Who Were the SED Party?

 In the days of East Germany and West Germany....the key party in the eastern part of the country....that ran the Communist government....was the SED Party.

They existed from the spring of 1946 to the very end of 1989 (the unification period).

It's safe to refer to them as a Marxist-Leninist 'creation' and that they leaned pretty far to the left.  

I should note here that as the Soviets were changing and modifying in the 1980s....flipping to a new style....the East Germans were on the stalled train.  They didn't want revision or a new view of reality.  So when the Wall came down....this group of people were pretty much in a dismal mental state of mind.

As 1989 wrapped up....the new reality struck the party members and they 'reformed'....re-inventing themselves as the PDS Party (Party of Democratic Socialism). 

How PDS appeared?  Well...it was a fresh new left 'talk' and if you were heavily into the Marxist-Leninist situation before....you were looking at what I'd call Marxist-Leninist-Lite.  Yes, a more kindly and gentle version of what the old SED Party was about (for 40 years).

In the unified Germany?  PDS got 2.4 percent of the national vote in the federal election of 1990 (pretty lousy numbers).

In 1994's election?  They almost doubled the vote....to 4.4 percent (still not enough to get seats in the Bundestag).

In the 1998 election?  5.1-percent....enough to get seats finally in the Bundestag.

In the 2002 election?  They lost numbers....being forced out of the Bundestag.

In the 2005 election?  They finally achieved respectable numbers.....8.7 percent.  

Two years would pass, and the PDS folks went and merged with a lesser far-left party (the WASG).  A new name came out of this....the Linke Party. 

In federal elections now....the Linke can generally count on 8 to 9 percent in a typical election.  In the five states of old DDR existing today....they can generally count on anything from 12 percent....on up to 25 percent.

Are they any real resemblance to the 1980s SED Party?  No.  There are a dozen or so things that would suggest they are still somewhat Marxist-Leninist, but they also have taken up middle-of-the road positions as well.  

The possibility that they will ever go beyond 12-percent?  Highly doubtful, but they could be part of some federal government coalition (under the SPD/Green Party umbrella), and I think that's their ultimate dream position.