Communist Party of Germany (1990)
The Communist Party of Germany is a minor political party in Germany. It is one of several parties which claim the KPD name and/or legacy. It was founded in Berlin in 1990.
History
The KPD, also known as KPD-Ost or KPD, was founded in 1990 in the GDR, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall but before the eventual German reunification by members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany who opposed the reforms from the party's new leadership and wanted to stay loyal to Marxism-Leninism.It competed unsuccessfully in the 1990 Volkskammer election, the only market multi-party election held in the GDR.
Following Erich Honecker's expulsion from SED, KPD offered him and his wife Margot their party membership, which they gladly accepted.
The KPD was exempt from the West German ban on the KPD from 1956, due to a provision in the German reunification treaty which guarantees the continued legality of parties founded in the former GDR. However, this KPD-ban was already circumvented in 1968 with the foundation of a new West German communist party, the German Communist Party. The KPD and the DKP remain to exist as separate parties and occasionally cooperate politically.
Today the KPD remains a small party with its main strongholds being in the Neue Lander. It has competed in Bundestag, Landtag and local elections, but so far has only managed to gain one mandate in the city of Zeitz between 2004 and 2014. The party is will stand candidates in the 2019 state election in Thuringia and Saxony.
In 2002 the KPD founded its youth wing, the Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschland.
Ideology
The party upholds a strict anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist line, and states that it "consistently fights revisionism, opportunism and its main form, anti-Stalinism." It recognizes the DDR, the Soviet Union, especially during the leadership of Stalin, and other former Soviet satellite states as examples of real existing socialism. It also holds a positive view on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, its leadership, both Kim Jong-il and his successor Kim Jong-un, and the leading ideologies of the nation, being Juche and Songun.Famous members
Despite being a small party, it managed to attract a number of prominent members, mostly those from the former leadership of the Socialist Unity Party. Both Erich Honecker and his wife Margot were members of the KPD after being expelled from the reformed SED in 1990, Margot Honecker even becoming an honorary member.Irma Thälmann, the daughter of Ernst Thälmann, became a member of the KPD after leaving the Linkspartei.PDS, due to the re-evaluation of her father's legacy by the party. She was a candidate for the KPD at the 1994 Bundestag election for the district of Berlin-Lichtenberg, gaining 266 votes.
Electoral history
| Election | Year | Votes | % | Seats |
| Volkskammer | 1990 | 8,819 | 0.1% | 0 |
| Municipal elections in East-Berlin | 1990 | 3,255 | 0.2% | 0 |
| Landtag Brandenburg | 1994 | 174 | 0.0% | 0 |
| Bundestag | 1994 | 426 | 0.0% | 0 |
| Landtag Saxony | 1999 | 1,814 | 0.1% | 0 |
| Bundestag | 2002 | 1,624 '' | 0.0% | 0 |
| Municipal elections in Zeitz | 2004 | 505 | 1.9% | 1 |
| Landtag Thuringia | 2004 | 1,842 | 0.2% | 0 |
| Landtag Saxony-Anhalt | 2006 | 957 | 0.1% | 0 |
| Municipal elections in Zeitz | 2009 | 451 | 1.7% | 1 |
| Landtag Saxony-Anhalt | 2011 | 1,653 | 0.2% | 0 |
| Municipal elections in Zeitz | 2014 | 393 | 1.4% | 0 |
| Landtag Thuringia | 2014 | 1,177 | 0.1% | 0 |
| Landtag Saxony | 2019 | 1,955 | 0.1% | 0 |
| Landtag Thuringia | 2019 | 756 | 0,1% | 0 |