German People's Congress

(Deutscher Volkskon-gress), a broad anti-imperialist movement between 1947 and 1949 that arose on the initiative of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

The German People’s Congress expressed the solidarity of postwar Germany’s democratic forces in the struggle to stamp out the remnants of fascism and to further the political, economic, and cultural renewal of the country. The movement directed its main efforts toward strengthening the alliance of the working class with the broad masses, developing a democratic consciousness among all strata, and enlisting the entire population in the struggle to preserve the unity of Germany as a democratic and peaceloving state.

In May 1949 the German People’s Congress endorsed the draft constitution of the German Democratic Republic. On Oct. 7, 1949, the German People’s Council, a central body of the German People’s Congress set up in 1948, constituted itself as a provisional People’s Chamber of the German Democratic Republic.