SPD Thuringia

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SPD Thuringia
Wolfgang Tiefensee
Wolfgang Tiefensee 		SPD TH.svg
Chairman Wolfgang Tiefensee
Deputy Antje Hochwind
Cornelia Klisch
Diana Lehmann
Sven Schrade
Treasurer Georg Maier
executive Director Anja Zachow
Establishment date January 27, 1990
Place of foundation Gotha
Headquarters Juri-Gagarin-Ring 158
99084 Erfurt
Landtag mandates
8/90
Number of members 3,835 (October 2017)
Website www.spd-thueringen.de

The SPD Thuringia is a regional association of the SPD . At the end of 2016, it was the third largest regional association of a party in Thuringia with around 3,700 members. The state chairman has been the Thuringian Minister of Economic Affairs and former Federal Minister of Transport Wolfgang Tiefensee since 2018 .

history

prehistory

The predecessor states of today's Thuringia were strongholds of the labor movement. It was no coincidence that the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), a predecessor of the SPD, held the founding party congress on August 8, 1869 in Eisenach and there adopted the Eisenach program . Today's SPD was also founded in Thuringia, namely on May 27, 1875 at the Gotha Party Congress through the merger of the SDAP with the ADAV , where the first basic program was introduced with the Gotha program . The second basic program of the SPD was also adopted in Thuringia. It is the Erfurt program from 1891.

After the founding of the state of Thuringia

The history of the Thuringia regional association of the SPD in the narrower sense begins with the founding of the state of Thuringia on May 1, 1920 by imperial law. The USPD split off in 1917 (also founded in Gotha) shaped the politics of the first few years. In Saxony-Gotha , the Free State of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and the People's State of Reuss , the USPD had far outstripped the SPD in the previous state elections. Also in the newly created Thuringian Landtag , the SPD only achieved 20.35% in the first elections on June 20, 1920, and thus came third behind the USPD and the Thuringian Landbund . The SPD formed a minority government together with the DDP , tolerating the USPD. The SPD was represented by two ministers ( August Frölich and Emil Hartmann ) in the Paulssen I cabinet .

The coalition did not last long. In the new elections on September 11, 1921, the SPD managed to increase slightly to 22.84%. The USPD had given 11% to the newly founded KPD . Together, the three left parties had a majority in the state parliament. Frölich initially formed a minority government of the SPD and USPD. On October 16, 1923, the KPD formally entered the coalition and appointed two ministers to the Frölich II cabinet. This formation of a government triggered a political crisis. Reich President Friedrich Ebert (SPD) tasked the Reichswehr with securing the constitutional order as part of a Reich execution . The military moved in on November 6, 1923, and the Frölich government collapsed due to differences in content on December 7, 1923, but remained in office until February 21, 1924.

The new elections to the state parliament on February 10, 1924 led to a victory for the “ Ordnungsbund ” (Thuringian Land Association, DVP, DNVP). The SPD, which with 23.14% achieved a slightly better result than in the last election, had to take a seat on the opposition benches. Until the end of the Weimar Republic , the SPD was no longer involved in governments in Thuringia.

In the state elections in 1927 (with 31.62% of the vote) and 1929 (32.30%), the SPD was clearly the strongest party. After the state elections in 1932, she had to give up this place to the NSDAP after a fall to 24.27% of the vote . The National Socialists had become particularly strong in the SPD strongholds in particular. With the seizure of power by the National Socialists, the Social Democrats losing about Thuringia the possibility of a legal political work.

On July 7th, the ordinance to secure the leadership of the Reich Minister of the Interior Frick canceled all SPD mandates in the Thuringian state parliament and the local parliaments, on July 14th the law against the formation of new parties followed . The party's assets were confiscated by the new rulers.

From the re-establishment in 1945 to the elimination in 1946

With the occupation of Thuringia by the American troops in 1945, social democrats also began to rebuild their party in Thuringia. On July 8th, the regional association of Thuringia of the “ Federation of Democratic Socialists ” was founded, which soon thereafter renamed itself the SPD under pressure from the Soviet occupying power . The reason for the new name was that Hermann Brill , the first state chairman of the SPD, saw a major reason for the failure of democracy in the Weimar Republic in the split between the workers' parties. He campaigned for a new beginning of a unified, democratic workers' party. Brill had left the USPD in 1922 and joined the SPD. In the SPD, he spoke out against the popular front policy. With his policy, Brill set himself in contradiction to the policy of the SMAD , which sought a merger of the KPD and SPD under the leadership of the KPD. On December 29, 1945, Brill had to resign and fled to West Berlin .

The SMAD appointed Brill's deputy Heinrich Hoffmann as the new SPD chairman. The holding of a party congress to elect a chairman was not approved by SMAD. Hoffmann actively supported the SMAD's unification policy, but a large number of SPD members rejected unification under the dictates of the Soviets. Over 400 critical Social Democrats were arrested, and any articulation of the SMAD's rejection of the forced unification of the SPD and KPD was prohibited. On April 7, 1946, the founding party congress of the SED of Thuringia took place in Gotha .

Legal political work for social democrats in Thuringia had once again become impossible. The originally agreed parity between former SPD and KPD members in the SED was soon abandoned. A series of "purges" led to the departure of the leading Social Democrats. Many Social Democrats from Thuringia fled to the West, where the East Office of the SPD supported underground work in the Soviet Zone / GDR.

Re-establishment in the final phase of the GDR

In the course of the political change in the GDR, the Social Democratic Party in the GDR (SDP) was founded on October 7, 1989, the 40th anniversary of the founding of the GDR, in Schwante near Berlin . Reiner Hartmann from Beutnitz near Jena, Joachim Hoffmann from Jena, Simone Manz from Rudolstadt and Harald Seidel from Greiz took part from the three Thuringian districts of Erfurt , Gera and Suhl . In the following weeks, the first local and district associations were founded in Thuringia, for example on November 3rd in Gotha , on November 9th in the district town of Erfurt , on November 10th in Jena , on November 16th in the district town of Gera and on November 21st in the district town of Erfurt November in the district town of Suhl .

Immediately after the opening of the borders, first contacts were established with the German SPD. Already on November 11, 1989, two days after the fall of the Berlin Wall , SDP members from Gera visited the SPD city council faction in the twin city of Nuremberg . On December 1, 1989, the then state chairman of the SPD Hesse , Kassel's Lord Mayor Hans Eichel , and the then SPD federal chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel received an SDP delegation from the Erfurt district in Kassel's town hall. On December 21, 1989, a coordination meeting between Thuringian and Hessian social democrats took place in the border town of Herleshausen , from which permanent partnerships and sponsorships between individual associations and sub-districts arose, which were often based on the German-German town twinning established a few years earlier .

On December 15, 1989, around 40 SDP representatives from the three districts met in the Harrasmühle near Pößneck . There it was decided to found a Thuringian SDP regional association within the historical borders of 1946. The founding assembly - meanwhile the party traded like its West German counterpart under the abbreviation SPD - took place on January 27, 1990 in Tivoli in Gotha, the historical place where the Socialist Workers' Party was founded . It was the first establishment of an SPD regional association in the GDR. 20 delegates attended from each of the three districts. Wilfried Machalett from Eisenach was elected as the first state chairman . The election of the deputy state chairmen and assessors took place equally according to the three districts.

Rally with Willy Brandt during the election campaign for the 1990 Volkskammer election in Gera

In the first free Volkskammer election in 1990, the SPD did unexpectedly poorly with 21.9% of the votes throughout the GDR. In Thuringia, even worse election results were achieved throughout (Erfurt: 18.7%; Gera: 16.5% and Suhl: 16.1%). Wilfried Machalett then resigned as state chairman, the party chairmanship initially took over temporarily Bernd Brösdorf , who was elected state chairman at the second state party conference on May 26, 1990 in Bad Frankenhausen . On August 16, 1990, Brösdorf also resigned as state chairman after accusations of having worked with the Ministry for State Security, and Peter Laskowski was his successor . For the upcoming election to the first Thuringian state parliament on October 14, 1990, the SPD parliamentary group leader in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia , Friedhelm Farthmann , was elected as the top candidate at the third state party congress on August 25, 1990 in Jena .

In reunified Germany

In the state elections on October 14, 1990, the SPD received 22.8% of the vote and was not part of the government. Gerd Schuchardt was elected chairman of the SPD parliamentary group and thus opposition leader in the Thuringian state parliament. Four years later, in the elections for the second state parliament on October 16, 1994 , the SPD succeeded in increasing its share of the vote to 29.6%. Since at the same time the previous governing party, the FDP, failed at the five percent hurdle, a grand coalition was formed and the SPD was able to provide four ministers with Gerd Schuchardt as deputy prime minister in the Vogel II cabinet .

Both in the state elections on September 12, 1999 (SPD: 18.5%) and on June 13, 2004 (SPD: 14.5%), the SPD continued to lose votes and formed the smaller opposition faction after the PDS absolute majority ruling CDU Thuringia in state parliaments with only three parliamentary groups each.

At the end of 2007 there was a dispute over the direction in the SPD Thuringia. While the party was unanimously open to a coalition with the Left Party , it was disputed whether such a coalition should also be formed under a Prime Minister of the Left (which would have been a likely scenario given the strengths of the parties). Christoph Matschie prevailed in this dispute against Richard Dewes and the official policy of the SPD was now to strive for a red-red coalition , but not to elect a politician from the left as prime minister.

In the state elections in 2009 , the SPD was able to increase its result by four percentage points to 18.5%. At the same time, the CDU lost its absolute majority. This opened up two coalition options for the SPD: either a black-red coalition with the CDU or a red-red coalition (with or without the inclusion of the Greens ). After a fierce internal party dispute over the direction, the SPD decided on a coalition with the CDU under the leadership of Christine Lieberknecht as Prime Minister. The Lieberknecht cabinet , appointed on November 4, 2009, included its SPD state chairman Christoph Matschie as education minister and deputy minister-president, Holger Poppenhäger as minister of justice, Heike Taubert as minister of social affairs and Matthias Machnig (from December 2013 Uwe Höhn ) as minister of economics.

In the 2014 state elections , the SPD achieved its worst result in Thuringia with 12.4%. Since 5 December 2014, the party is in red-red-green state government cabinet ramelow I participated. This is the first government participation of the SPD under the leadership of the party Die Linke . The SPD is represented in the Ramelow cabinet with Heike Taubert as finance minister and deputy prime minister, initially with Holger Poppenhäger as interior minister, who was dismissed in August 2017 and replaced by Georg Maier , and former federal minister Wolfgang Tiefensee as economics minister.

In the 2019 state elections, the SPD received its worst result to date, with 8.2 percent for the first time. This makes it the fourth largest parliamentary group in the Erfurt Landtag out of a total of six.

Chairperson

The first SPD state chairman after the fall of the Wall Wilfried Machalett

Party leader

Years Chairman
"In the twenties" Hermann Leber
1929-1933 Georg Dietrich
1933-1945 SPD does not exist
07 / 1945-12 / 1945 Hermann Brill
12 / 1945–01 / 1946 August Frölich come.
01 / 1946-04 / 1946 Heinrich Hoffmann
1946-1952 SPD does not exist
1952-1990 SPD does not exist,
no state of Thuringia
01 / 1990-03 / 1990 Wilfried Machalett
03 / 1990-08 / 1990 Bernd Brösdorf
08 / 1990-01 / 1991 Peter Laskowski
1991-1994 Gisela Schröter
1994-1996 Gerd Schuchardt
1996-1999 Richard Dewes
1999-2014 Christoph Matschie
2014-2017 Andreas Bausewein
2018 Heike Taubert come.
since 2018 Wolfgang Tiefensee

Group leaders

Surname Beginning of the term of office Term expires
Gerd Schuchardt 1990 1994
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0328-307, Frieder Lippmann.jpg Frieder Lippmann 1994 1999
Landtag Erfurt 2011-05-18 mnII (128) .JPG Heiko Gentzel 1999 2004
Christoph Matschie Landtag Erfurt 2011-05-18 mn (3) .JPG Christoph Matschie 2004 2009
Uwe Höhn.jpg Uwe Höhn 2009 2013
Landtag Erfurt 2011-05-18 mnII (39) .JPG Werner Pidde 2013 2014
Matthias Hey Landtag Thuringia 19.05.11.jpg Matthias Hey 2014 officiating

Results in the state elections

year be right Seats Top candidate
1920 20.3% 11/53
1921 22.8% 13/54
1924 23.1% 17/72
1927 31.6% 18/56
1929 32.3% 18/53
1932 24.3% 15/61
1946 SPD does not exist
1950
1990 22.8% 21/89 Friedhelm Farthmann
1994 29.6% 29/88 Gerd Schuchardt
1999 18.5% 18/88 Richard Dewes
2004 14.5% 15/88 Christoph Matschie
2009 18.5% 18/88 Christoph Matschie
2014 12.4% 12/91 Heike Taubert
2019 8.2% 08/90 Wolfgang Tiefensee

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thuringian parties record membership growth after the federal election. In: Thuringian General. October 9, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Text of the ordinance for safeguarding governance of July 7, 1933 in the Reichsgesetzblatt in retro-digitized form at ALEX - Historical legal and legal texts online
  3. ^ Text of the law against the formation of new parties at verfassungen.de
  4. ↑ Manfred Overesch: Seizure of power from the left: Thuringia 1945/46, 1993, ISBN 3-487-09786-9 , p. 99
  5. ↑ State Center for Political Education Thuringia
  6. ↑ Manfred Overesch : Seizure of power from the left: Thuringia 1945/46 , p. 130
  7. ↑ Petra Weber: Justice and dictatorship, 2000, ISBN 3-486-56463-3 , p. 26
  8. ↑ Martin Broszat, Gerhard Braas, Hermann Weber: SBZ-Handbuch, 1993, ISBN 3-486-55262-7 , p. 509
  9. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 11.
  10. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 12.
  11. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 15f.
  12. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 16.
  13. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , pp. 16-18.
  14. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 19.
  15. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 31f.
  16. ↑ cf. Michael Klostermann: Social Democracy in and for Thuringia , p. 20.
  17. ↑ Focus from February 24, 2008: Direction dispute - Matschie leads Thuringian SPD
  18. ↑ Jochen Lengemann (Ed.): Parliaments in Thuringia 1809–1952. Thuringian state parliaments 1919–1952. Biographical manual. (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Large series. Volume 1. Part 4). Cologne 2014, p. 436.
  19. ↑ Steffen Kachel: A red-red special path ?. Social Democrats and Communists in Thuringia 1919 to 1949. (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Small series. Volume 29). Cologne 2011, p. 544.
  20. ↑ Jochen Lengemann (Ed.): Parliaments in Thuringia 1809–1952. Thuringian state parliaments 1919–1952. Biographical manual. (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Large series. Volume 1. Part 4). Cologne 2014, p. 264.
  21. ↑ mdr.de: Taubert initially Thuringian SPD leader | MDR.DE . ( mdr.de [accessed on January 3, 2018]).
  22. ↑ a b c d e f g h Guido Dressel: ELECTIONS AND VOTING RESULTS 1920 - 1995. In: State Center for Political Education Thuringia (Hrsg.): Sources for the history of Thuringia. Erfurt 2010.