National Front of the German Democratic Republic

The following organizations, which were part of the NF, did not send elected representatives to the Volkskammer but were active in the performance of its activities.

Organization	Emblem	Foundation	Dissolution
Society for German–Soviet Friendship		1949	1992
People's Solidarity		1945	exists today
Sport and Technology Association		1952	1990
German Gymnastics and Sports Federation		1957	1990
Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation		1948	1990
Writers' Association of the GDR		1945	1990
Association of Gardeners, Settlers, and Animal Breeders		1952	1990
Union of Journalists		1945	1990
Chamber of Engineering		1946	1990
Peace Council of the GDR		1949	1990
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime		1947	banned in East Germany in 1953, exists today
Committee of Antifascist Resistance Fighters		1953	1991
League of Lusatian Sorbs		1912 founded before the creation of the GDR	exists today

Pavilion of the National Front in Leipzig, 1953

The Nationale Front election poster from 1950

The National Front was the successor to the Demokratischer Block which had been founded in the Soviet occupation zone. The Front itself was founded on 30 March 1950. It operated through the issuing of a generally consistent proportion of seats (divided between the Front's parties and SED-controlled mass organisations) submitted in the form of a single list of candidates during each election to the People's Chamber. Seats were awarded on the basis of a set quota rather than vote totals.[5] As voters only had the option of approving or rejecting the list in far-from-secret conditions, it "won" with virtually unanimous levels of support.[6]

Although nominally a broad-based coalition of parties, in practice the SED was the only one with any real power. By ensuring that Communists dominated the lists, the SED essentially predetermined the composition of the People's Chamber.

In 1950-1951, the public rejection of the validity of the list by some German politicians resulted in some of them being imprisoned for "rejecting the electoral law of the German Democratic Republic" (as in the case of LDPD leader Günter Stempel). Although the SED had already become a full-fledged Stalinist "party of the new type" by the formation of the GDR, the other parties did not completely bend to the SED's will for a time. By the mid-1950s, however, the more courageous members of the constituent parties had been pushed out, and the parties had all been transformed into loyal partners of the SED. By this time, the SED itself had purged its few independent-minded members as well. The Front now took on a character similar to other groupings in the Eastern Bloc. For the next three decades, the minor parties in the Front had to accept the SED's "leading role" as a condition of their continued existence.

On 1 December 1989, the Front was effectively rendered impotent when the Volkskammer deleted the provision of the Constitution of East Germany that gave the SED a monopoly of power. Four days later, the Christian Democratic Union and Liberal Democratic Party, having thrown out their pro-Communist leaderships, withdrew from the Front. On 16 December the SED, having transformed itself into a democratic socialist party, reformed itself into the Party of Democratic Socialism. On 20 February 1990, an amendment to the constitution removed mention of the Front.[7]

• Prof. Erich Correns (1950–1981)
• Prof. Lothar Kolditz (1981–1989)

• Politics of East Germany
• List of Volkskammer members (9th election period)
• United Front (China) for a currently running system similar to the National Front of the DDR
• Vietnamese Fatherland Front
• Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland in North Korea
• Polish Committee of National Liberation/Front of National Unity
• National Front
• Fatherland Front
• People's Democratic Front/Front of Socialist Unity and Democracy
• Lao Front for National Construction
• National United Front of Kampuchea

• Die Transformation der DDR-Blockparteien während und nach der politischen Wende