The Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (german: Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands, DBD) was an
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
political party. The DBD was founded in 1948. It had 52 representatives in the
Volkskammer
__NOTOC__
The Volkskammer (, ''People's Chamber'') was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (colloquially known as East Germany).
The Volkskammer was initially the lower house of a bicameral legislature. The upper house w ...
, as part of the
National Front. The DBD participated in all GDR cabinets (with the exception of the last GDR cabinet). The founding of the DBD was an attempt by the SED to weaken the influence of
CDU/
LDPD in the rural community by establishing a party loyal to the SED. The leadership cadre came mainly from the ranks of the SED. In the late 1980s, the party had 117,000 members.
After the fall of
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...
, the party initially tried to find itself a niche as ecological agrarian party, but the first free Volkskammer election (1990) netted it only nine seats. In 1990 the DBD merged with the
Christian Democratic Union.
International contacts
The DBD had friendly relations with peasants' parties in other
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
countries. It had close contacts with the
Polish United People's Party (Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe, ZSL) and the
(Bǔlgarski Zemedelski Naroden Sǔyuz, BZNS). Besides that, there were some contacts with farmers' associations in West Germany.
[Peter Joachim Lapp ''Die "befreundeten Parteien" der SED'', 1988, p. 108] They had also some contacts with agrarian parties in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
(
Centre Party) and in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
(
Centre Party).
Electoral history
Volkskammer elections
Chairmen of the DBD
*
Ernst Goldenbaum
Ernst Goldenbaum (15 December 1898, Parchim, Mecklenburg-Schwerin – 13 March 1990) was an East German politician.
Biography
Goldenbaum was born in Parchim. During World War I he served in the military and he participated in the German ...
, 1948–1982
*
Ernst Mecklenburg, 1982–1987
*
Günther Maleuda, 1987–1990
*
Ulrich Junghanns, 1990
References
External links
Deutsche Bauernpartei from ''chronik der wende''
1948 establishments in Germany
1990 disestablishments in East Germany
Political parties in East Germany
Agrarian parties in Germany
Political parties established in 1948
Political parties disestablished in 1990
Defunct political parties in Germany
{{Germany-party-stub