1990 East German general election

Legislative elections were held in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) on 18 March 1990. It was the only free parliamentary election in the GDR and the first truly free election held in that part of Germany since 1932. Four hundred deputies were elected to the Volkskammer.

The largest bloc was the 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 been refounded only six months earlier.  The former Socialist Unity Party of Germany, renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism, ran in a free election for the first time ever and finished in third place.

The Alliance came up just short of the 201 seats needed to govern alone. Lothar de Maizière of the CDU, the early favorite to become East Germany's first freely elected prime minister, invited the SPD to join his Alliance partners – Democratic Awakening (DA) and the German Social Union (DSU) – in a grand coalition. The SPD was initially cool to de Maizière's offer, in part because of the presence of the DSU in de Maizière's grouping; the SPD had originally been willing to govern alongside all parties other than the PDS and DSU.

Results

Aftermath 

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. Four days later, de Maizière announced that he had reached an agreement for a grand coalition consisting of the Alliance parties (the CDU, DSU and DA), the SPD, the liberal Association of Free Democrats (BFD), and one non-attached member. Between them, the three main partners in the coalition commanded a two-thirds supermajority in the Volkskammer, enough to pass amendments to the constitution. On 12 April 1990, de Maizière was elected prime minister of the GDR and his cabinet  was confirmed by the Volkskammer with 265 votes for, 108 against and 9 abstentions.

The GDR municipal constitution of 17 May 1990, the constitutional law of 17 June 1990 and the treaty on monetary, economic and social union with the Federal Republic of Germany of 18 May 1990, which became effective on 1 July 1990, were passed by the Volkskammer. On 21 June 1990, the Volkskammer formed a special committee to monitor the dissolution of the Stasi (MfS/AfNS); The chairman was future federal president Joachim Gauck, who was then one of the initiators of the Stasi Records Act.

On 20 September 1990, the Volkskammer voted by a 299–80 margin to accept the unification treaty, which had earlier been approved on a 442–47 vote by the West German Bundestag, and unify its territory to become part of an enlarged Federal Republic of Germany, meaning that East Germany, after 40 years of existence, would cease to exist. The treaty took effect on 3 October.

References

East Germany
Category:1990 in East Germany
Category:1990 elections in Germany
Category:Democratization
Category:Die Wende
Category:Elections in East Germany
Category:March 1990 events in Europe