German Communist Party

Template:For-text Template:Expand German Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox political party The German Communist Party (Template:Langx, DKP) is a communist party in Germany.<ref name="Spiegel">Template:Cite news</ref> The DKP is far-left and was an observer member of the Party of the European Left before leaving in February 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

The DKP considered itself a reconstitution of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which had been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956 for its aggressively militant opposition to the West German constitution. The new party was formed on 25 September 1968.<ref>"30 Jahre DKP: Eine Veranstaltung in der Offenbacher Stadthalle" ("30 years DKP: An event in the Offenbach town hall"), by Rudi Hechler, September 30, 1998, DKP of Hesse website</ref>

The foundation was preceded by talks between former KPD functionaries and Gustav Heinemann, the West German minister of justice, who explained to them that while a refounding of a banned party was not legally possible, Communists were free to form an entirely new party.<ref>Helmut Bilstein et al, Organisierter Kommunismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Opladen 1977, p. 16.</ref> Even though the close links to the banned KPD made the new party vulnerable to be declared illegal, no such declaration was requested by the German government as West German authorities were liberalizing the attitude towards the communist bloc and East Germany in particular.

The DKP remained on the political fringe, never winning more than 0.3% of the total votes in federal elections.<ref>Deutsche Welle - Wahl 2005 Template:Webarchive</ref> It had relatively greater local support in the 1970s: it achieved up to 2.2% of the vote in Hamburg, 3.1% in Bremen and 2.7% in the Saarland, yet still not enough to enter any Landtags. However, the party enjoyed some success in municipal elections, two patterns of municipalities can be identified in which the DKP was able to win seats: on the one hand working-class residential communities with a long left-wing tradition such as Bottrop in the Ruhr area or Mörfelden-Walldorf in Hesse, and on the other university towns such as Marburg or Tübingen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Following German reunification, the DKP entered a steady decline.<ref name="Spiegel"/>

The DKP received national public attention in early 2008 when Christel Wegner, elected to the state parliament of Lower Saxony on the list of the Left Party as the first DKP member of a state parliament, allegedly endorsed the Berlin Wall, the Stasi and other aspects of the East German state in an interview. This caused embarrassment to the national Left Party leadership.<ref name="Spiegel"/> Despite denying that she made the controversial statements (at least in the form that was reported), she was expelled from the Left Party faction a few days later.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 2 and 3 March 2013, the 20th party congress of the DKP took place in Mörfelden-Walldorf (Hesse). The election for the party chairmanship between the incumbent Bettina Jürgensen and her challenger Patrik Köbele came down to a tight contest after a years-long dispute over direction within the party. Köbele won the election and wanted to position the party as “more militant and revolutionary, re-emphasizing the class struggle, class consciousness and the vanguard role of the Communist Party”. “The distance to those forces that prefer reforms within the existing social system to anti-imperialist revolutionary rhetoric without social backing as a short-term goal will increase,” Köbele emphasized when he took office.

The DKP ended its observer status in the Party of the European Left on 27 February 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The group around the former chairpersons Template:Ill, Template:Ill and the “architect of the reform course” in the party, Leo Meyer, organized itself in the “Communist Network” and in the association “Marxist Left” (MaLi). MaLi is the official “partner movement” of the European Left Party.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the course of the internal discussion about the party's orientation in relation to the anti-monopolistic strategy (AMS), some, mainly young members left the party and the youth organization SDAJ because they rejected the AMS. They initially founded the group “What next?”, from which the Communist Organization (KO) emerged in mid-2018 and the Communist Party (KP) emerged in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Media

The party publishes a weekly newspaper, Unsere Zeit (Template:Literal translation).

Election results

Bundestag

Bundestag

Election year	# of total votes	% of overall vote	# of seats
1972	113,891	0.3%	0
1976	118,581	0.3%	0
1980	71,600	0.2%	0
1983	64,986	0.2%	0
1987	—	—	—
1990	—	—	—
1994	—	—	—
1998	—	—	—
2002	—	—	—
2005	—	—	—
2009	1,894	0.0%	0
2013	—	—	—
2017	11,558	0.0%	0
2021	15,158	0.0%	0

European Parliament

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1979	112,055	0.40 (#6)	Template:Composition bar	New	–
1984	Did not contest		Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
1989	57,704	0.20 (#10)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
1994	Did not contest		Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
1999	Did not contest		Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
2004	37,160	0.14 (#20)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
2009	25,615	0.10 (#28)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
2014	25,204	0.09 (#22)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
2019	20,419	0.05 (#37)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0
2024	14,945	0.04 (#33)	Template:Composition bar	Template:Steady 0

See also

• Communist Party of Germany (1918)
• Communist Party of Germany (1990)

External links

• Template:Official website
• 30 Year history, a speech
• Documents of the foundation
• Unsere Zeit (UZ) Socialist Weekly Newspaper
• 50,000 People Attend German Communist Party Media Fair People's Weekly World, 22 June 2009