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A look back: East Germany's first freely elected parliament

Matthias von Hellfeld
March 17, 2025

In March 1990, 400 East German lawmakers became the first parliamentarians to take power after a free and fair election. Their goal: Germany's reunification.

Last session of the GDR Volkskammer in October 1990 one day before reunification
Sabine Bergmann-Pohl (m) chaired the last session of the GDR Volkskammer Image: dpa

On March 18, 1990, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) emerged as the strongest party after the election for the East German parliament, the People's Chamber. The conservative CDU laid claim to the offices of prime minister and parliamentary president.

Until this time, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl had worked as a lung disease specialist in East Berlin. Since 1981, she'd been a member of the East German CDU and rose up the party hierarchy.

After the March election, Bergmann-Pohl became not only the president of the People's Chamber, but also head of the East German state following a constitutional amendment.

Germany's reunification central to campaign

The election campaign in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was dominated by a single theme: reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).

The GDR parliament convened in the Palace of the Republic, which was torn down in 2008 due to asbestos contaminationImage: Gueffroy/IMAGO

In West Germany, CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl also made this a main focus of his campaign. The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and their leader Willy Brandt, had misinterpreted the mood and expected the process of consolidation between the two German states to take much longer.

The majority of East German parliamentarians now began working toward implementing what most citizens of the GDR expected of them. But, as Bergmann-Pohl later recalled, the parties differed widely over how to achieve this goal.

"The civil liberties campaigners from Alliance '90/The Greens wanted a reformed GDR, while the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) wanted to cement the old standards," she said. "The other parties, the CDU, SPD, the German Social Union, the Liberals and the Association of Democrats, wanted the dissolution of the GDR and reunification with the FRG."

'Spontaneous parliament' takes on big tasks

The election outcome in the East led to a coalition between the conservative CDU and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). But the tasks ahead were so big that Premier Lothar de Maiziere also incorporated the second-most powerful party, the Social Democrats, into the government.

The proceedings of the first democratically elected People's Chamber were often chaotic. Bergmann-Pohl put this down to the fact that almost two-thirds of the representatives, herself included, had no parliamentary experience.

In 1990, the People's Chamber of the GDR voted in favor of unification with West GermanyImage: picture-alliance/ZB

"It was a very spontaneous parliament, we had no solid rules of procedure like our West German counterparts," said Bergmann-Pohl. "The few rules that the representatives were able to agree on were constantly changing. Nevertheless, we were an exceptionally busy and conscientious parliament."

This was certainly necessary since, despite their inexperience, the parliamentarians had to make decisions on very weighty matters. Since the future of all Germans was on the agenda, the West German government also became involved.

Teams of advisers from the Federal Republic poured in to make sure the legal process not only complied with both German constitutions, but also took account of the wish of most GDR citizens for reunification with West Germany to happen as quickly as possible.

De Maiziere also saw this as his primary obligation. In a government declaration, he summed up the sentiments felt in the GDR:

"The people of the GDR are part of one people, a part of one German people, that should grow together again," he said.

'We are one people!'

This sentiment became the main thrust of his government program. The premier devoted himself to this cause and, in the next few months, also tried to save the positive aspects of the GDR for the new era of a reunified Germany.

De Maiziere spoke of incorporating East Germans' "sense of social justice, solidarity and tolerance" into the process of consolidation. However, his words met with little response in West, as Helmut Kohl's government was already busy organizing the reunification of Germany, and these plans left little room for input from the soon-to-be-defunct GDR.

In addition to West German advisers, de Maziere's government also received help from an unexpected quarter: Gregor Gysi, the leader of the Party of Democratic Socialism, the successor to the old East German Party of Socialist Unity. The PDS was fundamentally against reunification, but Gysi nonetheless played a constructive part in forming numerous constitutional amendments.

The work of the first freely-elected People's Chamber ended on October 3, 1990, the day East and West Germany were reunited. The parliamentarians in East Berlin had fulfilled the wishes of the GDR's citizens, laying the groundwork for the call "We are one people!" to become reality.

Forty-five years after the end of World War II, which resulted in the division of Germany and Europe, Germans could once again live in a single country.

This article was originally written in German in 2010, and updated on March 14, 2025.

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