Exiting the GDR: Political Movements and Parties Between Democratization and Westernization

This chapter explains the dual restructuring of the East German party system. It analyses the origins of the East German party system and its structure prior to the events in the fall of 1989, and examines the impact of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms on the Socialist Unity Party regime. The chapter considers the effects on the structure of East German parties of the consequent peaceful revolution in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It also explains the critical changes between the first and second phases in the restructuring of East German parties. The inherent tensions between advocates of reform from within and those who preferred the ready-made West German model shaped as well the transformation in the GDR’s party system from the fall of 1989 onward. Initially, the forty-year-old party structure, dominated by the communist SED and its subservient bloc party allies, was challenged by newly emerging civic movements demanding democratic and economic reforms.