities, intimidated these parties, removed and sometimes deported their leaders and forced them to get on course. Finally, the occupying authorities allowed two new parties to be founded: the Democratic Farmers' Party (DBD) and the National Democratic Party (NDPD) (1948). Both parties were founded by the SED, their first leaders even being former SED and Communist party functionaries respectively. Their task was to poach voters from the Christian Democrats and Liberals. The National Democrats were also supposed to be a collecting ground for former National Socialists. The parties that were not the SED were called Blockpartei.

Finally, there were so-called mass organisations in the Soviet occupation zone and then in the GDR. Some of them were represented on the electoral list, such as the trade union and the women's organisation. Nearly all of these MPs were members of the SED. Therefore, although the SED faction in parliament did not have an absolute majority, most MPs were nevertheless SED members.^[1]

All parties and mass organisations in the National Front had to officially accept the SED's leading role as a condition of their existence. The SED had significant control over these parties, with their leadership even at a regional level being subject to approval by the Friendly Parties Department of the SED Central Committee. The parties were afforded a large amount of infrastructure, including party buildings, newspapers and companies and were represented in the East German government by several ministers each, though as all ministers, they were de jure bound to directives issued by their responsible Central Committee Secretary. Only in the last weeks prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 1989), some politicians of non-SED parties started to moderately criticize SED dominance. The Front disbanded in February 1990, a month before the first free elections in the GDR.

The Liberal Democratic Party and National Democratic Party eventually merged with the West German Free Democratic Party, whereas the Christian Democratic Union and the Democratic Farmers' Party merged with the West German Christian Democratic Union. This saw controversy at the time because the elaborate infrastructure that the SED had afforded the bloc parties put them at a great competitive advantage over newly established parties.