League of Free Democrats

This article is about the liberal electoral alliance in the GDR. For the Hungarian party of the same name, see Bund Free Democrats (Hungary) .

The Alliance of Free Democrats ( BFD ) was an electoral alliance of liberal parties in the GDR , which on 12 February 1990 ahead of the first free parliamentary election between the former block party Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the in Wendezeit founded parties German Forum Party ( DFP) and FDP of the GDR was closed.

The BFD, like the Alliance for Germany (AFD), hoped for better chances in the upcoming Volkskammer election by bundling the bourgeois-liberal forces. In contrast to the AFD, the parties united in the BFD did not run for election individually, but with a joint list. During the election campaign, the BFD was supported by the West German FDP .

On election day (March 18, 1990) the BFD achieved a result of 5.3% and received a total of 21 parliamentary seats. The BFD fared best with 10.0% in the Halle district , the home of the incumbent West German Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher . In the People's Chamber, the members of the BFD together with the two representatives of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) formed the Liberals faction and took part in the last GDR government under Lothar de Maizière . With Manfred Preiss and Axel Viehweger , the BFD provided two ministers who remained in office even after the coalition was terminated by the BFD on July 24, 1990.

On March 27, 1990, the former bloc parties LDP and NDPD left their previous names behind and merged to form the Bund Free Democrats party ; the DFP and the FDP of the GDR initially continued to exist as independent parties. On August 11, 1990, at the unification party conference in Hanover , the GDR's BFD, DFP and FDP merged with the West Liberals to form the all-German FDP .

After German reunification , the East Liberals were represented in the federal government by Rainer Ortleb .

See also

• List of members of the People's Chamber of the GDR (10th electoral period)
• Government de Maizière

literature

• Reiner Marcowitz: The difficult path to unity. The Union of German Liberals 1989/90. Wilhelm Külz Foundation, Dresden 2002, ISBN 3-9808018-0-2 .
• Michael Walter: "It is spring and we are (so) free". LDP (D), NDPD, FDP and FDP of the GDR 1989/90 (=  spectrum political science. Vol. 4). Ergon, Würzburg 1998, ISBN 3-932004-91-4 .

Web links

• Federation of Free Democrats (BFD) . In: The chronicle of the turning point. Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg
• Establishment of the electoral alliance Bund Freier Democrats Liberal deadline for the archive of liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
• Twenty years ago the LDPD and NDPD formed the "Bund Freier Demokrats" party. Liberal deadline for the archive of liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
• Merger to form the all-German FDP Liberal deadline of the archive of liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom

Individual evidence

1. ^ Official final result of the elections for the 10th People's Chamber on March 18, 1990 . In: Wahlrecht.de . Retrieved May 8, 2016.