TL #5 - The GDR lives on
(The Soviet Union prevents the reunification, the GDR continues to be an independent state, but at least has free elections)
List of Prime Ministers of the German Democratic Republic (since 1990)
1990: Rainer Eppelmann (DA-CDU-DSU-BFD) [1]
1993: Ibrahim Böhme (SPD-FDP-Bündnis 90-DUP) [2]
1997: Henry Nitzsche (DSU-SPD-FDP) [3]
1999: Henry Nitzsche (DSU-NVP) [4]
List of Presidents of the German Democratic Republic:
2000: Rudolf Kendzia (NVP-R) [5]
2006: Rudolf Kendzia (NVP-R) [6]
2012: Sahra Wagenknecht (PDS) [7]
2015: Uwe Kamann (independent) [8]
2021: Sebastian Krumbiegel (SPD) [9]
[1] DA, CDU and DSU form the Alliance for Germany for the election. While it is very popular, especially due to the support of West German chancellor Kohl.
But there still is much distrust toward the old Block Party CDU, so the DA ends up strongest party of the alliance, second only to the SDP.
SDP Leader Meckel demands to become PM himself, so his party is left out of the coalition. (Wolfgang Schnur is elected to the Volkskammer, but since he was not in the front line, it takes till June 1990 for his status as IM to become public)
[2] By 1993, the party landscape of the GDR was just as, if not more, split than the one of the Weimar Republic. Several leading, national, regional and local politicians were uncovered to have been IMs, but worse, the people who had demanded reunification and now - as the Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics continued existing together with the communist regime in Poland and was even beginning to economically prosper after some Deng-type reforms - were stopped from this goal, had to endure massive economic and political hardships. In order to stop the brain and capital drain, rather strict controls (especially on capital) had been introduced once again. To combat the brain drain, the GDR had been rather open to migration from other countries - which was not taken well to by a significant part of the population
By 1992, parties which did not adhere to the freie, demokratische Grundordnung ("liberal democratic principles") and did little to hide it had formed, for example an East German chapter of the NPD (joined by adherents of right-wing populism) calling itself NVP (Nationale Vereinigungspartei, though often mistakenly referred to as Nationale Volkspartei). Many still dreamt of reunification and thus turned to the NVP and DSU, but quite a few had alreay turned their backs on democracy and were either looking to the authoritarian right (expanding the voter bases of NVP and DSU) or were longing to get communism back in a more Dengist and, so many professed, "better" form. Which was what SED-PDS promised.
Together, these three parties gained more than 32 % of the vote share. But Ibrahim Böhme managed to put a democratic "Double Traffic Light" coalition together , thanks mainly to the fact that Bündnis 90 and DUP (the newly founded East German Greens, Demokratische Umweltpartei) were one party in all but name.
Economic reform towards a market-based economy however meant continuing hardships, rising joblessness, and continuing restrictions. As far as the GDR could afford it, development projects in Angola, Cuba, Vietnam and Mozambique, as well as other developing countries, were continued. Refugees and migrants at least from socialist countries were rather generously taken in - just as much for humanitarian reasons as in order to combat unabated (and seemingly unstoppable) emigration to West Germany.
And by the mid-1990s, widespread protests - along with riots and even localised pogroms (the worst being the Löbauer Juli, where 89 immigrants from developing countries of Africa and Asia died as their residential highrise was set alight by far-right extremists on July 8-9, 1994) - against the liberal migration policies were seen across the German Democratic Republic. Right-wing options, notably DSU and NVP, factions of them leaning towards illiberal democracy or even authoritarianism, are rising in the polls... Is liberal democracy at stake again after less than ten years?
[3] Economic stagnation continued during Böhme´s term and after the `97 election he lost his majority. The right-wing DSU managed to become the strongest party in the parliament and many liberal minded East-Germans feared that a DSU-NVP coalition would end the young democracy. After a intense arguments in the DSU leadership, the conservatives decided to form a form a coalition with SPD and FDP. The new MP Nitzsche announced closer cooperation with the Visegrád-Group, to end the economic crisis. Will he be sucesful?
[4] The year 1999 was a turning point for the young democracy. The recent economic success and the emotion after a series of attacks allowed the Prime Minister to consult the nation by referendum for a major institutional reform, which led to the collapse of his coalition and the birth of a pact between the DSU and the NVP. The referendum is a triumph for the prime minister and his new coalition. He bases his policy on nostalgia for communism under an authoritarian government and the beginning of a presidentialisation of the regime. The presidential election of 2000 will have enormous consequences. Will Nitzsche run himself or will another face emerge from the majority? Will the opposition, in spite of its diversity, be able to rally behind an attractive candidacy, and above all, will it be able to resist the temptation if it comes to power?
[5] The new presidential system - based on two rounds like in France, though with an absolute majority at least a bit more likely as 127 Kreise (districts/constituiencies) fare where, according to FPTP, majorities are determined - somewhat stabilised the nation, together with cooperation with the Visegrad Group which encompassed Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Increasingly authoritarian tendencies in large parts of the NVP, however, also led to another split in the DSU over whether to continue cooperation or to turn towards the more democratic parties. The latter could also not agree on a single candidate, so that the first round had four, arguably even five, strong candidates:
With the help of the much more successful and durable West German Republikaner, the part of the DSU advocating cooperation with the NVP splits off into the Republikanische Partei (RP, often shortened to just R). Nitzsche could not prevent this split, although he tried keeping the DSU united, and thus decided to not run and retire from politics.
Gregor Gysi (SED-PDS, supported by the SPD)
Christoph Wonneberger (Bündnis 90, DUP, parts of the SPD)
Klaus Hornung (FDP, LDPD, DBD, DSU)
Rudolf Kendzia (R, NVP, far-right splinter parties).
And while it was considered likely that Hornung and Kendzia would make the runoff - though Gysi at least was thought to be a dark horse candidate - it was a shock to many that Rudolf Kendzia, a far-rightist, was elected President. Demonstrators were intimidated soon after his inauguration, and he immediately began implementing illiberal, if not quite authoirtarian, laws in many fields ranging from media to migration policy. However, he also increased cooperation and aligned the GDR even more with the Visegrád Group and, rather unexpectedly, an increasingly Dengist China, along with Alia's Albania, forming a group of "Wolves" analogous to the Asian "Tigers". Soon, Franjo Tudjman's croatia joined the group.
Most of his cabinet and advisory staff consisted of technocratically appointed experts Economic success came back to the GDR and many developing nations and emerging market nations imported experts from an increasingly technologically innovative East Germany, or at least sent their most talented to study or get work experience as the "New Eastern Bloc", as it was increasingly called, rapidly caught up to the West. Many expected, should no major political crises or wars occur, the New Eastern Bloc to overtake the USA's GDP by the late 2020s to mid-2030s... and it could be much sooner if the USSR aligned its economic policy with this "New Eastern Bloc".
As the Wolves' economy is market-based (albeit with quite a lot of state intervention), by the end of Kendzia's term as President in 2006, the GDR and the other Wolves are on the cusp of entering the world markets for many innovative digital technologies, including, notably, smartphones. And despite the 2006 World Cup being hosted in West Germany, many considered the East German national football team equal to or even stronger than a young and rather inexperienced West German squad.
[6] During Kendzia´s first term the NVP slowly shifted from pan-germanism to East German nationalism, but it were the 2006 semi-finals in Munich between East and West Germany that marked birth of an East German identity. During the semi-finals the captain of the GDR´s football team, Michael Ballack scored 2 goals for the GDR and scored the deciding goal during the penalty shoot-out. But the penalty shoot-out was rather a match between the tho goal keepers René Adler and Jens Lehmann. And although the GDR lost in the finale against Italy, the East Germans were really proud of their team.
The GDR´s sucess in the World Cup overshadowed the underlying economic issues. The rapid economic growth of the late `90s and early 2000s seemed less sustainable. According to some economic experts the GDR´s economy could face a major depression if an economic crisis happens.
After Kendzia won his second term the opposition were debating how to combat the far-right. Bündnis90 and DUP officially united into Bündnis90/DUP and even in the SED-PDS there was a call for change. Gysi´s position became less secure and some party members wanted to replace him with the pro-Soviet Sara Wagenknecht. It seemed the GDR´s politics remain unpredictable.
[7] The years of Kendzias 2 term saw a massive crackdown on political rivals with introduction of an 8% threshold in 2009 and a minimun moembership requierement of 200 000 for the upcomming 2013 parliment elections.
This lead to a very short list of candidates for the 2012 presidential elections. Kendzias third term appeared to be just a formality. The moderate wing of the PDS even decided to let Wagenknecht have a go, considering that a failed attempt would damage her. But then tensions with the PiS Goverment in Poland led to the closure of the border ( and almost to war) and many moderate citizens decided to vote for Wagenknecht, to stick it to Kendzia, who would win anyhow. Surprisingly, Wagenknecht got 50,32% in the first round. In almost all Estern Block countries, former communists had gotten back in to power, at least temporarly, and the GDR proved not to be so different after all. The right wing parties, still in control of the Volkskammer made every attempt to limit the presidential powers, so by the 2013 parliamentary election, the Prime Minister was almost as powerful as before 2006.
[8] Despite having gained an absolute majority in the presidential election, Sarah Wagenknecht could regularly only achieve Volkstag (as the Volkskammer had been renamed in 2007) majorities with the help of at least three DSU (or other) dissenters - and one of them was frequently rumoured to be liberal conservative Uwe Kamann. And thus, when Sahra Wagenknecht suffered a tragic car accident, colliding with a wrong-way driver near Angermünde (both died at the scene), new elections had to be called according to the constitution...
And Wagenknecht had rather been a lame duck - but as most of her policies, and especially she as a person, were popular, it was Uwe Kamann, who had frequently assisted her ingetting at least the less overtly left-wing parts of her policies through, winning the elections against the far less popular and well-known candidates by the far-left and far-right...
[9] In 2021 the regard for the political class was at an all time low. The Presidential election saw a large field of more or less obscure candidates, recird low turnout and no candidate getting more than 17%.
Musician Krumbiegel, who had never expected to even make it into the second round and just wanted to show support for the Social Democrats defeated Wladimir Putin, a Businessman and Philantropist of Russian origin, who rather than returning an unstable Soviet-Union had stayed in Germany after 1990, taking advantage of the many business opportunities and had become naturalised in 2005.
(The Soviet Union prevents the reunification, the GDR continues to be an independent state, but at least has free elections)
List of Prime Ministers of the German Democratic Republic (since 1990)
1990: Rainer Eppelmann (DA-CDU-DSU-BFD) [1]
1993: Ibrahim Böhme (SPD-FDP-Bündnis 90-DUP) [2]
1997: Henry Nitzsche (DSU-SPD-FDP) [3]
1999: Henry Nitzsche (DSU-NVP) [4]
List of Presidents of the German Democratic Republic:
2000: Rudolf Kendzia (NVP-R) [5]
2006: Rudolf Kendzia (NVP-R) [6]
2012: Sahra Wagenknecht (PDS) [7]
2015: Uwe Kamann (independent) [8]
2021: Sebastian Krumbiegel (SPD) [9]
[1] DA, CDU and DSU form the Alliance for Germany for the election. While it is very popular, especially due to the support of West German chancellor Kohl.
But there still is much distrust toward the old Block Party CDU, so the DA ends up strongest party of the alliance, second only to the SDP.
SDP Leader Meckel demands to become PM himself, so his party is left out of the coalition. (Wolfgang Schnur is elected to the Volkskammer, but since he was not in the front line, it takes till June 1990 for his status as IM to become public)
[2] By 1993, the party landscape of the GDR was just as, if not more, split than the one of the Weimar Republic. Several leading, national, regional and local politicians were uncovered to have been IMs, but worse, the people who had demanded reunification and now - as the Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics continued existing together with the communist regime in Poland and was even beginning to economically prosper after some Deng-type reforms - were stopped from this goal, had to endure massive economic and political hardships. In order to stop the brain and capital drain, rather strict controls (especially on capital) had been introduced once again. To combat the brain drain, the GDR had been rather open to migration from other countries - which was not taken well to by a significant part of the population
By 1992, parties which did not adhere to the freie, demokratische Grundordnung ("liberal democratic principles") and did little to hide it had formed, for example an East German chapter of the NPD (joined by adherents of right-wing populism) calling itself NVP (Nationale Vereinigungspartei, though often mistakenly referred to as Nationale Volkspartei). Many still dreamt of reunification and thus turned to the NVP and DSU, but quite a few had alreay turned their backs on democracy and were either looking to the authoritarian right (expanding the voter bases of NVP and DSU) or were longing to get communism back in a more Dengist and, so many professed, "better" form. Which was what SED-PDS promised.
Together, these three parties gained more than 32 % of the vote share. But Ibrahim Böhme managed to put a democratic "Double Traffic Light" coalition together , thanks mainly to the fact that Bündnis 90 and DUP (the newly founded East German Greens, Demokratische Umweltpartei) were one party in all but name.
Economic reform towards a market-based economy however meant continuing hardships, rising joblessness, and continuing restrictions. As far as the GDR could afford it, development projects in Angola, Cuba, Vietnam and Mozambique, as well as other developing countries, were continued. Refugees and migrants at least from socialist countries were rather generously taken in - just as much for humanitarian reasons as in order to combat unabated (and seemingly unstoppable) emigration to West Germany.
And by the mid-1990s, widespread protests - along with riots and even localised pogroms (the worst being the Löbauer Juli, where 89 immigrants from developing countries of Africa and Asia died as their residential highrise was set alight by far-right extremists on July 8-9, 1994) - against the liberal migration policies were seen across the German Democratic Republic. Right-wing options, notably DSU and NVP, factions of them leaning towards illiberal democracy or even authoritarianism, are rising in the polls... Is liberal democracy at stake again after less than ten years?
[3] Economic stagnation continued during Böhme´s term and after the `97 election he lost his majority. The right-wing DSU managed to become the strongest party in the parliament and many liberal minded East-Germans feared that a DSU-NVP coalition would end the young democracy. After a intense arguments in the DSU leadership, the conservatives decided to form a form a coalition with SPD and FDP. The new MP Nitzsche announced closer cooperation with the Visegrád-Group, to end the economic crisis. Will he be sucesful?
[4] The year 1999 was a turning point for the young democracy. The recent economic success and the emotion after a series of attacks allowed the Prime Minister to consult the nation by referendum for a major institutional reform, which led to the collapse of his coalition and the birth of a pact between the DSU and the NVP. The referendum is a triumph for the prime minister and his new coalition. He bases his policy on nostalgia for communism under an authoritarian government and the beginning of a presidentialisation of the regime. The presidential election of 2000 will have enormous consequences. Will Nitzsche run himself or will another face emerge from the majority? Will the opposition, in spite of its diversity, be able to rally behind an attractive candidacy, and above all, will it be able to resist the temptation if it comes to power?
[5] The new presidential system - based on two rounds like in France, though with an absolute majority at least a bit more likely as 127 Kreise (districts/constituiencies) fare where, according to FPTP, majorities are determined - somewhat stabilised the nation, together with cooperation with the Visegrad Group which encompassed Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Increasingly authoritarian tendencies in large parts of the NVP, however, also led to another split in the DSU over whether to continue cooperation or to turn towards the more democratic parties. The latter could also not agree on a single candidate, so that the first round had four, arguably even five, strong candidates:
With the help of the much more successful and durable West German Republikaner, the part of the DSU advocating cooperation with the NVP splits off into the Republikanische Partei (RP, often shortened to just R). Nitzsche could not prevent this split, although he tried keeping the DSU united, and thus decided to not run and retire from politics.
Gregor Gysi (SED-PDS, supported by the SPD)
Christoph Wonneberger (Bündnis 90, DUP, parts of the SPD)
Klaus Hornung (FDP, LDPD, DBD, DSU)
Rudolf Kendzia (R, NVP, far-right splinter parties).
And while it was considered likely that Hornung and Kendzia would make the runoff - though Gysi at least was thought to be a dark horse candidate - it was a shock to many that Rudolf Kendzia, a far-rightist, was elected President. Demonstrators were intimidated soon after his inauguration, and he immediately began implementing illiberal, if not quite authoirtarian, laws in many fields ranging from media to migration policy. However, he also increased cooperation and aligned the GDR even more with the Visegrád Group and, rather unexpectedly, an increasingly Dengist China, along with Alia's Albania, forming a group of "Wolves" analogous to the Asian "Tigers". Soon, Franjo Tudjman's croatia joined the group.
Most of his cabinet and advisory staff consisted of technocratically appointed experts Economic success came back to the GDR and many developing nations and emerging market nations imported experts from an increasingly technologically innovative East Germany, or at least sent their most talented to study or get work experience as the "New Eastern Bloc", as it was increasingly called, rapidly caught up to the West. Many expected, should no major political crises or wars occur, the New Eastern Bloc to overtake the USA's GDP by the late 2020s to mid-2030s... and it could be much sooner if the USSR aligned its economic policy with this "New Eastern Bloc".
As the Wolves' economy is market-based (albeit with quite a lot of state intervention), by the end of Kendzia's term as President in 2006, the GDR and the other Wolves are on the cusp of entering the world markets for many innovative digital technologies, including, notably, smartphones. And despite the 2006 World Cup being hosted in West Germany, many considered the East German national football team equal to or even stronger than a young and rather inexperienced West German squad.
[6] During Kendzia´s first term the NVP slowly shifted from pan-germanism to East German nationalism, but it were the 2006 semi-finals in Munich between East and West Germany that marked birth of an East German identity. During the semi-finals the captain of the GDR´s football team, Michael Ballack scored 2 goals for the GDR and scored the deciding goal during the penalty shoot-out. But the penalty shoot-out was rather a match between the tho goal keepers René Adler and Jens Lehmann. And although the GDR lost in the finale against Italy, the East Germans were really proud of their team.
The GDR´s sucess in the World Cup overshadowed the underlying economic issues. The rapid economic growth of the late `90s and early 2000s seemed less sustainable. According to some economic experts the GDR´s economy could face a major depression if an economic crisis happens.
After Kendzia won his second term the opposition were debating how to combat the far-right. Bündnis90 and DUP officially united into Bündnis90/DUP and even in the SED-PDS there was a call for change. Gysi´s position became less secure and some party members wanted to replace him with the pro-Soviet Sara Wagenknecht. It seemed the GDR´s politics remain unpredictable.
[7] The years of Kendzias 2 term saw a massive crackdown on political rivals with introduction of an 8% threshold in 2009 and a minimun moembership requierement of 200 000 for the upcomming 2013 parliment elections.
This lead to a very short list of candidates for the 2012 presidential elections. Kendzias third term appeared to be just a formality. The moderate wing of the PDS even decided to let Wagenknecht have a go, considering that a failed attempt would damage her. But then tensions with the PiS Goverment in Poland led to the closure of the border ( and almost to war) and many moderate citizens decided to vote for Wagenknecht, to stick it to Kendzia, who would win anyhow. Surprisingly, Wagenknecht got 50,32% in the first round. In almost all Estern Block countries, former communists had gotten back in to power, at least temporarly, and the GDR proved not to be so different after all. The right wing parties, still in control of the Volkskammer made every attempt to limit the presidential powers, so by the 2013 parliamentary election, the Prime Minister was almost as powerful as before 2006.
[8] Despite having gained an absolute majority in the presidential election, Sarah Wagenknecht could regularly only achieve Volkstag (as the Volkskammer had been renamed in 2007) majorities with the help of at least three DSU (or other) dissenters - and one of them was frequently rumoured to be liberal conservative Uwe Kamann. And thus, when Sahra Wagenknecht suffered a tragic car accident, colliding with a wrong-way driver near Angermünde (both died at the scene), new elections had to be called according to the constitution...
And Wagenknecht had rather been a lame duck - but as most of her policies, and especially she as a person, were popular, it was Uwe Kamann, who had frequently assisted her ingetting at least the less overtly left-wing parts of her policies through, winning the elections against the far less popular and well-known candidates by the far-left and far-right...
[9] In 2021 the regard for the political class was at an all time low. The Presidential election saw a large field of more or less obscure candidates, recird low turnout and no candidate getting more than 17%.
Musician Krumbiegel, who had never expected to even make it into the second round and just wanted to show support for the Social Democrats defeated Wladimir Putin, a Businessman and Philantropist of Russian origin, who rather than returning an unstable Soviet-Union had stayed in Germany after 1990, taking advantage of the many business opportunities and had become naturalised in 2005.
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