State elections in the Soviet Zone in 1946

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Result of the
SBZ state elections
in October 19461950 →
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
47.5
24.6
24.5
2.9
0.4
Otherwise.

The state elections in the SBZ ( Soviet Occupation Zone ) on October 20, 1946 were the only state elections in the territory of the later GDR until 1990 that appeared to be free , general and secret - i.e. democratic.

In the elections, the SED , created in April 1946 through the forced unification of the SPD with the KPD , became the strongest party, although it was only enough to achieve an absolute majority in one country . The candidates were the SED, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU (D)) , which at that time primarily propagated a “Christian socialism” , the bourgeois-liberal Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDP (D)) and the SED-controlled association of mutuals Farmer Aid (VdgB). The results were on the part of the SED and the SovietOccupying power received with disappointment and made a decisive contribution to changing the electoral law in the Soviet occupation zone , afterwards only unit lists were drawn up. The regional elections in the GDR in 1950 were then carried out according to this electoral process.

The newly elected state parliaments replaced the appointed advisory assemblies (e.g. the Advisory Assembly of Brandenburg ).

On the same day, the only democratic elections in all of Berlin until 1990 took place. There the forced unification of the workers' parties had failed, and the SPD was able to replace the SED as the dominant party.

Framework conditions and implementation of elections

SED election advertising in Berlin
Election poster of the CDU

Even if these elections themselves seemed largely free, the framework conditions and the result were distorted. The communists enjoyed unilateral privileges. The KPD was the first to put its party newspaper on the market. It was lavishly supplied with paper, so that this election publication had a larger circulation and a larger format. The other parties were only given smaller amounts of paper and their papers were severely censored . The newspapers of the SPD, LPD and CDU came into circulation with 250,000 copies each, those of the KPD with 350,000 copies.

The most serious administrative intervention of the SMAD in favor of the SED consisted in the prohibition for the SPD to run independently after the compulsory union with the KPD for the SED . The simultaneous elections to the Berlin city council , where the SPD could also stand, showed “that the SED had absolutely no chance of attaining the desired hegemony in really free elections.” The CDU and LDP were able to stand, but their organizational basis was delayed Approval of local and district associations noticeably weakened. The head of the censorship and propaganda department of the SMAD, Sergei Ivanovich Tjulpanov , instructed the regional departments of the SMAD in a secret order not to "formally prohibit the establishment of bourgeois party groups". Instead, “various formal pretexts” should be found “in order to keep their number limited”. The CDU and LDP were only able to draw up lists of the previous municipal elections in the Soviet Zone in 1946 in 20% of the municipalities , while the SED was permitted across the board. The bourgeois parties were also clearly disadvantaged with regard to the allocation of paper and printing capacity.

The legal basis for the election was the “Election regulations for the state and district elections in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany” of September 11, 1946 issued by the occupying power.

The implementation of the state elections in all occupation zones was made more difficult by the consequences of dictatorship and war. Furthermore, a large number of eligible voters were in captivity and could not exercise their right to vote. As a result of flight and displacement (called “resettlement” in the Soviet Zone), many millions of people lived outside of their homeland. The population registration system was also affected by the loss of the archives of the communities in East Germany. These restrictions led, for example, to the curiosity that Otto Nuschke was elected to the Landtag of Brandenburg and the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt at the same time .

The right to vote of the former members of the NSDAP , SS and other Nazi organizations was a difficult topic . There was consensus among the four occupying powers that active participation in the crimes of National Socialism should result in a loss of the right to vote. Since denazification was not yet complete, it was necessary to find suitable regulations. The election regulations stipulated in Section 3 of the SBZ that this should apply depending on the rank within the organization. Former members of the NSDAP, for example, were not eligible to vote from the local group leader upwards.

However, the electoral regulations in § 3 (3) contained a rubber paragraph , according to which "Other activists of fascism and those interested in war, whose names are made known to the municipal authorities by the anti-fascist-democratic parties of the district at the suggestion of the anti-fascist-democratic parties of the municipalities" , could be excluded from the right to vote. This passage was partially used to exclude candidates from bourgeois parties from the election.

Results in the individual countries

State election of
Mecklenburg 1946
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
49.5
34.1
12.5
3.9
State election of
Brandenburg 1946
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
43.9
30.6
20.6
4.9
State election of
Saxony 1946
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
49.1
24.7
23.3
1.7
1.2
Otherwise.
State election of
Saxony-Anhalt 1946
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
45.8
29.9
21.8
2.5
State election of
Thuringia 1946
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
49.3
28.5
18.9
3.3
State elections for the
SBZ in total 1946
 %
50
40
30th
20th
10
0
47.5
24.6
24.5
2.9
0.4
Otherwise.
Mecklenburg Brandenburg Saxony-
Anhalt 		Saxony Thuringia SBZ
Eligible voters 1,308,727 1,655,980 2,700,633 3,803,416 1,986,081 11,454,837
voter turnout 1,178,211 1,515,987 2,473,184 3,518,108 1,737,786 10,423,276
90.0% 91.5% 91.6% 92.5% 87.5% 91.0%
Invalid votes 64,463 69,168 142,673 227.113 75,927 579.344
SED be right 551,594 634.787 1,068,703 1,616,068 818.967 4,690,119
proportion of 49.5% 43.9% 45.8% 49.1% 49.3% 47.5%
Seats 45 44 51 59 50 249
LDP be right 138,662 298,607 696,669 813.224 472,959 2,420,121
proportion of 12.5% 20.6% 29.9% 24.7% 28.5% 24.6%
Seats 11 20th 32 30th 28 121
CDU be right 379,829 442,634 507.765 766.859 314,742 2,411,829
proportion of 34.1% 30.6% 21.8% 23.3% 18.9% 24.5%
Seats 31 31 24 28 19th 133
VdgB be right 43,663 70,791 57,374 57,356 55.191 284,375
proportion of 3.9% 4.9% 2.5% 1.7% 3.3% 2.9%
Seats 3 5 2 2 3 15th
Women's committees be right - - - 18,340 - 18,340
proportion of - - - 0.6% - 0.2%
Seats - - - 0 - 0
Kulturbund be right - - - 19,149 - 19,149
proportion of - - - 0.6% - 0.2%
Seats - - - 1 - 1

See also

Sources and literature

  • Martin Broszat , Gerhard Braas, Hermann Weber: SBZ manual . 1993, ISBN 3-486-55262-7 .
  • Mathias Tullner : Between Democracy and Dictatorship. The local elections and the elections for the provincial parliament in Saxony-Anhalt in 1946 . Magdeburg 1997, pp. 95-98.
  • Richard Schachtner: The German post-war elections: election results in the Federal Republic of Germany, in the German federal states, in West Berlin, in the Saarland and in the Soviet zone (GDR) 1946-19 . Isar-Verlag, Munich 1956, pp. 77, 78.
  • Günter Braun: Elections and votes. In: Martin Broszat, Hermann Weber (ed.): SBZ manual . Oldenbourg, Munich 1990, pp. 397, 396, 418.
  • Herbert Gottwald : The Thuringian Parliament 1946–1952 . Thuringian State Parliament in conjunction with Wartburg Verlag, Jena 1994, pp. 56, 81ff., 101. (Writings on the history of parliamentarism in Thuringia, no.5)
  • Norbert Podewin : October 20, 1946: The first post-war election in Berlin. Prehistory - course - results - background - consequences ("hefte zur gdr-geschichte", issue 105), Helle Panke, Berlin 2006.
  • Karl-Heinz Hajna: The 1946 state elections in the SBZ , Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-631-35950-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Aljana Buckow: Between Propaganda and Realpolitik. the USA and the Soviet-occupied part of Germany 1945–1955. Franz Steiner, 2003, ISBN 3-515-08261-1 .
  2. ^ Hermann Weber : The GDR 1945–1990. 4th edition. Oldenbourg 2006, p. 18.
  3. ^ Stefan Creuzberger : The Soviet occupying power and the political system of the Soviet occupation zone. Böhlau, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-412-04596-9 , p. 65.
  4. ↑ SBZ manual, p. 384 ff.
  5. ^ Ordinance sheet of the provincial government of Mark Brandenburg 1946. P. 323.
  6. ↑ Review

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