The SED was founded in April
1946 in the
SBZ (
Soviet Occupied Zone) by the merge of the
communist KPD and the social democratic
SPD. Both parties did not want this merge ,but they were forced to by the Soviets. In the beginning both parties were equally strong, but till
1955 the party was formed in to a
party after Soviet model.
In the
DDR(established
1949) the SED was the only real political force, as
elections were manipulated and members of other parties (the so-called
Blockparteien) were suppressed. The DDR was actually reigned by the
institutions of the DDR. These were the
Zentralkomitee (ZK), which was elected by the party convention and its organs the
Politbüro and the
Secretary (led by the General-Secretary, which were
Walter Ulbricht (
1950–
1971),
Erich Honecker (
1971–
1989) and
Egon Krenz (
1989).)
As the DDR broke down in
1989, the SED renamed itself, first into SED-PDS and later into
PDS and elected
Gregor Gysi as the new party leader.