When it became clear that a West
German government would be established, a so-called election for
a People's Congress was held in the Soviet occupation zone in
May 1949. But instead of choosing among candidates, voters were
allowed only the choice of approving or rejecting--usually in
less-than-secret circumstances--"unity lists" of candidates
drawn from all parties, as well as representatives of mass organizations
controlled by the communist-dominated SED. Two additional parties,
a Democratic Farmers' Party and a National Democratic Party, designed
to attract support, respectively, from farmers and from former
Nazis, were added with the blessing of the SED. By ensuring that
communists predominated in these unity lists, the SED determined
in advance the composition of the new People's Congress. According
to the official results, about two-thirds of the voters approved
the unity lists. In subsequent elections, favourable margins in
excess of 99 percent were routinely announced.
In October 1949, following the
formation of the Federal Republic, a constitution ratified by
the People's Congress went into effect in the Soviet zone, which
became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), with its
capital in the Soviet sector of Berlin. The People's Congress
was renamed the People's Chamber, and this body, together with
a second chamber composed of officials of the five Länder
of the Soviet zone (which were abolished in 1952 in favour of
centralized authority), designated the communist Wilhelm Pieck
of the SED as president of the German Democratic Republic on Oct.
11, 1949. The next day, the People's Chamber installed the former
Social Democrat Otto Grotewohl as premier at the head of a Cabinet
that was nominally responsible to the chamber. Although the German
Democratic Republic was constitutionally a parliamentary democracy,
decisive power actually lay with the SED and its boss, the veteran
communist functionary Walter Ulbricht, who held only the obscure
position of deputy premier in the government. In East Germany,
as in the Soviet Union, the government served merely as the agent
of an all-powerful communist-controlled party, which was in turn
ruled from above by a self-selecting Politburo.
