Volkskammer

People's Chamber

*Volkskammer*
People's Chamber ; Volkskammer
German Democratic Republic
	State Arms of East Germany Emblem
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Founded	7 October 1949
Disbanded	3 October 1990
Preceded by	Reichstag (Nazi Germany) 1933–1945; Länderkammer (East Germany) 1949–1958
Succeeded by	Bundestag
Leadership
President	Johannes Dieckmann (first) ; Sabine Bergmann-Pohl (last)
Vice President/Deputy President	(first presidium); Hermann Matern; Gerald Götting; Ernst Goldenbaum; Heinrich Homann; Vincenz Müller; ; (last presidium); Reinhard Höppner; Käte Niederkirchner; Jürgen Schmieder; Wolfgang Ullmann; Stefan Gottschall
Structure
Seats	400
	File:1990 Volkskammer.svg File:1950 Volkskammer.svg
Political groups	Government (303) CDU/DA (197); SPD (88); DSU (25); The Liberals (23); Opposition (97) PDS (66); Alliance 90/The Greens (20); DBD/DFD (10); Non-attached (1); Government (466) National Front SED (110); CDU (67); LDPD (66); FDGB (49); NDPD (35); DBD (33); FDJ (25); KB (24); DFD (20); VVN-BdA (19); VdgB (12); SPD (6);
Elections
First election	15 October 1950
Last election	18 March 1990
Meeting place
	Palace of the Republic
	Palace of the Republic, East Berlin
Constitution
	Constitution of East Germany

The Volkskammer (German: [ˈfɔlkskamɐ], "People's Chamber") was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it.

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 of States 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 responsible to it. By 1960, the chamber appointed the State Council (the GDR's collective head of state), the Council of Ministers (the GDR's government), and the National Defence Council (the GDR's collective military leadership).

In practice, however, like most communist legislatures, it was a rubber stamp body that did little more than ratify decisions already made by the SED Politburo. By the 1970s and before the Peaceful Revolution, the Volkskammer only met two to four times a year.^[1]

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 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.^[2]

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. Effectively, the SED held control over the composition of the Volkskammer.^[3] In any event, the minor parties in the National Front were largely subservient to the SED, and were required to accept the SED's "leading role" as a condition of their continued existence.^[4]

The members of the People's 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.^[5]

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.^[6] The table below shows an overview of the reported results of all parliamentary elections before 1990, with the resulting disposition of parliamentary seats.

Election	Turnout	Agree	Distribution of parliamentary seats
Election	Turnout	Agree	SED	CDU	LDPD	DBD	NDPD	FDGB	FDJ	KB	DFD	SPD	VdgB	VVN
1950	98.53%	99.9%	110	67	66	33	35	49	25	24	20	6	12	19
1954	98.51%	99.4%	117	52	52	52	52	53	29	29	18		12
1958	98.90%	99.9%	117	52	52	52	52	53	29	29	18		12
1963	99.25%	99.9%	127	52	52	52	52	68	40	35	22
1967	99.82%	99.9%	127	52	52	52	52	68	40	35	22
1971	98.48%	99.5%	127	52	52	52	52	68	40	35	22
1976	98.58%	99.8%	127	52	52	52	52	68	40	35	22
1981	99.21%	99.9%	127	52	52	52	52	68	40	35	22
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 again), the Palace of the Republic (Palast der Republik). Prior to this, the Volkskammer met at 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.^[7]

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0111-046, Berlin, Demonstrant vor Volkskammer.jpg

Protester, January 1990

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0312-021, Berlin, Volkskammerwahl, Stimmzettel Wahlkreis I.jpg

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 Bezirke.^[8]

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

Party/Group	Acronym	Members
Alliance for Germany	CDU, DA, DSU	192
Social Democratic Party in the GDR	SPD	88
Party of Democratic Socialism	PDS, former SED	66
Association of Free Democrats	DFP, FDP, LDP	21
Alliance 90	B90	12
Green Party and Independent Women's Association	Grüne, UFV	8
National Democratic Party of Germany	NDPD	2
Democratic Women's League of Germany	DFD	1
United Left	VL	1

Presidents of the People's Chamber

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 the ex officio vice president during the existence of the office of president. As such, on two occasions, the president of the People's Chamber served as acting president for brief periods in 1949 and 1960. 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.

The presidency of the People's Chamber was held by a bloc party representative for most of that body's existence to keep up the appearance that the GDR was led by a broad coalition. Only one SED member ever held the post.

Name	Entered office	Left office	Party
Johannes Dieckmann	7 October 1949	22 February 1969	LDPD
Gerald Götting	12 May 1969	29 October 1976	CDU
Horst Sindermann	29 October 1976	13 November 1989	SED
Günther Maleuda	13 November 1989	5 April 1990	DBD
Sabine Bergmann-Pohl	5 April 1990	2 October 1990	CDU

Parties and organizations represented

National front parties

Party	Emblem	Flag	Foundation	Dissolution	Seats in the Volkskammer (1986)
Socialist Unity Party SED	File:Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands Logo.svg	File:Flagge der SED.svg	21 April 1946	16 December 1989	127
Christian Democratic Union CDU	File:Logo der CDU (DDR).svg	File:Flagge der CDU (Ost).svg	26 June 1945	1/2 October 1990	52
Liberal Democratic Party LDPD	File:LDPD Emblem.svg	File:Flagge Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands.svg	5 July 1945	27 March 1990	52
Democratic Farmers' Party DBD	File:Demokratische BauernPartei Deutschlands Logo.svg	File:Flagge Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands2.svg	17 June 1948	15 September 1990	52
National Democratic Party NDPD	File:DEU NDPD Logo.svg	File:Flagge der NDPD.svg	5 May 1948	27 March 1990	52

National front organizations

Organization	Emblem	Flag	Foundation	Dissolution	Assigned representatives in the Volkskammer (1986)
Free German Trade Union Federation FDGB	File:FDGB Emblem.svg	File:Flagge FDGB.svg	1946	1990	61
Free German Youth FDJ	File:Freie Deutsche Jugend.svg	File:Flagge der Freie Deutsche Jugend.svg	1946	exists today	37
Democratic Women's League of Germany DFD	File:DFD Logo.png	File:Flagge Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands.svg	1947	1990	32
Cultural Association of the DDR KB	File:Logo Kulturbund der DDR.svg	File:DDR Kulturbund flag.png	1945	1990	21
Peasants Mutual Aid Association VdgB	File:Vereinigung der gegenseitigen Bauernhilfe (VdgB) Logo.svg	File:Flagge VdgB.svg	1945	1994	14