ABSTRACT
As we saw in Chapter 1, the g d r ’ s first constitution was a liberal-style affair. It was the result of an s e d draft of 1946 suitably amended to accommodate the c d u and the l d p d . 1 From the Soviet point of view it was useful either as a bridge leading into people’s democracy or into a Western-type, all-German republic. Like the Soviet constitution of 1936, it helped to allay fears about the future at the very time when Stalin’s purges were on the agenda. It had much in common with the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Superficially too it resembled the Basic Law of the (West German) Federal Republic with its popular assembly, the Volkskammer, similar to the West German Bundestag, and its Länderkammer which, like the West German Bundesrat> represented the interests of the regions or Länder. T he president o f the Democratic Republic was to be elected in a similar way to the president of the Federal Republic, in the case of the g d r by a joint session of the two houses o f parliament. T he president of the g d r , like the president of the b r d , had a strictly limited role and could be removed by a joint decision of the two houses of parliament by a two thirds majority of the members. Law-making was essentially the job of the Volkskammer rather than the Länderkammer, though the latter could propose draft laws to the former. T he government {Regierung) was elected by the Volkskammer, its head (Ministerpräsident) being proposed by the largest party group in the chamber. T he Volkskammer consisted of 400 members and any group with at least forty members had the right to representation in the government. This article (92) would ensure the
s e d leadership in the government but would placate the other parties by ensuring them a share in governing the country. Should the s e d have been pushed into a minority position in preparation for German reunification, article 92 would have ensured its continued influence in government. According to article 51 the members of the Volkskammer were to be elected in universal, equal and secret elections based on the relative majority principle. We need not trouble ourselves with all the details of this constitution as most of them were of little practical significance.2 Elections to the Volkskammer were to be held every four years. Formally, under the 1949 constitution, they were held in 1950, 1954, 1958, 1963 and 1967 but such elections, being non competitive, had little to do with what most people expect of elections. T hat the parliament produced by this method counted but little was made clear by the number of occasions it met3 (Table 5.1). M ost of the sessions were taken up with speeches by the leading members of the govern ment followed by formal, unanimous, approval o f laws or resolutions proposed by the s e d . D r Johannes Dieckmann ( l d p d ) had little to do as president of the Volkskammer, and was reserved for receiving foreign guests and diplomatic missions abroad.
