SED stands for the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands.  It was the official political party of the German Democratic Republic and was originally formed through the union of the East German social democrats and the communist party.

Its role as effectively the only party in East Germany was anchored in the GDR’s constitution.

After the fall of the Berlin wall, the SED was renamed into the SED-PDS and then simply into PDS: Partei der Demokratischen Sozialismus.  In 2005 they changed their name to Die Linkspartei, and in 2007 they converged with another party to form Die Linke.

Die Linke have received sufficient votes in some states – even western states – to have seats in local parliaments.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

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FDJ stands for Freie Deutsche Jugend and was the youth movement of the German Democratic Republic (DDR).

Although membership was voluntary, non-members often suffered pressure and discrimination and so around 80% of people between the ages of 14 and 25 were members.

Although closely associated with East Germany, the FDJ originally had branches in the western zones, before it was outlawed in the Federal German Republic (West Germany) in 1951.  In fact, its earlier roots were not in Germany at all, rather in Prague, Paris and London in the 1930s.

Today there are still FDJ groups in Germany, although membership numbers are much lower than they were before reunification.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

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Our topic in October is the DDR – the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

The DDR (GDR in English) existed from 7th October 1949 until 2nd October 1990 and was created out of the Soviet occupation zone as a repsonse to the creation of the German Federal Republic several weeks earlier.

Today we talk about the creation and the economic and political systems that we set in place in the DDR and how the country was structured.  We also talk our own personal experiences when visiting the country.

Find out more in the podcast

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