East German general election, 1990
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1986 ←
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18 March 1990 (1990-03-18)
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→ 1990
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All 400 seats in the Volkskammer
201 seats were needed for a majority |
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First party |
Second party |
Third party |
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| Leader |
Lothar de Maizière | Ibrahim Böhme | Hans Modrow |
| Party |
CDU |
SPD |
PDS |
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| Last election |
52 seats | — | 127 seats |
| Seats before |
52 | — | 127 |
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| Seats won |
163 | 88 | 66 |
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| Seat change |
 111 | 88 |  61 |
| Popular vote |
6,139,450 | 3,295,440 | 2,467,818 |
| Percentage |
40.8% | 21.9% | 16.4% |
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| Swing |
— | — | — |
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Legislative elections were held in East Germany on 18 March 1990. It was the first—and as it turned out, only—free parliamentary election in the GDR, and the first truly free election held in that part of Germany since 1933. A total of 400 deputies were elected to the Volkskammer. The largest bloc was the opposition Alliance for Germany, led by the East German branch of the Christian Democratic Union and running on a platform of speedy reunification with the West. The runner-up was the East German branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had only been refounded six months earlier. The former Socialist Unity Party of Germany participated under its new name, Party of Democratic Socialism and received the third largest number of seats.
On 5 April 1990, the new Volkskammer elected the CDU's Sabine Bergmann-Pohl as its president; as the State Council was at the same time dissolved, she became East Germany's interim head of state. Lothar de Maizière (CDU) became prime minister, heading a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, the SDP, the FDP, the German Social Union (DSU) and one non-attached member.[1]
On 20 September of the same year, the parliament voted to dissolve East Germany and to unify its territory with the Federal Republic of Germany, thus ending the state's 40-year existence. The unification treaty was approved on a 442–47 vote by the Bundestag and by a 299–80 margin in the Volkskammer, and took effect on 3 October.[2]
Results
| Party |
Votes |
% |
Seats |
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| Alliance for Germany | Christian Democratic Union | 4,710,598 | 40.8 | 163 |
| German Social Union | 727,730 | 6.3 | 25 |
| Democratic Awakening | 106,146 | 0.9 | 4 |
| Total | 5,544,474 | 48.0 | 192 |
| Social Democratic Party | 2,525,534 | 21.9 | 88 |
| Party of Democratic Socialism | 1,892,381 | 16.4 | 66 |
| Association of Free Democrats | 608,935 | 5.3 | 21 |
| Alliance 90 | 336,074 | 2.9 | 12 |
| Democratic Farmers' Party | 251,226 | 2.2 | 9 |
| Green Party–Independent Women's League | 226,932 | 2.0 | 8 |
| National Democratic Party | 44,292 | 0.4 | 2 |
| Democratic Women's League | 38,192 | 0.3 | 1 |
| United Left | 20,342 | 0.2 | 1 |
| Other parties | 52,773 | 0.5 | 0 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 33,263 | – | – |
| Total | 11,541,155 | 100 | 400 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 12,426,443 | 93.4 | – |
| Source: Pridham & Vanhanen,[3] Nohlen & Stöver,[4] IPU |
References