Socialist Unity Party of Germany - Rebirth As The PDS

Rebirth As The PDS

The rump of the SED that remained was renamed as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) at a special party congress on 16 December 1989. Gregor Gysi became the new leader of the party. Initially, the party was known by the combination initials SED-PDS; this practice was dropped on 4 February 1990, after which the party was known solely as the PDS. On 18 March 1990, the PDS lost significant influence in the first free elections in GDR history; the Alliance for Germany coalition, led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), won the election.

The SED had sequestered money overseas in secret accounts, including some which turned up in Liechtenstein in 2008. This was returned to the German government, as the PDS had rejected claims to overseas SED assets in 1990. The vast majority of domestic SED assets were transferred to the GDR government before unification. Legal issues over back taxes possibly owed by the PDS on former SED assets were eventually settled in 1995, when an agreement between the PDS and the Independent Commission on Property of Political Parties and Mass Organizations of the GDR was confirmed by the Berlin Administrative Court.

The PDS survived the reunification of Germany and eventually started growing again, managing to get representatives elected to the Bundestag. The PDS remained influential in former eastern Germany, especially at the state and local levels, in articulating east-German issues and addressing social problems. In 2007 the PDS merged with the Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit–Die Wahlalternative, WASG) to create the new party The Left (Die Linke), which has resulted in a higher acceptance in western states, the party now also being represented in the parliaments of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Hesse and Hamburg.