Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)

Party of Democratic Socialism

Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus / Die Linkspartei.PDS
Party of Democratic Socialism Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus / Die Linkspartei.PDS
Abbreviation	PDS
Leader	Lothar Bisky
Founded	16 December 1989 (SED-PDS); 4 February 1990 (PDS); 17 July 2005 (Die Linkspartei.PDS);
Dissolved	16 June 2007
Preceded by	Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
Merged into	The Left
Headquarters	Karl-Liebknecht-Haus Kleine Alexanderstraße 28 D-10178 Berlin
Ideology	Socialism; Left-wing populism;
Political position	Left-wing
European affiliation	Party of the European Left
European Parliament group	European United Left–Nordic Green Left
Colours	Red
Website
	www.sozialisten.de
	Politics of Germany; Political parties; Elections;

The Party of Democratic Socialism (German: Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) was a left-wing populist political party in Germany active between 1989 and 2007.^[8] It was the legal successor to the communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which ruled the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) as the de facto sole legal party until 1990.^[9] From 1990 through to 2005, the PDS had been seen as the left-wing "party of the East". While it achieved minimal support in western Germany, it regularly won 15% to 25% of the vote in the eastern new states of Germany, entering coalition governments with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in the federal states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin.^[10]

In 2005, the PDS, renamed The Left Party.PDS (Die Linkspartei.PDS) entered an electoral alliance with the Western Germany-based Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG) and won 8.7% of the vote in Germany's September 2005 federal elections (more than double the 4% share achieved by the PDS alone in the 2002 federal election). On 16 June 2007, the two groupings merged to form a new party called The Left (Die Linke).^[11]

The party had many socially progressive policies, including support for legalisation of same-sex marriage and greater social welfare for immigrants.^[12]

Internationally, the Left Party.PDS was a co-founder of the Party of the European Left and was the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in the European Parliament.^[11]

^ König, Thomas; Finke, Daniel (March 2015). "Legislative Governance in Times of International Terrorism". The Journal of Conflict Resolution. 59 (2): 262–282.
^ Oswald, Franz (12 November 2007). "The party of democratic socialism: Ex‐communists entrenched as East German regional protest party". Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics. 12 (2): 173-195.
^ Yoder, Jennifer (1999). From East Germans to Germans?: The New Postcommunist Elites. Duke University Press. p. 188. ISBN 9780822323723.
^ Klingelhöfer, Tristan; Richter, Simon; Loew, Nicole (2024). "Changing affective alignments between parties and voters". West European Politics. doi:10.1080/01402382.2023.2295735.
^ Engel, Ulf (2002). Germany's Africa Policy Revisited: Interests, Images and Incrementalism. LIT Verlag Munster. p. 22. ISBN 9783825859855.
^ Saalfeld, Thomas (2002). "The German Party System: Continuity and Change". German Politics. 11 (3): 99–130. doi:10.1080/714001303.
^ Dunphy, Richard (2004). Contesting Capitalism?: Left Parties and European Integration. Manchester University Press. p. 168. ISBN 9780719068041.
^ Peter Barker (ed.) The Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany: Modern Post-communism Or Nostalgic Populism?, 1998
^ Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997
^ Eric Canepa, Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism, Socialist Register, Vol. 30, 1994
^ ^a ^b Dominic Heilig, Mapping the European Left: Socialist Parties in the EU Archived 2019-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, April 2016
^ David F. Patton. Out of the East: From PDS to Left Party in Unified Germany (State University of New York Press; 2011)

[1] König, Thomas; Finke, Daniel (March 2015). "Legislative Governance in Times of International Terrorism". The Journal of Conflict Resolution. 59 (2): 262–282.

[2] Oswald, Franz (12 November 2007). "The party of democratic socialism: Ex‐communists entrenched as East German regional protest party". Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics. 12 (2): 173-195.

[3] Yoder, Jennifer (1999). From East Germans to Germans?: The New Postcommunist Elites. Duke University Press. p. 188. ISBN 9780822323723.

[4] Klingelhöfer, Tristan; Richter, Simon; Loew, Nicole (2024). "Changing affective alignments between parties and voters". West European Politics. doi:10.1080/01402382.2023.2295735.

[5] Engel, Ulf (2002). Germany's Africa Policy Revisited: Interests, Images and Incrementalism. LIT Verlag Munster. p. 22. ISBN 9783825859855.

[6] Saalfeld, Thomas (2002). "The German Party System: Continuity and Change". German Politics. 11 (3): 99–130. doi:10.1080/714001303.

[7] Dunphy, Richard (2004). Contesting Capitalism?: Left Parties and European Integration. Manchester University Press. p. 168. ISBN 9780719068041.

[8] Peter Barker (ed.) The Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany: Modern Post-communism Or Nostalgic Populism?, 1998

[autogenerated1990-9] Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997

[10] Eric Canepa, Germany's Party of Democratic Socialism, Socialist Register, Vol. 30, 1994

[rosalux-nyc1-11] Dominic Heilig, Mapping the European Left: Socialist Parties in the EU Archived 2019-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, April 2016

[12] David F. Patton. Out of the East: From PDS to Left Party in Unified Germany (State University of New York Press; 2011)

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