1946 Berlin State Election
The 1946 Greater Berlin City Council election (''Stadtverordnetenversammlung von Groß-Berlin'') was held on 20 October 1946 to elect all 130 members of the City Council. It was the only all-Berlin election in the period between the end of the Second World War and German reunification in 1990. The clear winner of the election was the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Otto Ostrowski, which won 48.7% and 63 seats, just three short of a majority. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union finished in second place under Ferdinand Friedensburg with 22.2% of votes and 29 seats. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Socialist Unity Party (SED), formed a few months earlier as a merger of the Communist Party of Germany, Communist Party and the SPD branches in the Soviet zone, took just 19.8% of the vote and 26 seats. The remaining 9.3% of the votes went to the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1948 West Berlin State Election
The election to the city council of Greater Berlin from December 5, 1948 took place in exceptional circumstances. The last election had occurred just two years earlier; however, since then the city had been separated into East and West. These elections were held only in the Western sectors accordingly. Moreover, West Berlin was experiencing a Berlin Blockade, blockade since June 1948 from the outside world and was only surviving due to Berlin airlift, the airlift. Against this background, the elections to the city council took place. Aftermath The Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) experienced its largest ever election victory. They increased their share of the vote by 15.8 percentage points to receive 64.5% of the votes, the highest percentage that has ever been achieved by a party in a democratic election in Germany. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) slumped by 2.8 percentage points to 19.4% of the vote, whil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Louise Schroeder
Louise Dorothea Schroeder (2 April 1887 in Altona (Elbe) – 4 June 1957 in Berlin) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) party. She was among the 41 female members of the Weimar National Assembly, the Constituent Assembly of the Weimar Republic and subsequently remained a member of the Reichstag until 1933. An educator and activist central in the ''Arbeiterwohlfahrt'' (Workers Welfare Institution) movement, and she was under scrutiny of the Nazi Party during the 1930s and 1940s for her socialist positions. After the partition of Germany following World War II, she served as governing mayor of West Berlin in 1948. Until Franziska Giffey was sworn in in 2021, she was the only woman to have served as Mayor of Berlin. Life and work Schroeder was born a short distance to the west of Hamburg, the youngest of four children. Her father, an early participant in Socialist politics, was a construction worker; her mother worked in a vegetable shop. Sch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ernst Reuter
Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter (29 July 1889 – 29 September 1953) was the mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War. He played a significant role in unifying the divided sectors of Berlin and publicly and politically took a stand against the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union. Early years Reuter was born in Apenrade (Aabenraa), Province of Schleswig-Holstein (now in Denmark). He spent his childhood days in Leer where a public square is named after him. Reuter attended the universities of Münster and Marburg where he completed his studies in 1912 and passed the examinations as a teacher. Moreover, he was member in a fraternity called "SBV Frankonia Marburg". The same year he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Reuter opposed Kaiser Wilhelm's regime at the start of the First World War. After being drafted, Reuter was sent to the Eastern front where he was wounded and captured by the Russians. During the 1917 October ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital city of Bonn, or as the Second German Republic. During the Cold War, the western portion of Germany and the associated territory of West Berlin were parts of the Western Bloc. West Germany was formed as a political entity during the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, established from 12 States of Germany, states formed in the three Allied zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided between the Western and Eastern Bloc, Eastern blocs. Germany was divided into the two countries. Initially, West Germany claimed an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, representing itself as the sole democratically reorganised continuation of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Liberal Democratic Party Of Germany
The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (, LDPD) was a political party in East Germany. Like the other allied bloc parties of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the National Front, it had 52 representatives in the People's Chamber. Foundation The history of the party dates back to 16 June 1945, when a Berlin-based group led by Waldemar Koch and his father-in-law Eugen Schiffer took the initiative in refounding the Weimar-era ''German Democratic Party''. Koch was elected chair of the founding committee, with Wilhelm Külz as his deputy; the writer Franz Xaver Kappus joined the board as well. At first there were some conversations about forming a united centre-right democratic party with the Christian Democrats, but the idea was abandoned soon and the name was changed to Liberal Democratic Party ("Liberal-Demokratische Partei", LDP) before the party's official founding on 5 July 1946. It was first of all aimed at uniting Weimar Republic-era members of the German De ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Communist Party Of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party in Allied-occupied Germany and West Germany during History of Germany (1945–1990), the post-war period until it Merger of the KPD and SPD, merged with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD in the Soviet occupation zone in 1946 and was banned by the West German Federal Constitutional Court in 1956. The construction of the KPD began in the aftermath of the First World War by the Rosa Luxemburg, Rosa Luxembourg's and Karl Liebknecht's faction of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) who had opposed World War I, the war and Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD)'s Burgfriedenspolitik, support of it. The KPD joined the Spartacist uprising of January 1919, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Socialist Unity Party Of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist party, established in 1946 as a Merger of the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, merger of the East German branches of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party of Germany. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was effectively a one-party state. Other institutional Popular front, popular front parties were permitted to exist in alliance with the SED; these parties included the Christian Democratic Union (East Germany), Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany, Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany, Democratic Farmers' Party, and the National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany), Nat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christian Democratic Union Of Germany
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 January 2022, and has served as the Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. The CDU is the largest party in the Bundestag, the German federal legislature, with 208 out of 630 seats, having won 28.5% of votes in the 2025 German federal election, 2025 federal election. It forms the CDU/CSU Bundestag faction, also known as the Union, with its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The group's parliamentary leader is also Friedrich Merz. Founded in 1945 as an interdenominational Christian party, the CDU effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party (Germany), Centre Party, with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer. The party also included politicians of other ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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German Reunification
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the integration of its re-established constituent federated states into the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany to form Germany, present-day Germany. This date was chosen as the customary German Unity Day, and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a national day, national holiday. On the same date, East Berlin, East and West Berlin, West Berlin were also reunified into a single city, which eventually Decision on the Capital of Germany, became the capital of Germany. The East German government, controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), started to falter on 2 May 1989, when the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain. The border was still closely guarded, but the Pan-European Picn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Social Democratic Party Of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together with Lars Klingbeil, who joined her in December 2021. After losing the 2025 federal election, the party is part of the Merz government as the junior coalition partner. The SPD is a member of 12 of the 16 German state governments and is a leading partner in seven of them. The SPD was founded in 1875 from a merger of smaller socialist parties, and grew rapidly after the lifting of Germany's repressive Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890 to become the largest socialist party in Western Europe until 1933. In 1891, it adopted its Marxist-influenced Erfurt Program, though in practice it was moderate and focused on building working-class organizations. In the 1912 federal election, the SPD won 34.8 percent of votes and became the largest party in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1990 Berlin State Election
The 1990 Berlin state election was held on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. This was the first election held in Berlin after the German reunification, reunification of Germany and Berlin, and was held on the same day as the 1990 German federal election, 1990 federal election. The Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) emerged as the largest party with 40.4%, with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) second on 30.4%. The Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany), Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) won 9.2%, while the Free Democratic Party (Germany), Free Democratic Party (FDP) won 7.1%. Two green parties, the Alternative List from the West and the Alliance 90 from the East, entered the Abgeordnetenhaus with 5.0% and 4.4% respectively. The 5% electoral threshold for entry was applied separately in the old West and East of the city, allowing both parties to enter despite both ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |