State Council of the GDR
The State Council of the GDR was the collective head of state of the German Democratic Republic from 1960 .
Development in the GDR
The State Council of the GDR was created in 1960 after the death of the first and only President of the GDR , Wilhelm Pieck , as the successor to the office of the President of the GDR. The state structure of the GDR was thus further aligned with the Soviet model. The basis was the "Law on the Formation of the Council of State" of September 12, 1960, which amended the 1949 constitution of the GDR accordingly.
The State Council consisted of the chairman, his deputies, 16 other members and a secretary. The latter function was held by Otto Gotsche until 1971 and then by Heinz Eichler . The chairman, the deputy chairman, the members and the secretary of the Council of State were elected by the People's Chamber for an initial four and since 1974 five years .
The first Chairman of the Council of State was Walter Ulbricht , who until 1971 was also First Secretary of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED and Chairman of the National Defense Council (NVR) of the GDR . The position of the chairman of the State Council was initially emphasized. Thus it said in Article 66 paragraph 2 of the constitution of 1968: "The chairman of the State Council represents the German Democratic Republic under international law."
Ulbricht was the only one who remained in the relatively insignificant position despite his disempowerment in 1971. After his death in 1973, Willi Stoph was elected Chairman of the State Council. As a result of the constitutional amendment in 1974, the Chairman of the State Council formally lost his prominent position. In fact, even later, the function of head of state was exercised solely by the chairman of the State Council - the other members of the State Council had little influence in practice. In terms of diplomatic protocol , a collective body as head of state was problematic anyway.
In 1976 Erich Honecker , who had been First Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and Chairman of the National Defense Council (NVR) of the GDR since 1971, took over the office of Chairman of the State Council and since then - like Ulbricht before him - has held the highest offices in the party and state again in personal union.
tasks
According to Article 66 ff. Of the 1968 constitution of the GDR, the Council of State was the formal head of state of the GDR. There were also the subordinate top state representatives, the chairman of the Council of Ministers as head of the government of the GDR and the president of the People's Chamber as head of parliament.
His duties included Articles 66–75 of the Constitution of the GDR
- the announcement of elections to the People's Chamber and the other people's representatives,
- the appointment of the members of the National Defense Council ,
- exercising the right to amnesty and pardon,
- the ratification of international treaties,
- the accreditation of diplomatic representatives,
- the awarding of state medals and awards ,
- the assumption of honorary sponsorships for large families.
Until 1974 the Council of State was able to pass enactments with the force of law and deal with submissions to the People's Chamber. It interpreted the constitution and laws in a binding manner and decided on the conclusion of international treaties. In the course of Ulbricht's disempowerment, the Council of State he created as an advisory and decision-making body lost much of its influence, which was manifested in the constitutional amendment of 1974. Since then it has been essentially a representative body.
The Secretariat of the State Council, with its approximately 200 employees, had important practical importance as the processor of the submissions from citizens (in GDR jargon so-called State Council inputs ), formally regulated in the submission decree of February 27, 1961 . Authorities and companies were obliged to provide information and cooperate.
Seat of the Council of State
After it was founded in 1960, the Council of State initially had its seat in Schönhausen Palace , where Wilhelm Pieck had previously resided as President of the GDR. In 1964 he moved into the specially built State Council building at Marx-Engels-Platz 1 (since 1994 Schloßplatz again ) in Berlin-Mitte , where he remained until it was dissolved.
Abolition in the turn
After Honecker resigned from all offices during the fall of the Berlin Wall , Egon Krenz initially took over his offices. However, only six weeks later, on December 6, 1989, the LDPD chairman Manfred Gerlach became chairman of the state council. This should clarify the factual task of the leadership role of the SED .
On April 5, 1990, the State Council was abolished by a constitutional amendment at the constituent session of the first freely elected People's Chamber. Since the office of State President was no longer to be introduced for the foreseeable short transitional phase up to the unification with the Federal Republic of Germany , Article 75a of the GDR Constitution created the Presidium of the People's Chamber with the powers of the Council of State and the President of the People's Chamber with the powers of the Chairman of the State Council entrusted. Sabine Bergmann-Pohl was the last head of state of the GDR as President of the People's Chamber from April 5 to October 2, 1990.
Councils of State in other countries
There were similar supreme collective councils of state in the Soviet Union ( Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ), the People's Republics of Bulgaria and Poland ( Rada Państwa ), Romania and Yugoslavia . Switzerland also has the Federal Council as the collective head of state.
