Bloc party

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Block parties are political parties that exist in states alongside the ruling party and are united with it in a party block . These parties are represented in parliaments and governments without being able to exercise any real power . You are not in electoral competition with the ruling party.

Block parties are allowed or even founded by the rulers themselves for two reasons: They should create the impression that there is a functioning party pluralism and thus a prerequisite for a democratic system. In addition, block parties are supposed to bring government policy closer to those governed who are critical of the party in power.

The expression block party originated from the "anti-fascist-democratic block" in the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR . The July 14, 1945 bloc was an alliance of parties; it was later transformed into the " Democratic Bloc of Parties and Mass Organizations " which was part of the National Front . Before 1949 in particular, some bloc parties tried to pursue an independent policy. However, this was prevented by the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Since the 1950s at the latest, the bloc parties have represented the same political goals as the SED and participated in its policies.

Such block systems existed and still exist in other countries, not just in those that call themselves “socialist”.

Block parties in the GDR

Anti-fascist-democratic bloc

First rally of the anti-fascist-democratic bloc in August 1945

After the collapse of National Socialism in 1945, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) took over power in the Soviet zone. In the summer of 1945, in “Order No. 2”, it allowed the founding of four “ anti-fascist ” parties on the condition that they would join the “anti-fascist-democratic bloc”. These were (in order of establishment):

Political party logo Establishment / re-establishment / merger
Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
Socialist Unity Party of Germany Logo.svg
April 22, 1946 (merger)
Social Democratic Party of Germany
Christian Democratic Union of Germany (GDR)
Flag of the CDU (East) .svg
June 26, 1945 (foundation)
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD)
Flag of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ssvg
July 15, 1945

On April 22, 1946, the SPD and KPD were forced to merge to form the SED . The newly formed Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) replaced the KPD and SPD in the bloc. In 1948 the Democratic Peasant Party of Germany (DBD) and the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) joined. At about the same time, the FDGB trade union federation and soon after the FDJ youth federation and the DFD women's federation were incorporated, so that the party landscape of the later GDR was already established.

In the vernacular, the block parties and their members were sometimes called "recorders". From there the word found its way into the political-historical discourse of the Federal Republic. Strictly speaking, the SED also belonged to the bloc, but was not called a bloc party. This expression was useful for briefly summarizing the other parties dependent on the SED.

Foundation of DBD and NDPD

The two bourgeois parties CDU and LDPD were founded as independent parties in June / July 1945 and were later forced to follow the SED course. In contrast to this, the DBD and NDPD were initiated by the SMAD in 1948 in order to woo away political clients from the bourgeois parties CDU and LDPD. According to the historian Hermann Weber , the two new parties “functioned as organs of the SED from the start”.

The farmers 'party of April 1948 was intended to win over farmers who had little access to the SED workers' party and who leaned towards the CDU. The SED sent its own people to the executive committee, including chairman Ernst Goldenbaum , who was a member of the KPD before 1933. In the year it was founded, it had almost 30,000 members.

The NDPD served to "remove the dividing line between former Nazis and non-Nazis," as Stalin had put it in March 1948. In June 1948, the NDPD received its license after denazification was broken off with SMAD Order No. 35 and "unencumbered" former NSDAP members were allowed to take political action. Former officers and displaced persons should also be taken care of by the new party. At its meeting in May, the SED executive committee stated that “these politically unclear people” should not give up “the voting cattle ” for the bourgeois parties CDU and LDPD in the next election .

The first NDPD chairman was Lothar Bolz , a KPD member since 1928 and later a member of the National Committee for Free Germany in the Soviet Union. The party joined the bloc in September 1948. In October it had only two thousand members, in the final phase of the GDR over 100,000. According to Klaus Schroeder , significantly more former NSDAP members were involved in the SED than in the NDPD.

Functions

According to Weber, the block parties were not dissolved after 1949 because they took on certain political functions on behalf of the SED: On the one hand, they had an alibi function, according to which they were supposed to veil communist one-party rule and pretend a pluralistic democracy. On the other hand, they had exercised a transmission function according to which they were supposed to spread certain ideas of the SED in the non-proletarian population groups - for example in Christian circles through the CDU. In addition, they had an all-German function in that they were supposed to maintain contacts with the West German sister parties.

The bloc parties had to recognize the leading role of the SED and therefore could not develop an independent policy. Some functionaries of the bloc parties showed resistance. "The arrests of top bourgeois officials [...] led to intimidation and accelerated the process of bringing these parties into line," said Weber, citing the example of LDPD Minister Karl Hamann .

The number of representatives of the individual parties and organizations in the elected bodies was fixed in advance, as there was only one list presented by the bloc ( unit list (GDR) ). The representatives of the mass organizations belonged to a large extent to the SED and thereby strengthened its position of power.

Representation and benefits of membership

Meeting of the chairmen of the GDR bloc parties on December 10, 1982, from left to right: Lothar Kolditz (President of the National Council of the National Front , independent), Manfred Gerlach ( LDPD ), Gerald Götting ( CDU ), Heinrich Homann ( NDPD ), Ernst Mecklenburg ( DBD ), Waldemar Pilz, Erich Honecker and Joachim Herrmann (all three SED)

The bloc parties were represented in most of the GDR's committees and organs, including the People's Chamber and the Council of Ministers (government), where they also implemented the SED's policy. From 1960 onwards, all the chairmen of the bloc parties were also deputies to the Chairman of the Council of State , the formal head of state of the GDR. The chairman of the State Council and the chairman of the National Defense Council were always provided by the SED. In 1989, of the 45 members of the Council of Ministers , only 4 came from the bloc parties. The decisive ministries (foreign affairs, interior affairs, defense, state security) were always in the hands of SED members. All important political decisions in the GDR were made by the Politburo of the SED, over which the bloc parties had no influence.

The bloc parties were not represented in the officers' corps of the security organs or the state security ; In addition, unlike the bloc parties, the SED not only had a territorial organization, but also an organization in all factories, which made it even more present. Party conventions of the bloc parties always took place after those of the SED, and besides, never in Berlin.

When the SED had around 2.2 million members in 1987, the (other) bloc parties had a total of 469,000 members (1977: 365,000). At that time the GDR had about 16 million inhabitants, eight million of whom were employed. Compared to the West German parties, these numbers are very high: The largest West German party, the SPD, had its peak in 1977 with one million members and 60 million German citizens.

Anyone who became a member of a bloc party showed a certain willingness to adapt to the regime without becoming a member of the SED. Since the block parties were assigned a certain number of positions in state and society, membership of the block party could be positive for one's own career. In individual cases, the route through the block party was perhaps even faster than through the SED, as the block parties had fewer members. Nevertheless, one was excluded from the real positions of power in the state if one was not a loyal SED member.

The last years of the GDR

In the late 1980s, shortly before the political change , the bloc parties began to distance themselves very carefully from the politics of the SED. As expressed Manfred Gerlach , chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, openly sympathetic to the Soviet state leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev .

During the turnaround in the GDR, the democratic bloc of parties and mass organizations disintegrated from late autumn 1989 onwards. CDU, DBD, LDPD and NDPD increasingly moved away from SED policy. In 1990 the former block parties joined West German parties. So the LDPD and NDPD united with the FDP and the DBD and East CDU with the West CDU .

Block party systems in other Eastern Bloc countries

In the Soviet Union itself, but also in a number of its satellites , there was only one party, the Communist. In addition to the GDR, block party systems also knew Bulgaria, the People's Republic of Poland and Czechoslovakia .

Bulgaria

In the People's Republic of Bulgaria (also in Tsarism from 1944), in addition to the Bulgarian Communist Party (1978: 817,000 members), there was a Bulgarian Peasant People's League (120,000 members), Sweno (until 1949) and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Labor Party (until 1948). These were united in the Fatherland Front .

Poland

In Poland, the leading (communist) party was the Polish United Workers 'Party (PZPR), which emerged in 1948 from the “forced unification” of the Communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR) and the Social Democratic Polish Socialist Party (PPS). The PPR tried to establish a uniform electoral list with common candidates through the system of an electoral bloc under the name of the Patriotic Movement of National Revival . All block parties were obliged to participate.

In addition to the PPR and PPS, these were the Polish People's Party (PSL), a large, centrist people's and peasants' party, the SP, a craftsmen's party completely dependent on the PPR, the SL, which was also dependent on the PPR, and the SD, another small one liberal democratic party.

After 1948, the formerly bourgeois parties were merged into two bloc parties. These were the ZSL ( United Peasant Party ) and the SD ( Democratic Alliance ). In addition, small Catholic groups were also represented in parliament, the Unia Chrześcijańsko-Społeczna (UChS, Christian-Social Union ), the PAX association and the Polish Catholic-Social Association (PZKS). However, the PVAP as such always had absolute majorities in parliament, unlike the SED in the GDR.

In 1976 and 1977, respectively, the PZPR had 2.45 million, the ZSL 420,000 (mostly farmers) and the SD 90,000 (more urban middle class) members.

In 1989 the ZSL broke out of subordination to the PZPR, renamed itself back to PSL and carried the Mazowiecki government into office. The SD and Christian groups initially played no role in the democratic elections after 1989, but later reorganized themselves under different names such as the League of Polish Families .

Romania

In the Socialist Republic of Romania (also in the Kingdom from 1944) there was, in addition to the Romanian Communist Party, the Romanian Social Democratic Party (until 1948), the Ploughers' Front (until 1953), the General Union of Romanian Trade Unions, the Hungarian People's Union, and the Jewish Democratic Party Committee, the National People's Party and the National Liberal Party - Tătărescu and the National Peasant Party - Anton Alexandrescu . These were united in the National Democratic Front or, since 1968, the Front of Socialist Unity and Democracy.

Czechoslovakia

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic also had block parties. In the Czech republic, the communists organized themselves in the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (1976: 1.3 million members) and in Slovakia in the Communist Party of Slovakia . Other parties in the National Front were the Czechoslovak People's Party (for Christian-social citizens) and the Czechoslovak Socialist Party (urban middle class). In Slovakia there was the Slovak Renewal Party and the Slovak Freedom Party .

Hungary

In the People's Republic of Hungary , the parliamentary elections in Hungary in 1949 were carried out with a unified list in which the Communist Party of the Hungarian Working People also participated, the FKgP , NPP , FMDP and MRP , which had been transformed into block parties . After that, Hungary was transformed into a one-party state . In 1956, Imre Nagy allowed other parties in his short term in office, but they are not to be regarded as bloc parties. Before and after, the communist regime banned all parties except the communist (the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party).

More socialist states

People's Republic of China

In the People's Republic of China, there are eight "democratic parties" in addition to the ruling Communist Party of China :

All of the eight bloc parties have fewer than 150,000 members each, while the Chinese Communist Party has around 90 million. These are united in the United Front and the Political Consultative Conference of the Chinese People . Other parties exist only underground.

Vietnam

In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , the Vietnamese Communist Party allowed two further parties, the Democratic Party of June 1944 (for merchants) and the Socialist Party (especially " intelligentsia ") of July 1946. They recognized the communists' claim to leadership and worked in the Patriotic front with. Both broke up in 1988.

North Korea

In North Korea , in addition to the ruling Labor Party of Korea, there is also the Korean Social Democratic Party and the Chondoist Ch'ŏngu Party as well as the Dongro People's Party (1948 to 1962), the People's Republic Party (1948), the Buddhist Alliance (1948 to 1972), the Gonmin Volksbund (1962), the Democratic Independent Party (1962) and other parties (1948–1972). These are united in the Democratic Front for the unification of the fatherland .

Syria

Syria is ruled by the Ba'ath Party , which combines Arab nationalism with a socialist ideology. The National Progressive Front brings together a total of ten parties, including the Syrian Communist Party , the Nassist Arab Socialist Union and the nationalist Syrian Social Nationalist Party, as well as some splinter parties formed by former Baathists.

Iraq

In Baathist Iraq several parties were in the National Progressive Front summarized, the members were: the Iraqi Baath Party , the Iraqi Communist Party , the Democratic Party of Kurdistan , the Kurdistan Revolutionary Party , the Movement of Progressive Kurds , the Movement of Independent Democrats and the movement progressive nationalists .

Yugoslavia

In the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , in addition to the Union of Communists of Yugoslavia, there was also the Anti-Fascist Women's Front of Yugoslavia, the Croatian Peasant Party, the Independent Democratic Party, the Agricultural Workers' Party, the National Peasant Party, the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia, the Social Democratic Party of Yugoslavia, the United Alliance the Anti-Fascist Youth of Yugoslavia, the United Union of Workers and Workers and the Yugoslav Republican Democratic Party. They were all united in the Popular Front.

Albania

In Albania , in addition to the Labor Party of Albania, there was also the Union of Albanian Women, the Union of Albanian Youth, the United Union of Albanian Trade Association (the Union of Industrial Workers, the Union of Skilled Workers and the Peasants Union) and the Albanian Union of the Writers and artists. They were all united in the Democratic Front.

South Yemen

In South Yemen there was the United Political National Front Organization, which included the National Liberation Front (NLF), the Ba'athist Popular Front Party, which was united with the Syrian Ba'ath Party, the People's Democratic Union Party and the Yemeni People's Unity Party from Northern Yemen. The Yemeni People's Unity Party itself arose out of the Yemeni Revolutionary Democratic Party, the North Yemeni Popular Front Party, the Yemeni Revolutionary Resistance Organization, the People's Democratic Union and the Labor Party.

In 1978 the NLF merged with the United National Political Front Organization to form the Yemeni Socialist Party .

Cambodia

In the Democratic Kampuchea , the National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK) took part in the 1976 parliamentary elections, to which, in addition to the Communist Party of Cambodia , the pro- Sihanouk Khmer Rumdos and the pro-North Vietnamese Khmer Issarak belonged.

See also

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Gräfe: The parties and mass organizations of the GDR compared to the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. In: Gerd-Rüdiger Stephan, Andreas Herbst , Christine Krauss, Daniel Küchenmeister, Detlef Nakath (eds.): The parties and organizations of the GDR. A manual. Dietz, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-320-01988-0 , pp. 159-180.
  • Andreas Herbst, Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 1: Lexicon of Organizations and Institutions (A – L). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16348-9 , pp. 123-129 (Art. Block Policy ).
  • Heinz Hofmann: multi-party system without opposition. The non-communist parties in the GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Lang, Bern / Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-261-02060-1 .
  • Eckhard Jesse : The "party system" of the GDR. In: Oskar Niedermayer (Ed.): Handbook of political party research. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 3-531-17698-6 , pp. 711-737.
  • Peter Joachim Lapp : The "friendly parties" of the SED. GDR block parties today. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-8046-8699-0 .
  • Kurt Schneider, Detlef Nakath: Democratic bloc, national front and the role and function of the bloc parties. In: Gerd-Rüdiger Stephan, Andreas Herbst, Christine Krauss, Daniel Küchenmeister, Detlef Nakath (eds.): The parties and organizations of the GDR. A manual. Dietz, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-320-01988-0 , pp. 78-102.
  • Dietrich Staritz : On the emergence of the party system in the GDR. In the S. (Ed.): The party system of the Federal Republic. History - origin - development. 2nd Edition. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1980, ISBN 3-8100-0323-9 , pp. 90-108.
  • Siegfried Suckut : Block parties and block politics in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1990. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 3-96023-196-2 .
  • Siegfried Suckut: bloc politics. In: Rainer Eppelmann , Horst Möller , Günter Nooke , Dorothee Wilms (Ed.): Lexicon of GDR Socialism. The state and social system of the German Democratic Republic (=  studies on politics. Vol. 29). Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-506-79329-2 , pp. 125-131.
  • Hermann Weber : Formation and development of the party system of the SBZ / GDR. In: From Politics and Contemporary History . 46th year, issue 16/17, 1996, pp. 3-11.
  • Christoph Wunnicke: The block parties of the GDR. Continuities and Transformation 1945–1990 (=  series of publications by the Berlin State Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR. Vol. 34). LStU Berlin, Berlin 2014, pp. 66–95 ( PDF; 434 kB ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Schroeder: The SED state. Party, State and Society 1949–1990. 2nd Edition. Propylaen, Munich 2000 (1998), p. 47.
  2. ↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk : The 101 most important questions - GDR. CH Beck, Munich 2009, p. 17.
  3. ↑ See for example Christian v. Ditfurth : recorders. How the CDU is suppressing its real socialist past. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 1991.
  4. ^ A b Klaus Schroeder: The SED state. Party, State and Society 1949–1990. 2nd Edition. Propylaen, Munich 2000 (1998), p. 41.
  5. ^ Hermann Weber: The GDR 1945–1990 (=  Oldenbourg floor plan of history . Vol. 20). 5th edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2012 (1988), p. 24.
  6. ↑ Klaus Schroeder: The SED state. Party, State and Society 1949–1990. 2nd Edition. Propylaen, Munich 2000 (1998), pp. 41-42.
  7. ↑ Klaus Schroeder: The SED state. Party, State and Society 1949–1990. 2nd Edition. Propylaen, Munich 2000 (1998), pp. 42-43.
  8. ^ A b Hermann Weber: The GDR 1945–1990 (=  Oldenbourg floor plan of history. Vol. 20). 5th edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2012 (1988), p. 35.
  9. ^ Andreas Herbst, Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Vol. 1. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1994, p. 125.
  10. ^ Andreas Herbst, Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Vol. 1. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1994, p. 127.
  11. ↑ Robert Furtak: The political systems of the socialist states. Dtv, Munich 1979, pp. 43-44.
  12. ↑ Robert Furtak: The political systems of the socialist states. Dtv, Munich 1979, pp. 151-152.
  13. ↑ Robert Furtak: The political systems of the socialist states. Dtv, Munich 1979, p. 211 f.
  14. ↑ Robert Furtak: The political systems of the socialist states. Dtv, Munich 1979, p. 234 f.
  15. ↑ Ismael, Tareq Y., Jacqueline S. Ismael, and Kamel Abu Jaber. Politics and Government in the Middle East and North Africa . Miami: Florida International University Press, 1991. p. 441
  16. ↑ Halliday, Fred. Revolution and Foreign Policy: The Case of South Yemen, 1967-1987 . Cambridge Middle East library, 21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 121
  17. ↑ Stephen J. Morris, Why Vietnam invaded Cambodia: political culture and the causes of war , p. 54