Post-Communist Feminism in Germany: Equality and Difference in the Party of Democratic Socialism
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In December 1989, the ruling communist party of East Germany,
the Socialist Unity Party (SED), was reconstituted when it adopted the
name Socialist Unity Party-Party of Democratic Socialism (SED-PDS),
which was simplified on 4 February 1990 to the Party of Democratic
Socialism.1 The brand of Marxism-Leninism that had prevailed in the
German Democratic Republic (GDR) appeared to be irredeemably
discredited, and the new leadership of this successor party was
obliged to create an alternative vision of socialism and to redefine
their political goals. The PDS program of 1990,2 with its clear adoption
of a feminist agenda, constituted a breach with the party’s political
past. Whereas the Marxist-Leninist theory underpinning SED
policy had been based on the principle that inequality is economically
determined, the new PDS program acknowledged patriarchy
as a separate issue.