Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany


The Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany was an East German political party. The DBD was founded in 1948. It had 52 representatives in the Volkskammer, as part of the National Front. The DBD participated in all GDR cabinets. The founding of the DBD was an attempt by the SED to weaken the influence of CDU/LDPD in the rural community by establishing a party loyal to the SED. The leadership cadre came mainly from the ranks of the SED. In the late 1980s, the party had 117,000 members.
After the fall of Berlin Wall, the party initially tried to find itself a niche as ecological agrarian party, but the first free Volkskammer election netted it only nine seats. In 1990 the DBD merged with the Christian Democratic Union.

International contacts

The DBD had friendly relations with peasants' parties in other Eastern Bloc countries. It had close contacts with the Polish United People's Party and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union. Besides that, there were some contacts with farmers' associations in West Germany. They had also some contacts with agrarian parties in Finland and in Sweden.

Electoral history

Volkskammer elections

Chairmen of the DBD