Communist Party of Germany (1990)

The Communist Party of Germany (German: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, abbreviated KPD) is a minor political party in Germany. It is one of several parties which claim the KPD name and/or legacy. It was founded in Berlin in 1990.

Communist Party of Germany
Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
ChairmanTorsten Schöwitz
Founded1990 (1990)
Split fromSocialist Unity Party of Germany
HeadquartersFranz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin
NewspaperDie Rote Fahne
Youth wingKommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism
Anti-revisionism
Hard Euroscepticism
Political positionFar-left
Website
www.k-p-d.org
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History

The KPD, also known as KPD-Ost or KPD (Rote Fahne), was founded in 1990 in the GDR, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall but before the eventual German reunification by members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) who opposed the reforms from the party's new leadership and wanted to stay loyal to Marxism-Leninism.

It competed unsuccessfully in the 1990 Volkskammer election, the only market multi-party election held in the GDR.

Following Erich Honecker's expulsion from SED, KPD offered him and his wife Margot their party membership, which they gladly accepted.

The KPD was exempt from the West German ban on the KPD from 1956, due to a provision in the German reunification treaty which guarantees the continued legality of parties founded in the former GDR. However, this KPD-ban was already circumvented in 1968 with the foundation of a new West German communist party, the German Communist Party (DKP). The KPD and the DKP remain to exist as separate parties and occasionally cooperate politically.

Today the KPD remains a small party with its main strongholds being in the Neue Lander. It has competed in Bundestag, Landtag and local elections, but so far has only managed to gain one mandate in the city of Zeitz between 2004 and 2014. The party is will stand candidates in the 2019 state election in Thuringia and Saxony.[1][2]

In 2002 the KPD founded its youth wing, the Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschland.[3]

In 2020 KPD member Siegfried Kutschick, elected to the Zeitz city council under the Wir für unsere Stadt banner, was expelled from the party for joining the Alternative for Germany (AfD) council caucus. After a week of protests from the KPD and other leftwing organizations, Kutschick reconsidered and left the AfD caucus. Nevertheless Kutschick was expelled from the KPD.[4][5]

Ideology

The party upholds a strict anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist line, and states that it "consistently fights revisionism, opportunism and its main form, anti-Stalinism."[6] It recognizes the DDR, the Soviet Union, especially during the leadership of Stalin, and other former Soviet allied states as examples of real existing socialism. It also holds a positive view on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, its leadership, both Kim Jong-il and his successor Kim Jong-un, and the leading ideologies of the nation, being Juche and Songun.[7]

Famous members

Despite being a small party, it managed to attract a number of prominent members, mostly those from the former leadership of the Socialist Unity Party (SED). Both Erich Honecker and his wife Margot became members of the KPD after being expelled from the reformed SED in 1990, Margot Honecker even becoming an honorary member.[8][9]

Irma Thälmann, the daughter of Ernst Thälmann, became a member of the KPD after leaving the Party of Democratic Socialism, due to the re-evaluation of her father's legacy by the party.[10] She was a candidate for the KPD at the 1994 Bundestag election for the district of Berlin-Lichtenberg, gaining 266 votes (0.17%).

Electoral history
ElectionYearVotes %Seats
Volkskammer (DDR)19908,819 0.1%0
Municipal elections in East-Berlin19903,255 0.2%0
Landtag Brandenburg1994174 (Erststimme) 0.0%0
Bundestag1994426 (Erststimme) 0.0%0
Landtag Saxony19991,814 0.1%0
Bundestag20021,624 (686 Erststimmen) 0.0%0
Municipal elections in Zeitz2004505 1.9%1
Landtag Thuringia20041,842 0.2%0
Landtag Saxony-Anhalt2006957 (together with the DKP) (757 Erststimmen) 0.1%0
Municipal elections in Zeitz2009451 1.7%1
Landtag Saxony-Anhalt20111,653 0.2%0
Municipal elections in Zeitz 2014 393 1.4% 0
Landtag Thuringia20141,177 0.1%0
Landtag Saxony 2019 1,955 0.1% 0
Landtag Thuringia 2019 756 0,1% 0

Footnotes
  1. "Wahlprogramm der KPD Sachsen zur Landtagswahl 2019". www.k-p-d.org. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  2. "Wahl 2019 – Wir brauchen Hilfe aus Thüringen!". k-p-d.org. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  3. "Glossar: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) | Verfassungsschutz". verfassungsschutz.brandenburg.de. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  4. "Mitteilung". www.k-p-d.org. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  5. Gerbank, Torsten (26 August 2020). "Abkehr von der AfD-Fraktion: Warum Wir-Stadtrat neue Entscheidung trifft". Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. "Lächeln der Sonne". k-p-d.org. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  8. Margot, Honecker (June 2012). "Dank- und Grußschreiben von Genossin Margot Honecker" (PDF). Die Rote Fahne.
  9. Kunze, Thomas (2001). Staatschef a.D.: die letzten Jahre des Erich Honecker. Links-Verlag.
  10. Reuter, Elke (2010). Wer war wer in der DDR?. Berlin: Links-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4.

See also
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