- Bund der Deutschen
The Alliance of Germans, Party for Unity, Peace and Freedom – in German: Bund der Deutschen, Partei für Einheit, Frieden und Freiheit (BdD) – was a political party in the
Federal Republic of Germany .Origins of the BdD and its program until the foundation of the German Peace Union
The BdD resulted from the opposition movement to
Konrad Adenauer 's policies of Western integration. After signing of the general agreement on June 26, 1952, the "German Union" ("Deutsche Sammlung") was founded inDortmund . Members of the presidium were the former state chancellorJoseph Wirth (CDU),Katharina von Kardorff-Oheimb andWilhelm Elfes (also former CDU member). The "Deutsche Sammlung" called for an opposition to the Western integration and demanded that every opportunity forGerman re-unification should be used.The foundation of the BdD followed the initiative of the
politbureau of theSocialist Unity Party of East Germany. Despite the fact that 'bourgeois ' politicians likeJoseph Wirth ,Wilhelm Elfes made up the leadership, the party organisation and finances were in firm control ofcommunist functionaries. The goal of theSED was to form a so-calledNational front of bourgeois and „national“ forces (”national-gesinnte”), similar to the communist-controlled 'National Front' in East Germany.The core program of the BdD was a policy of
neutrality as well as opposition to the re-armament of West Germany and the Western integration. UnlikeKonrad Adenauer 's policies, an understanding/a compromise with theUSSR was sought.Though the BdD tried to advance economic and social demands of the middle classes and the peasants, it also sought socialisation of the large industrial enterprises. In 1956 the
Communist Party of Germany was forbidden just like re-foundation of possible communist successor parties. Therefor, in the late 1950s, the BdD started to act increasingly as a substitute ("Ersatzorganisation") for West German communists.The BdD as a component of the DFU
With the foundation of the "
German Peace Union " ("Deutsche Friedensunion") theSED preferred to fuse the BdD with the newly foundedGDR -sponsored organisation DFU. The constitutional court ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia thus classified the BdD in1964 as a cadre organisation of the DFU. In effect the BdD –despite continued existence of its own organisation – no longer took part in elections but rather delegated its candidates to the DFU list. On 2. November 1968 theGerman Communist Party [the (re-)foundation of an openly communist political party had become possible in the course of changes in the West German society during the late 1960s] , DFU, BdD and other leftist groupings formed a common list, the "Democratic Progress Action" ("Aktion Demokratischer Fortschritt") for the Bundestag election of 1969. The number of BdD members had fallen (according to SED records) from 12,000 (1953/1955) to less than 3,000 (1965).The BdD was never officially disbanded but it fused "
de facto " after its last party conference in 1968 with the DFU. The last chairman of the party wasJosef Weber (chairman since 1964; previously general secretary of the BdD and later a DFU and ADF functionary).Media
In 1953, the "Deutsche Volkszeitung" was founded as a BdD-close body. The weekly "Freitag", still published today, was the indirect successor to that newspaper.
Elections
The BdD took part in the following Bundestag resp. "Landtag" elections:
* 1953 election to Bundestag in a joint ticket with the GVP - 318,475 votes (1.2 %).
* 1954 election toNorth Rhine-Westphalia "landtag " 19,515 votes (0.3 %).
* 1954 election toSchleswig-Holstein "landtag " 10,009 votes (0.8 %).
* 1954 election toHesse "landtag " 12,047 votes (0.5 %).
* 1954 election toBavaria "landtag " 43,720 votes (0.4 %).
* 1955 election toLower Saxony "landtag " 8,600 votes (0.3 %).
* 1955 election toRhineland-Palatinate "landtag " 10,527 votes (0.7 %).
* 1955 election toBremen city council 3,988 votes (1.1 %).
* 1956 election toBaden-Württemberg "landtag " 18,077 votes (0.6 %).
* 1957 the BdD had its own list on Bundestag election and won 58,725 votes (0.2 %).
* 1957 election toHamburg city council 3,469 votes (0.3 %).
* 1958 election to North Rhine-Westphalia "landtag " 176 votes (0.0 % (-0.3 %)).
* 1958 election to Schleswig-Holstein "landtag " 6,037 votes (0.5 % (-0.3 %)).
* 1959 election to Lower Saxony "landtag " 4.947 votes (0.1 % (-0.2 %)).
* 1959 election to Rhineland-Palatinate "landtag " 6.613 votes (0.4 % (-0.3 %)).
* 1959 election to Bremen city council 1.337 votes (0.3 % (-0.8 %)).
* 1961 election to Baden-Württemberg "landtag " 15.333 votes (0.5 % (-0.1 %)).Notes and references
ee also
*
All-German People's Party
*Christian Democratic Union
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