Liberal Democratic Party of Germany

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Liberal Democratic Party of Germany
Party flag of the LDPD
Party leader Waldemar Koch (1945)
Wilhelm Külz (1945–1948)
Arthur Lieutenant (1948)
Karl Hamann (1948–1952)
Hermann Kastner (1949–1950)
Hans Loch (1951–1960)
Max Suhrbier (1960–1967)
Manfred Gerlach (1967–1967) 1990)
Rainer Ortleb (1990)
Secretary General Günter Stempel (1948–1950)
Herbert Täschner (1950–1954)
Manfred Gerlach (1954–1967)
founding July 5, 1945
fusion August 11, 1990
(incorporated in: FDP )
Headquarters Berlin
Alignment Liberalism
Socialist Humanism
Colours) yellow
Minimum age 18 years

The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (short name: LDP or LDPD ) was an originally liberal party founded in July 1945 in the Soviet zone of occupation and the later GDR , which among other things placed members of parliament and ministers in the state organs . It was until the early 1950s into line and one of the so-called block parties in the National Front included. From then on, the LDPD accepted and supported the SED's claim to leadership . In the course of the political change in the GDR , it emancipated itself again and - after the interim merger with the NDPD to form the Bund Free Democrats - finally in August 1990 in the since then all-German FDP .

founding

Memorial plaque, Bayerische Strasse 5, Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Order No. 2 of the Supreme Chief of the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) of the Soviet Zone of Occupation of June 10, 1945 ordered:

"To allow the establishment and activity of all anti-fascist parties in the area of ​​the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, which aim to finally eradicate the remains of fascism and to consolidate the democratic foundations and civil liberties in Germany, and in this direction initiative and free activity of the broad masses of the population. "

The decision to allow political parties in their zone of occupation had been taken by Stalin in mid-May 1945 in order to be able to channel existing reorganization tendencies, but above all to signal to the Western Allies willingness to negotiate on an undivided Germany in the hope that it would be neutral.

After the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) published its call for a foundation only 24 hours after the issuing of Order No. 2 , the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was founded on June 15 and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) on June 26. .

Wilhelm Külz, LDP chairman since November 1945

At the same time as the founders of the CDU, on the initiative of Wilhelm Külz , Eugen Schiffer and his son-in-law Waldemar Koch , a group of seven former DDP members met to found a new " German Democratic Party ". The program and composition of the party leadership were quickly established, but first it was explored whether the CDU was ready to form a joint liberal party.

After this attempt failed due to differing views on the separation of politics and religion, the new party called the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDP) went public on July 5th with its founding appeal. She turned to former members of the DDP , the DVP and the moderate DNVP wing in the Weimar Republic . In contrast to the CDU, she spoke out firmly in favor of the preservation of private property and against nationalization of mineral resources and state control of mining and the most important branches of industry.

On July 10th, the LDP received its license from the SMAD, on condition that it join the " bloc of anti-fascist democratic parties ". As early as November, the first chairman, Waldemar Koch, had to resign under pressure from SMAD, and Wilhelm Külz became his successor with a policy of pro-Soviet policy. In December 1945 the LDP in the Soviet Zone had around 80,000 members.

In the last free state elections in 1946 , the LDP was the second strongest party behind the SED (to which the SPD and KPD had since been forcibly unified) with almost 25 percent of the vote, ahead of the CDU . The LDP was strongest in Saxony-Anhalt , where it received 29.9% of the vote.

All-German party attempt

In July 1946, the LDP and the liberal parties of the western zones founded an all-German coordination committee. This met in November 1946 in Coburg to prepare the establishment of a cross-zonal all-German liberal party.

The founding of the Democratic Party of Germany (DPD) took place on March 17, 1947 at a conference in Rothenburg ob der Tauber , attended by liberal politicians from all four zones of occupation. Wilhelm Külz became chairman together with Theodor Heuss ( Democratic People's Party ), Arthur Lieutenant one of two managing directors. At a meeting of the board of directors, Külz was commissioned to work out the draft of a German constitution.

After three quarters of a year, the attempt by a cross-zonal party to allow the LDP to participate in the SED-dominated 1st German People's Congress for Unity and Just Peace failed . Külz did not want to leave the field alone at the congress. Instead, he wanted to set his own accents as a representative of the second largest party in the Soviet occupation zone. The LDP main committee on January 6, 1948 in Weimar discussed this controversially, but the majority backed its chairman. On February 10, 1948, following the split in Berlin, the Berlin regional association of the LDP was split up. So the members in the western sectors of Berlin joined the newly founded West German FDP on January 12, 1949.

Külz was discharged from the DPD board meeting on January 18, 1948 in Frankfurt am Main . Heuss accused the LDP there of having opted for “the Russian view of the unity of Germany ” by participating in the People's Congress . The board passed a press release, which suggested the LDP to draw personal conclusions. LDP managing director Arthur Lieutenant stated that under these circumstances it was "impossible to continue working [...] initially" for the Eastern Liberals. That was the de facto end of the all-German organization of the Liberals. There was no formal dissolution of DPD. After Külz's death in April 1948 there was no by-election of a chairman.

Opposition and purges

The Liberal Democrats were seen as the legal party that most clearly opposed the SED's claim to leadership and opposed it. After the death of the first party chairman Wilhelm Külz in April 1948, the LDP became more critical of the SMAD and SED, also because of the increasing Stalinization . Among other things, with the aim of weakening the LDP, the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD), loyal to the SED, was founded, which was supposed to address similar social classes: the middle class, craftsmen, small traders. At the end of 1948, at the height of its resistance to the seizure of power by the SED, the LDP had more than 200,000 members.

The LDP was particularly popular with young people who rejected communism: 23 percent of its members were younger than 25 years. Many of them were arrested by the NKVD , sent to prison or to Soviet prison camps. The most prominent cases were the Leipzig student council chairman Wolfgang Natonek (1919-1994), who was arrested in November 1948 and sentenced to 25 years in a labor camp (he was released in 1956 and moved to the West), as well as Arno Esch , the youth officer in the Mecklenburg LDP regional association (* 1928), who was arrested in October 1949 and shot in Moscow in 1951 . The young liberal democrats of this phase included Karl-Hermann Flach (1929–1973), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (1927–2016), Burkhard Hirsch (1930–2020) and Wolfgang Mischnick (1921–2002): They fled to West Germany until the beginning of the 1950s and later became important FDP politicians.

Günter Stempel, 1946

With the help of dissolution threats and arrests, the LDP's critical stance was gradually broken. In addition, "purges" were carried out in the LDP and CDU block parties at the beginning of the 1950s. On August 8, 1950, LDP General Secretary Günter Stempel was officially arrested "for rejecting the GDR's electoral law" and sentenced to 25 years of forced labor. On December 8, 1950, the Supreme Court of the GDR sentenced the former Thuringian Finance Minister Leonhard Moog (LDP), together with his employees, to long prison terms “for sabotage” in their absence. The deputy GDR Prime Minister and LDP co-chairman Hermann Kastner was dismissed from his offices in 1950 in the course of internal disputes at the instigation of Hans Loch and Johannes Dieckmann on charges of extravagance and corruption and expelled from the party. In his place, Loch became co-chairman of the party. The allegations against Kastner turned out to be baseless and he was rehabilitated the following year.

In October 1951, the Liberal Democrats changed their abbreviation from LDP to LDPD in order to emphasize the part of the name “Germany”. This corresponded to the SED's wish at the time that the GDR should represent all of Germany. In December 1952, the LDPD co-chairman and Minister for Trade and Supply Karl Hamann was made the scapegoat for supply shortages and sentenced to ten years in prison (he was pardoned in 1956 and then fled to the Federal Republic). As a result of Hamann's disempowerment as co-chairman, Hans Loch, who was actually not particularly popular with the members, remained the only party chairman; he was very close to the SED and was sponsored by it.

Bloc party

From 1949 the LDP (D) was included as a so-called block party in uniform electoral lists of the National Front under the leadership of the SED. In all elections in the GDR, a predetermined number of LDPD members entered the People's Chamber via their common lists . Like the CDU, the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) and the Democratic Peasant Party of Germany (DBD), since the founding of the GDR on October 7, 1949, it no longer played an independent role as a formative political party and was thus only a "transmission belt" to bind certain social classes (in the case of the LDPD, the middle class) to the SED state.

The LDP (D) provided the first President of the People's Chamber , Johannes Dieckmann. With three ministers she entered the first government under Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl (SED): Hermann Kastner became Deputy Prime Minister, Karl Hamann Minister for Trade and Supply and Hans Loch Minister of Finance. Until the end of the GDR, the LDPD was represented in all governments, and from 1960 in the Council of State , where it had two deputy chairmen until 1969 and then one.

Many members joined the LDPD (as well as the other bloc parties) less out of conviction than out of a desire to avoid being forced to become a member of the SED.

Manfred Gerlach, General Secretary of the LDPD, awards medals for building the Wall (1961)

Manfred Gerlach was general secretary from 1954 and chairman of the LDPD from 1967. Even as an FDJ functionary, he followed a course of adjustment towards the SED, supported measures for harmonization. Later he held talks with the FDP politicians on the side of the LDPD. The LDPD was the only bloc party allowed by the Soviet occupying power to have contact with a West German party. In addition, the LDPD maintained friendly relations with the Polish Stronnictwo Demokratyczne (Democratic Party) and the Československá strana socialistická (Czechoslovak Socialist Party), which each played a role as a bloc party for freelancers, craftsmen and intellectuals like the Liberal Democrats in the GDR.

Dissolution of the SED and merger with the FDP

When the end of the de facto SED autocracy became foreseeable in the fall of 1989 through refugee movements and mass demonstrations and numerous new independent groups and parties emerged, the LDPD, which had been obedient until then, gradually broke away from the SED. The Liberal Democrats were the first party to criticize the policies of the SED in an unusually open form for the bloc parties. On September 17, 1989, chairman Manfred Gerlach publicly distanced himself from the politics of the SED. On December 4, 1989, the LDPD left the National Front with the CDU, which was also "turned around" . On December 6, 1989, Manfred Gerlach succeeded Egon Krenz as Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR and thus head of state.

After the peaceful revolution in autumn 1989, the LDPD saw itself as the new liberal force in the country. However, self-critical tones about personal responsibility in the GDR's injustice system were hardly to be heard. At the party conference on February 10, 1990 in Dresden, the party decided to delete the second "D" from the name and to use the abbreviation LDP from its early days again. At the same congress, Rainer Ortleb was elected the last chairman of the party (after reunification he was Federal Minister for Special Tasks from 1990 to 1991 and Federal Minister for Education and Science from 1991 to 1994). There were now official contacts with the West German FDP

In the run-up to the first free parliamentary elections in 1990 , the LDP and the new liberal parties ( German Forum Party and FDP of the GDR ) founded the Bund Free Democrats (BFD) election alliance on February 12, 1990 . On election day (March 18, 1990), however, the BFD achieved only 5.3 percent, despite German help, and thus had 21 members in the People's Chamber.

On August 11, 1990 in Hanover the West German FDP merged with the Bund Free Democrats (BFD), which consisted of the LDP, NDPD , FDP of the GDR and the German Forum Party, to form the all-German FDP. Because of the significantly higher level of party-political organization of the GDR population, the number of members rose briefly to almost three times, but quickly returned to normal as a result of the massive resignations of former block party members. In the following years there were considerable disputes within the FDP about how to deal with the former block party.

The ability of LDP was after the union in a comparison with the THA regulated.

Newspapers

The central organ of the LDPD was the daily newspaper Der Morgen . It was discontinued in 1991 after demand fell sharply after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of the four LDPD regional newspapers, only the Thüringische Landeszeitung “survived” the turning point. The Sächsische Tageblatt merged with the Union (CDU) and the Sächsische Neuesten Nachrichten (NDPD) to form the Dresdner Neuesten Nachrichten ; the Norddeutsche Zeitung (Mecklenburg) and the Liberal-Demokratische Zeitung (Saxony-Anhalt) were completely discontinued.

archive

The central party archive of the LDPD, founded in 1960 and located in Berlin-Mitte, was handed over to the FDP and in spring 1991 transferred to the archive of liberalism of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Gummersbach . A depositary agreement was signed in August 1996 between the Foundation Archive of Parties and Mass Organizations of the GDR (SAPMO) in the Federal Archives and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for the documents, which are over 600 meters in circumference . The files are freely usable in accordance with the personal blocking periods in accordance with the Federal Archives Act.

Party congresses

No. Period place Summary
01st party congress 6-8 July 1946 Erfurt Election of Wilhelm Külz (a) as chairman. Adoption of the "Resolution of the LDP Party Congress".
02nd party congress 4th-7th July 1947 Eisenach Election of Wilhelm Külz as chairman. Adoption of various programmatic resolutions.
03rd party congress 25.-28. February 1949 Eisenach Election of Karl Hamann (b) and Hermann Kastner (c) as chairmen with equal rights. Adoption of the party program of the LDP ("Eisenacher Program").
04th party congress June 30th – 2nd July 1951 Eisenach Election of Karl Hamann (d) and Hans Loch as chairmen with equal rights. Adoption of the “Resolution on the Implementation of the Tasks of the LDP” and the “Manifesto to the Liberal People of our German Fatherland”.
05th party congress 28–31 May 1953 Dresden Election of Hans Loch as chairman. Adoption of the "Political Resolution of the 5th Party Congress of the LDPD".
06th party congress 5th-7th July 1955 Weimar * Election of Hans Loch as chairman. Adoption of the "Document of National Responsibility of the 6th Party Congress of the LDPD".
07th party congress 5th-8th July 1957 Weimar * Election of Hans Loch as chairman. Adoption of the "Resolution of the 7th Party Congress of the LDPD".
08th party congress 5th-8th July 1960 Weimar * Election of Hans Loch (e) as chairman. Adoption of the “Document of the 8th Party Congress of the LDPD”.
09th party congress (noun) 15-17 February 1963 Weimar * Adoption of the “Working Resolution of the 9th Party Congress of the LDPD”.
10th party congress (g) 27.-30. November 1967 Weimar * Adoption of the “Declaration of the 10th Party Congress of the LDPD - Our Will and Our Way”.
11th party congress 16. – 19. February 1972 Weimar * Adoption of the "Resolution of the 11th LDPD Party Congress".
12th party congress 2-4 March 1977 Weimar * Adoption of the "Declaration of Principles of the 12th Party Congress of the LDPD - The shared responsibility of the Liberal Democrats in the developed socialist society".
13th party congress 5th-7th April 1982 Weimar * Adoption of the "Declaration of intent of the 13th party congress of the LDPD - Our word and our deed for peace".
14th party congress 9-11 April 1987 Weimar * Adoption of the "declaration of intent of the 14th party congress of the LDPD - peace call from Weimar".
Special party conference 9-10 February 1990 Dresden Election of Rainer Ortleb as chairman. Decision to return to the abbreviation LDP, which was officially used until October 1951. Adoption of the "LDP election program for the 1990 Volkskammer election".
* 0The party congresses from 1955 to 1987 took place in the Weimarhalle .
(a)After Waldemar Koch resigned, Wilhelm Külz had already been elected chairman at the meeting of the central board on November 29, 1945.
(b)Karl Hamann had already been elected chairman at the meeting of the central board on October 30, 1948 after the resignation of Arthur Lieutenant , who had taken over the provisional management of the party business following the death of Külz in April 1948.
(c)Hermann Kastner was removed from office at the meeting of the leadership committee on July 20, 1950 and expelled from the party. The co-chairmanship remained vacant until the 4th party congress in June 1951.
(d)Karl Hamann was removed from office at the Political Committee meeting on December 14, 1952 and expelled from the party. The co-chair was not reoccupied.
(e)Hans Loch died immediately after the 8th party congress. Thereupon Max Suhrbier was entrusted at the meeting of the Political Affairs Committee on July 18 with the provisional management of the party business and finally elected chairman at the meeting of the central executive committee on November 21, 1960.
(f)Since 1963, the election of the executive board no longer took place at the party congresses, but in the context of the constituent meetings of the central board. As a result, Suhrbier was re-elected on February 17, 1963.
(G)In 1967 Suhrbier decided not to run again. As a result, Manfred Gerlach was elected chairman on November 30, 1967 and confirmed in office on February 19, 1972, March 4, 1977, April 7, 1982 and April 11, 1987, respectively. In 1990 he decided not to run again.

Personal details

Party leader

General Secretaries

Chairwoman of the regional associations (1945–1952)

Berlin
Martin Stritte (1945–1946)
Fritz Hausberg (1946)
Carl-Hubert Schwennicke (1946–1948)
Franz Gensecke (1948–1949)
Reinhold Schwarz (1949–1952)
Brandenburg
Albert Grundei (1945–1946)
Wilhelm Falk (1946–1947)
Walter Kunze (1947–1948)
Ingo von Koerber (1948–1951)
Erwin Steffen (1951–1952)
Mecklenburg
Ernst Harzmann (1946–1947)
Max Suhrbier (1947–1952)
Saxony
Hermann Kastner (1945–1947)
Arthur Bretschneider (1947–1949)
Walter Thürmer (1949–1951)
Herbert Wetzstein (1951)
Artur Schlesinger (1951–1952)
Saxony-Anhalt
Carl Delius (1946)
Erich Damerow (1946–1950)
Otto Kamps (1950)
Ernst Lorenz (1950–1952)
Thuringia
Leonhard Moog (1945–1949)
Hans Loch (1949–1951)
Hans Meier (1951–1952)

Chair of the District Associations (1952–1990)

Berlin
Harri Leupold (1953-1959)
Erich Rost (1959–1961)
Harald Werthmann (1961–1984)
Fritz Kausch (1984–1988)
Klaus-Peter Weichenhain (1988–1990)
cottbus
Martin Kielblock (1952–1953)
Erich Winkler (1953)
Heinrich Schaub (1953–1957)
Hans-Joachim Heusinger (1957–1959)
Karl-Heinz Krug (1959–1971)
Peter Moreth (1971-1983)
Johannes Kney (1983–1990)
Dresden
Artur Schlesinger (1952–1953)
Günther Wehnert (1954–1958)
Helmuth Speer (1958–1959)
Johannes Türschmann (1959–1964)
Werner Grohs (1964–1972)
Joachim von Jagow (1973–1989)
Erfurt
Paul-Erich Blank (1952–1953)
Gerhard Kalmring (1953–1959)
Reinhold Heinicke (1959–1989)
Frankfurt (Oder)
Ingo von Koerber (1952–1953)
Alfred Zeidler (1954–1959)
Günther Steinhöfel (1959–1989)
Peter Kaul (1989–1990)
Gera
Emil Domno (1952–1953)
Karl Weinert (1953–1954)
Werner Schmidt (1954–1959)
Hans Carl Kreissig (1959–1981)
Werner Felgentrebe (1981–1986)
Raimund Kolbe (1986-1989)
Hall
Gertrud Sasse (1952–1961)
Herbert Ott (1961–1966)
Kurt Anclam (1966–1984)
Ulrich Stettler (1984–1990)
Karl Marx City
Helmut Müller (1952-1959)
Rolf Unger (1959–1985)
Christian Renatus (1985–1988)
Dietmar Schicke (1988–1990)
Leipzig
Manfred Gerlach (1952–1954)
Günter Schneider (1954–1962)
Joachim Seeländer (1962–1969)
Manfred Eißner (1969–1976)
Brigitte Tilsner (1976–1979)
Manfred Brendel (1979–1989)
Wolfgang Görne (1989–1990)
Magdeburg
Ernst Lorenz (1952–1955)
Erich Rost (1955–1960)
Helmut Kuhny (1960–1983)
Peter Moreth (1983-1989)
Bernd Futterlieb (1989–1990)
Neubrandenburg
Herbert Ott (1952-1959)
Manfred Eißner (1959–1969)
Horst Raedsch (1969–1989)
Karl-Heinz Zöllner (1989–1990)
Potsdam
Erwin Steffen (1952–1954)
Günter Liebig (1954-1959)
Hans-Georg Lehmann (1959–1989)
Rostock
Harry John (1952-1953)
Klaus-Jürgen Ebelt (1953–1963)
Erich Uschner (1963–1982)
Hans-Dieter Raspe (1982–1984)
Gunter Krüger (1984–1990)
Frank Richter (1990)
Schwerin
Max Suhrbier (1952-1958)
Gerhard Roever (1959–1961)
Bruno Krüger (1961–1983)
Manfred Gritzko (1983–1989)
Suhl
Fritz Wolff (1952–1956)
Werner Grohs (1958–1959)
Kurt Rauh (1959–1970)
Johannes Türschmann (1970–1975)
Klaus-Peter Weichenhain (1975–1981)
Peter Geier (1981-1989)

Chairwoman of the regional associations (1990)

Brandenburg
Johannes Kney
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Walter Goldbeck
Saxony
Dietmar Schicke
Saxony-Anhalt
Gerd Brunner
Thuringia
Wolfgang Pape

See also

literature

Marxist-Lenist historiography

  • Rudolf Agsten , Manfred Bogisch : bourgeoisie at the turning point. The development of the anti-fascist-democratic and anti-imperialist attitude among the members of the LDPD in 1945/1946. Der Morgen, Berlin 1970, DNB 454543212 .
  • Rudolf Agsten, Manfred Bogisch: LDPD on the way to the GDR. On the history of the LDPD in the years 1946–1949. 2nd Edition. Der Morgen, Berlin 1977, DNB 201406837 .
  • Rudolf Agsten, Manfred Bogisch, Wilhelm Orth: LDPD 1945 to 1961 in a firm alliance with the working class and its party. Edited by the secretariat of the central board of the LDPD. 2nd Edition. Der Morgen, Berlin 1987, DNB 20621541X .

Federal Republican Historiography

  • Bernard Bode: Liberal Democrats and the “German Question”. On the political change of a party in the Soviet occupation zone and in the GDR between 1945 and 1961 (=  Europäische Hochschulschriften. Vol. 733). Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-631-31291-1 .
  • Manfred Bogisch : “We shouldn't be afraid to go public with our demands.” The LDPD around June 17, 1953 (= hefte zur ddr-geschichte , issue 104), Berlin 2006.
  • Manfred Bogisch: The LDPD and the end of the GDR. Self-liberation, illusions, appropriation. Dietz, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-320-02175-3 .
  • Horst Dähn: Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDP). In: Martin Broszat , Hermann Weber : SBZ manual. State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949. Oldenbourg, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-486-55261-9 , pp. 544-573.
  • Jürgen Frölich : The LDPD holdings in the “Archive of German Liberalism”. In: Communications from Section 6 in the Association of German Archivists. Vol. 19, 1993, pp. 103-107 ( https://www.freiheit.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/froelich_ldpd_1993.pdf PDF; 608 kB).
  • Jürgen Frölich: The LDPD 1945–1990. Liberal Democrats in the GDR between a hopeful beginning, a long agony and a surprising turnaround. In: Walter Scheel , Otto Graf Lambsdorff (ed.): Freedom in Responsibility - German Liberalism since 1945. History, people, perspectives. Bleicher, Gerlingen 1998, ISBN 3-88350-047-X , pp. 125-140.
  • Jürgen Frölich: Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. 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. 311-342.
  • Karl-Heinz Grundmann (ed.): Between willingness to understand, adjustment and resistance: The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany in Berlin and the Soviet occupation zone 1945–1949. FDP parliamentary group, Bonn 1978.
  • Andreas Herbst , Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Vol. 1: Lexicon of Organizations and Institutions (A – L) (=  rororo-Handbuch. Vol. 6348). Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16348-9 (Art. Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ).
  • Ekkehart Krippendorff : The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany in the Soviet occupation zone 1945/48. Origin, structure, politics (=  contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Vol. 21). Droste, Düsseldorf 1961, DNB 452595177 .
  • Christian Kurzweg: The displaced persons policy of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. The example of Saxony 1945-1950 (=  studies on contemporary history. Vol. 41). Kovač, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8300-1737-5 .
  • Peter Joachim Lapp : Sale. The end of the bloc parties. Edition Ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-58-5 .
  • Jürgen Louis: The Liberal Democratic Party in Thuringia 1945–1952 . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-412-09696-2 .
  • Reiner Marcowitz : The difficult path to unity. The Union of German Liberals 1989/90. Wilhelm Külz Foundation, Dresden 2002, ISBN 3-9808018-0-2 .
  • Gerhard Papke : Role, Significance and Impact of the Block Parties - The LDPD. In: German Bundestag (Hrsg.): Materials of the Enquete Commission "Processing the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany". Vol. II / 4. Nomos, Baden-Baden, ISBN 3-7890-4034-7 , pp. 2399-2463.
  • Dieter Sandler: Central party archive of the LDPD, briefly presented. In: Communications from Section 6 in the Association of German Archivists. Vol. 16, 1990, pp. 55-57 ( https://www.freiheit.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/sandler_ldpd_1990.pdf PDF; 198 kB).
  • Hans-Volker Schwarz: The Berlin Liberals in the focus of the East-West conflict 1945-1956. From the regional association of the LDP Greater Berlin to the FDP Berlin (West) and LDP (D) Berlin (East) (=  publications on research on Europe and Germany. Vol. 13). Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-631-55831-7 .
  • Ines Soldwisch: "... to achieve something for the whole people and not just serve the goals of one party ...". History of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Mecklenburg 1946−1952. Lit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-8258-0629-4 .
  • Ulf Sommer: The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. A block party under the leadership of the SED (=  Agenda Geschichte. Vol. 10). Agenda, Münster 1996, ISBN 3-929440-88-1 .
  • Siegfried Suckut: The LDP (D) in the GDR. A sketch of contemporary history. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte , Vol. 46, No. 16/17, 1996, pp. 31–38.
  • Ronny Uhlemann: The development of the FDP in Thuringia after 1989/90. The LDPD's accession to the all-German FDP and membership development in the early 1990s. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 3-8364-7569-3 .
  • 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 .
  • Thomas Widera: The LDPD in the GDR as a block party of the SED - an outline of the problem. In: Ewald Grothe , Jürgen Frölich and Wolther von Kieseritzky (eds.): Liberalism research after 25 years. Balance sheet and perspectives , Baden-Baden 2016, pp. 97–120.
  • 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 ( berlin.de PDF; 434 kB).
  • Christoph Wunnicke: Personal continuity and elite change in the parties in Brandenburg - From the block parties to the CDU and FDP. In: Ehrhart Neubert , Mario Niemann , Christoph Wunnicke: Personnel continuity and elite change in the parties of Brandenburg. Expert opinion for the Enquete Commission "Working on the history and coping with the consequences of the SED dictatorship and the transition to a democratic constitutional state in the state of Brandenburg". Landtag Brandenburg, Potsdam 2011, pp. 66–176 ( landtag.brandenburg.de PDF; 1.2 MB).
  • Johannes Zeller: Pluralism fiction with non-political party existence. Three stages of the co-ordination of the LDP in the years 1948 to 1950, illustrated using the example of the Saxony-Anhalt state association (=  studies on contemporary history. Vol. 89). Kovač, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 3-8300-7017-9 .

Web links

Commons : Liberal Democratic Party of Germany  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Loch : Socialism - the humanity of the 20th century [1951]. In the S. From speeches and essays. Der Morgen, Berlin 1985, DNB 860645290 , p. 105.
  2. ↑ Order No. 2 of the Supreme Head of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany of June 10, 1945. In: 100 (0) key documents on German history in the 20th century . Retrieved October 20, 2017 .
  3. ^ Call of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany to the German people of July 5, 1945. (PDF; 1.0 MB) Retrieved on October 20, 2017 (digitized version of the Archives of Liberalism ).
  4. ^ A b Klaus Schroeder : The SED state. Party, State and Society 1949–1990 , 2nd edition, Propylaen: München 2000 (1998), p. 32.
  5. ^ Gerhard Keiderling: Sham pluralism and block parties. The KPD and the founding of the parties in Berlin 1945. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 45, No. 2, 1997, pp. 257-296, here p. 285 ( ifz-muenchen.de PDF; 7.3 MB).
  6. ^ Karl-Heinz Grundmann (ed.): Between willingness to understand, adjustment and resistance: The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany in Berlin and the Soviet zone of occupation 1945-1949. FDP parliamentary group, Bonn 1978, p. 99 ff., 105.
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Hoffmann: Attempt and failure of an all-German democratic party 1945-1948 , book publisher Der Morgen, Berlin 1965, p. 171 f.
  8. ^ Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom : February 10. - Liberal deadlines: split in the Berlin liberals ( Memento from May 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Grundmann, 1978, p. 103.
  10. ↑ Grundmann, 1978, p. 104.
  11. ↑ Grundmann, 1978, p. 110.
  12. ↑ Grundmann, 1978, p. 109.
  13. ^ Karl Wilhelm Fricke, Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (eds.): Opposition and resistance in the GDR. Political images of life. CH Beck, Munich 2002, entries Hermann Becker (editor: Jürgen Louis), pp. 38–42, here p. 39; Peter Moeller (editor: Katrin Passens), pp. 130–134, here p. 132.
  14. ↑ Ines Soldwisch: "... to achieve something for the whole people and not just serve the goals of one party ...". History of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Mecklenburg 1946–1952. Lit Verlag, Münster 2007, especially p. 239 ff.
  15. ^ Thomas Großbölting: SED dictatorship and society. Bourgeoisie, bourgeoisie and de-bourgeoisie in Magdeburg and Halle. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2001, p. 278.
  16. ^ Günther Heydemann: The internal politics of the GDR. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, pp. 11-12.
  17. ↑ Ines Soldwisch: "... to achieve something for the whole people and not just serve the goals of one party ...". History of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Mecklenburg 1946–1952. Lit Verlag, Münster 2007, pp. 231-235.
  18. ^ Jürgen Frölich: Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. 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, pp. 311–342, here p. 317.
  19. ↑ Klaus Schroeder: The SED state. Party, State and Society 1949–1990 , 2nd edition, Propylaen, Munich 2000 (1998), p. 33.
  20. ^ Bernard Bode: LDP (D) and national question before 1961 - a sketch. In: "Bourgeois" parties in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1994, pp. 175–181, here p. 180.
  21. ↑ Ulf Sommer: Under the hegemony of the SED. Not a normal party convention of the LDPD in May 1953. In Heiner Timmermann: Dictatorships in Europe in the 20th century - the case of the GDR. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, pp. 227-250, here p. 233.
  22. ↑ a b Ehrhart Neubert: History of the Opposition in the GDR 1949–1989. 2nd edition, Ch.links, Berlin 1998, p. 46.
  23. ^ Matthias Judt: GDR history in documents: resolutions, reports, internal materials and everyday testimonies. Ch. Links Verlag, 1997, Berlin, pp. 37-38.
  24. ↑ Roderich Kulbach, Helmut Weber: parties in the block system of the GDR. Function and structure of the LDPD and the NDPD. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1969, p. 22.
  25. ↑ Hans Michael Kloth: From "Zettelfalten" to free voting. The democratization of the GDR in 1989/90 and the "election question". Ch.links Verlag, Berlin 2000, p. 174.
  26. ↑ Miroslav Kunštát: German unity as a recognized necessity - the Czechoslovakian perspective. In: Michael Gehler, Maximilian Graf: Europe and German Unity. Observations, decisions and consequences. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, pp. 567–597, here p. 580.
  27. ^ Jürgen Dittberner: The FDP. History, people, organization, perspectives. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005, p. 79.
  28. ↑ See e.g. B. FDP: hostage of the new . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 1991 ( online - November 11, 1991 , "With the Liberals, old cadres from the former bloc parties are increasingly prevailing").
  29. ^ Party program of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. Decided on February 27, 1949 in Eisenach. (PDF; 2.7 MB) Retrieved January 8, 2019 (digitized version of the Archives of Liberalism ).
  30. ^ LDP election manifesto for the 1990 Volkskammer election. Adopted on February 10, 1990 in Dresden. (PDF; 2.6 MB) Retrieved January 8, 2019 (digitized version of the Archives of Liberalism).