1963 East German general election

none East Germany legislative 99.25% ( 0.35pp) 1958 East German general election 1958 yes 1963 10 20 1967 East German general election 1967 List of members of the third Volkskammer List of members of the fourth Volkskammer 434 out of 500 seats in the Volkskammer Opvolger van Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Bestanddeelnr 911-5926 (cropped).jpg Walter Ulbricht Socialist Unity Party of Germany National Front 127 10 250px Results of the election. Chairman of the Council of Ministers Otto Grotewohl Socialist Unity Party of Germany Chairman of the Council of Ministers after election Otto Grotewohl Socialist Unity Party of Germany General elections were held in East Germany on 20 October 1963. They were to originally be held in November 1962 but were postponed. 434 deputies to the Volkskammer were elected and 66 deputies appointed by the Magistrate of East Berlin, with all of them being candidates of the single-list National Front, dominated by the communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The seat count outside of East Berlin was expanded in this election by 34, making the Volkskammer a round 500 members large. The new seats (plus 12 seats allocated to the Peasants Mutual Aid Association in previous elections) exclusively went to the SED and the mass organizations, the bloc parties' all staying at 52 seats. Like all East German elections before the Peaceful Revolution, this election was neither free nor fair. Voters were only presented with a closed list of candidates (pre-approved by the SED Central Committee Secretariat) put forward by the National Front. The list predetermined an outcome whereby the SED had both the largest faction in the Volkskammer and a majority of its members, as almost all of the Volkskammer members elected for one of the mass organizations were also members of the SED. While voters could reject the list, they would have to use the polling booth, the use of which was documented by Stasi informants located at every polling site, and had to cross out every name, as "Yes" and "No" boxes were removed after the 1950 election. Abstaining from voting was also seen as oppositional and punished. While legally permissible according to East German election laws, widespread election monitoring was not done out of fear for repression until the 1989 local elections.https://www.aufarbeitung-berlin.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Dokumente/Publikationen/Broschuere_Wahlen-in-der-DDR.pdf Wahlen in der DDR Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship de 2025-12-04https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYplfGBMRas MitBeStimmen: Wahlen in der DDR: So unterschiedlich sind Demokratie und Diktatur 2022-08-08 Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung Brand 2025-12-04 YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc1bpYTj6r4 Wahlfälschung bei der DDR-Kommunalwahl 1989 - Der Anfang vom Ende FAKT 2019-05-21 MDR Investigativ 2025-12-04 YouTube Results List of members of the fourth Volkskammer File:1963–1981 Volkskammer.svg National Front 9 Socialist Unity Party of Germany 9 99.95 127 +10 Free German Trade Union Federation 68 +15 Christian Democratic Union 52 0 Liberal Democratic Party of Germany 52 0 National Democratic Party of Germany 52 0 Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany 52 0 Free German Youth 40 +11 Democratic Women's League of Germany 35 +6 Cultural Association of the GDR 22 +4 Against 0.05 +34 11533859 11621158 Nohlen et al. References Sources Dieter Nohlen, Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel and Klaus Landfried (Ed.). Die Wahl der Parlamente und anderer Staatsorgane. Herausgegeben von Dolf Sternberger und Bernhard Vogel. Redaktion von Dieter Nohlen Band I: Europa. Berlin: Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co. 1969. p. 376. Cyril Edwin Black and Ernst Christian Helmreich. Twentieth Century Europe: A History. New York: Knopf. 1972. p. 677. External links https://www.verfassungen.de/ddr/wahlgesetz63.htm Law on the Elections to the People's Representatives of the GDR of 31 July 1963 de 2026-05-14 https://www.verfassungen.de/ddr/wahlkreisbeschluss63.htm Decision of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic on the constituencies and the number of representatives to be elected in each constituency for the election to the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic in 1963 de 2026-05-14 General Category:Elections in East Germany Germany East East Germany Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results