 On October 9, the Soviet Union withdrew her East Berlin headquarters, and subsequently it outwardly surrendered the functions of the military government to the new German state.The SED controlled the National Front coalition, a federation of all political parties and mass organizations that preserved political pluralism.The 1949 constitution formally defined East Germany as a quasi-unitary republic with a bicameral parliament comprising an upper house called the Länderkammer ("States Chamber") and a lower house called the Volkskammer ("People's Chamber").