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Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)
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The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (German: Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU)) was an East German political party founded in 1945. It was part of the National Front with the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) until 1989.
It contended the free elections in 1990 as an arm of the West German Christian Democratic Union, which it merged into after the annexation of the German Democratic Republic by West Germany later that same year.
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The CDU was primarily made up of middle class Christians, that officially embraced socialism after its Sixth Party Congress in October 1952, which affirmed the line of „Christian realism“ and declared the CDU “a Socialist party without any limitations“ (Otto Nuschke).
In the 22 "Theses on Christian Realism", the CDU committed itself to the “Socialist reorganisation of Society“ (1. edition, 1951). Emphasising the „exemplary realisation“ of Karl Marx's „teaching on building a new, better social order“ in the USSR, it was declared that Socialism offered at the time „the best opportunity for the realisation of Christ's demands and for exercising the practical Christianity“. The programme also asserted Christian Democrats' support for working class' leading role in establishing socialism, a development which the CDU regarded from its 6th Congress on as historically necessary and consistent“. [1]
The CDU was allegedly an arm of the SED designed to appeal to Christians. The East German Christian democrats consistently voted for the government proposals in the Volkskammer, the only exception being the March 9, 1972 vote on the abortion law, when there were 14 'nays' and 8 absentees among the CDU deputies.
In the 1950s, the leader of the CDU was Otto Nuschke, a former member of the German Democratic Party during the Weimar Republic. He was a close ally of the Communists. After Nuschke's death, the party was led by August Bach for a shorter period and in 1966 Gerald Götting was elected as the Chairman. Before that he had been the party's General Secretary. Götting, himself a Volkskammer chairman in the 1970s, carried on and elaborated the pro-government line.
Götting remained Chairman and an ally of the government until Erich Honecker resigned and was then replaced by Egon Krenz in October 1989; on 2 November 1989, Götting was deposed as CDU chairman by inner party reformers. In December 1989 Lothar de Maizière, a lawyer and deputy chairman of the Evangelical Church Synod of East Germany, was elected chairman. From that point on the party deposed (and later expelled) its top figures and would later support the GDR's annexation by West Germany.
In March 1990, the CDU won the first, free general elections and became the biggest party in the People's Chamber. In April de Maizìere became Prime Minister of the GDR.
In October 1990, the East German CDU merged with the West German CDU.
| Andreas Hermes | 1945 |
| Jakob Kaiser | 1945-1947 |
| Otto Nuschke | 1948-1957 |
| August Bach | 1957-1966 |
| Gerald Götting | 1966-1989 |
| Wolfgang Heyl | 1989 (acting) |
| Lothar de Maizière | 1989-1990 |
| Georg Dertinger | 1946-1949 |
| Gerald Götting | 1949-1966 |
| Martin Kirchner | 1989-1990 |
- Sabine Bergmann-Pohl (Last Chief of State of the GDR)
- Emil Fuchs (Theologican)
- Karl Grobbel (Co-founder of the Berlin Conference of European Catholic's)
- Hubertus Guske (General Secretary of the Berlin Conference of European Catholics)
- Ernst Lemmer (co-chairman of the CDU in 1947)
- Angela Merkel (deputy spokesperson of Lothar de Maizière's government and the united Germany's first Bundeskanzlerin)
- Herbert Schirmer (Minister of Culture 1990)
- Max Sefrin (Deputy Prime Minister)
- Luitpold Steidle (Minister of Health Care)
- Heinrich Toeplitz (Supreme Court of the GDR)
- Heinz Winkler (Minister of Reconstruction)
- ^ Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU) [Ost] by Ralf G. Jahn http://www.adel-genealogie.de/CDU-Ost.html#Kapitel6