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156-592: The Left ( German : Die Linke ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (German: Die Linkspartei [diː ˈlɪŋkspaʁˌtaɪ] ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany . The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative . Through the PDS, the party
312-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
468-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
624-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
780-465: A Bundestag speech in September, Wagenknecht attacked the federal government for launching what she called "an unprecedented economic war against our most important energy supplier," and called for the end of sanctions against Russia. The speech was boycotted by half The Left's deputies, and prompted numerous calls for her resignation by colleagues. Hundreds of members were reported to have left the party over
936-554: A breakthrough in the west with 8.3%. It was the most popular party in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg, and won sixteen direct constituencies, the largest tally by a minor party in history. The Left nonetheless remained in opposition. The Left won seats in the parliament of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia , in the May 2010 election . They now held seats in thirteen of Germany's sixteen states, only absent from three states in
1092-862: A coalition with the Social Democratic Party and The Greens headed by Minister-President Bodo Ramelow . The Left is a founding member of the Party of the European Left , and is the third-largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament . In December 2022, The Left had 54,214 registered members, making it the sixth-largest party in Germany by membership, this decreased further to 50,251 members in December 2023. The Left promotes left-wing populism , anti-fascism and anti-militarism , and
1248-621: A comeback to the Landtags of Schleswig-Holstein , North Rhine-Westphalia , and Lower Saxony , despite making gains in all three states. The party's slow decline in Saarland continued, winning 12.8% in March. In 2018, they defended their seats in Hesse . Kipping and Riexinger were re-elected for a third time at the party congress in 2018, winning 64.5% and 73.8% respectively. The Left had mixed results in 2019. In
1404-472: A formal merger of the PDS and WASG continued through the next year until a final agreement was reached on 27 March 2007. The new party, called The Left ( Die Linke ), held its founding congress in Berlin on 16 June 2007. Lothar Bisky and Oskar Lafontaine were elected as co-leaders, while Gregor Gysi became leader of the party's Bundestag group. The unified party quickly became a serious force in western Germany for
1560-606: A gradual transition to a neutral and demilitarized German confederation. Writer Michael Schneider criticised what he saw as massive interference by Western politicians in the GDR election campaign, which he characterised as dominated by Western personalities and party volunteers and funded partly by taxpayer money from the West. Civil rights activist and founding member of the New Forum , Jens Reich , raised similar concerns. In 2009, 20 years after
1716-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
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#17328558150171872-525: A group of reformers who supported the Peaceful Revolution . His ally Hans Modrow , the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers, became the de facto national leader. Seeking to change its image, the party expelled most of its former leadership, including Honecker and Krenz; the new government negotiated with opposition groups and arranged free elections. By the time of a special congress in mid-December,
2028-519: A junior partner under the SPD. The 2014 Thuringian state election was the party's biggest success to date, achieving not only its best state election result (28.2%) but also forming the first coalition with one of its own members at the head. The party was able to negotiate a red-red-green coalition with the SPD and Greens, and Bodo Ramelow was elected Minister-President by the Landtag of Thuringia , becoming
2184-544: A modest showing of 2.2% in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election in May, but failed to win seats. The election saw the incumbent SPD government defeated in a landslide, which was widely interpreted as a sign of the federal SPD's unpopularity. Chancellor Schröder subsequently called an early federal election to be held in September. WASG continued to gain members, prompting the PDS leadership to propose an alliance between
2340-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
2496-684: A net loss of 4.3 percentage points of vote share and 30 seats overall. Notably, Vice President of the Bundestag Petra Pau was defeated in her direct constituency of Berlin-Marzahn-Hellersdorf . Due to The Left's poor performance, a left-wing coalition fell a few seats short of a majority in the Bundestag . State elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were held on the same day. The Left suffered minor losses in both, but nonetheless joined coalition governments in each state. In Berlin, they joined
2652-647: A newly-founded party, it had no ties to the SED, but a high profile and ample resources thanks to its Western counterpart. Much of East Germany's territory had also been strongholds of the Weimar Republic -era SPD. Meanwhile, the CDU was deprived of a natural base by the lack of any significant Catholic population in the country, with the sole exception of Eichsfeld on the Thuringian border. Additionally, several older parties, including
2808-597: A number of parties formed alliances for the election, including the Association of Free Democrats , Alliance 90 , and an alliance between the Green Party and Independent Women's Association . Seats were calculated nationally using the largest remainder method , and distributed in multi-member constituencies corresponding to the fifteen Bezirke . The campaign was short and presented the parties with major organizational challenges. The election, originally scheduled for May,
2964-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
3120-429: A renewed coalition with the SPD and Greens. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, they replaced the CDU as junior partner to the SPD. After the federal election, The Left suffered internal strife and its fortunes continued to decline. A major blow came in the March 2022 Saarland state election , with the party losing all their seats amid conflict between the state leadership and Oskar Lafontaine , who declined to run again and quit
3276-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
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#17328558150173432-474: A second centre of power within the party, and conflicts sometimes arise between the federal leadership and parliamentary group. This most prominently happened in 2015, which resulted in Bundestag co-leaders Sahra Wagenknecht and Dietmar Bartsch being elected as lead candidates for the 2017 federal election, defeating federal co-chairs Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger . The Left's internal structure underwent
3588-546: A state were summed up to determine the statewide result. The recount fixed the number of Volkskammer members from each party who would be co-opted into the Bundestag. The newly elected Volkskammer was constituted on 5 April 1990, and elected Sabine Bergmann-Pohl of the CDU as its president. As the State Council of the GDR was dissolved at the same time, she became East Germany's interim head of state . Four days later, after protracted negotiations, Lothar de Maizière announced
3744-414: A transitional phase after its formation in 2007 in order to integrate the different groups. Western party organisations were initially strongly favoured in party congresses, which strengthened the "fundamental opposition" faction of Oskar Lafontaine . These provisions expired at the 2014 party congress. The dual leadership, initially a temporary measure, was adopted permanently in 2010. This was not initially
3900-649: A vision, are not to be implemented as soon as possible, and should not be seen as inflexible preconditions for a federal, left-wing red–red–green coalition . In their manifesto, the party says: "All support for NATO states which, like Erdoğan 's Turkey, disregard international law, must be stopped immediately." The Left criticised Germany's defense plan with Saudi Arabia, which has been waging war in Yemen and has been accused of massive human rights violations. The Left supports further debt cancellations for developing countries and increases in development aid, in collaboration with
4056-509: A youth wing, Left Youth Solid , and a student wing known as The Left.SDS. The party is also affiliated with a number of left-wing think tanks , education, and policy groups, most prominently the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation . The party is formally led by a 26-member Party Executive Committee (PEC), of which seven are members of the party's leadership, the executive board. This includes two federal co-chairpersons, of which at least one
4212-408: Is a perennial issue, as The Left believes that they primarily benefit people with high incomes. The party aims for the financial markets to be subject to heavier government regulation, with the goal, among others, to reduce the speculation of bonds and derivatives. The party wants to strengthen anti-trust laws and empower cooperatives to decentralise the economy. Further economic reforms supported by
4368-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
4524-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
4680-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
4836-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
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4992-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
5148-496: Is generally considered a left-wing , big tent party. This party is sometimes considered part of the German " centre-left " camp. It has been described as " far-left " by journalists in some news outlets including the BBC , Euronews , The Guardian , and Der Spiegel , and is considered to be left-wing populist by some researchers. The Left aims at increasing government spending in
5304-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
5460-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
5616-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
5772-510: Is neutral on European integration . In late 2023, prominent member Sahra Wagenknecht and several supporters split from the party and formed Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht , resulting in the dissolution of The Left's official faction in the Bundestag. The main predecessor of The Left was the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which emerged from the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) of East Germany (GDR). In October 1989, facing increasing unpopularity,
5928-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
6084-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
6240-435: Is organised into branches in each of the 16 states . The party has smaller branches on a local level, for which the corresponding state branches are responsible. These branches usually organise across a district , city, or (in Berlin ), borough . The lowest unit of the party is the grassroots organization, which, depending on the density of membership, can include a residential area, a city or an entire district. The party has
6396-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
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6552-451: Is required by statute to be female. Convention also dictates that one leader should come from the Eastern states and one from the west, though this is not an official rule. The PEC is elected by a regular party congress, which also discusses and determines the party platform and rules on basic political and organisational matters. The leadership group of the party's Bundestag faction is considered
6708-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
6864-539: Is the direct descendant of the Marxist–Leninist ruling party of former East Germany , the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Since October 2024, The Left's co- chairpersons have been Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken . The party holds 28 seats out of 736 in the Bundestag , the federal legislature of Germany, having won 4.9% of votes cast in the 2021 German federal election . Its parliamentary group
7020-750: Is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),
7176-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
7332-471: Is the second-smallest of seven in the Bundestag, and is headed by parliamentary co-leaders Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann . The Left is represented in eight of Germany's sixteen state legislatures, including all five of the eastern states . As of 2021, the party participates in governments in the states of Bremen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a junior partner, as well as in Thuringia , where it leads
7488-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
7644-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
7800-417: The 1998 German federal election it won 5.1% of votes, enough to win seats outright without relying on direct constituencies as it had in 1994. By the 2000s, it was the second-largest party in every eastern state legislature except Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Despite electoral successes, the PDS faced internal strife due to ideological disputes, a chronic decline in membership, and a near-complete lack of support in
7956-470: The 2005 federal election , the Left.PDS easily passed the electoral threshold, winning 8.7% of the vote and 53 seats. It became the fourth largest party in the Bundestag. The result of the election was inconclusive; between the SPD, Greens, and Left.PDS, left-wing parties held a majority, but the SPD was unwilling to cooperate with the Left.PDS. The result was a grand coalition of the CDU and SPD. Negotiations for
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#17328558150178112-486: The 2023 Hessian state election , The Left were wiped out after achieving 3.1% of the vote, thus losing their 9 seats due to falling short of the 5% threshold needed for representation. In October 2023, Wagenknecht and nine other Bundestag members, including faction co-leader Amira Mohamed Ali , announced their intention to leave The Left and launch the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance . This pushed The Left below
8268-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
8424-461: The Bundeswehr outside of Germany. The party calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany, as well as the replacement of NATO with a collective security system including Russia as a member country. They believe that German foreign policy should be strictly confined to the goals of civil diplomacy and cooperation, instead of confrontation, though they also believe that such demands are more of
8580-495: The CDU , but immediately resigned due to widespread outrage. After a protracted government crisis , Ramelow was re-elected for a second term to lead a minority government. In August 2020, Kipping and Riexinger announced they would step down as co-chairs in accordance with party regulations stating that no position should be held by the same person for more than eight years. A party congress was scheduled on 30 October to 1 November 2020, but
8736-458: The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1946 and refounded only six months before the elections, finished second with 88 seats despite being widely expected to win. The former Socialist Unity Party of Germany , restyled as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), finished third with 66 seats. The Alliance fell nine seats short of the 201 seats needed to govern alone. Lothar de Maizière of
8892-557: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
9048-480: The Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic . The party also takes a friendly stance towards China; Sevim Dağdelen , deputy leader of The Left in the Bundestag, criticized EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen 's speech calling for a new EU policy towards China, saying that "[t]he EU and its member states want to challenge the emerging power China, including through military means." The Left
9204-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
9360-632: The East German Round Table , which was joined by representatives of the SED to negotiate reforms; at its first meeting on 7 December 1989, the Round Table agreed that elections to the Volkskammer would be held on 6 May 1990. On 20 February 1990 the Volkskammer passed a new electoral law, reducing it in size to 400 members elected via party-list proportional representation , with no electoral threshold . Joint lists between parties were allowed, and
9516-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
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#17328558150179672-448: The European election , they declined to 5.5%, the worst result in a national election since the party's formation. In the Bremen state election held on the same day, the party made small gains, and joined a western state government for the first time in a coalition under the SPD and Greens. The Left suffered major losses in the Brandenburg and Saxony state elections held on 1 September, losing almost half its voteshare in each, and left
9828-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
9984-554: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
10140-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
10296-439: The Peaceful Revolution , he commented on the development of democracy in the GDR: "The Bonn hippopotamus came in such a mass that you were simply helpless. The entire apparatus of the West was simply brought to the East in the election campaign. We had nothing to oppose. These were western elections exported to the GDR." In 2005, Forschungsgruppe Wahlen researcher Matthias Jung, who was involved in organising opinion polling for
10452-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
10608-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
10764-500: The United Nations , World Trade Organization , World Bank , and diverse bilateral treaties among countries. The party supports reform of the United Nations as long as it is aimed at a fair balance between developed and developing countries. The Left would have all American military bases within Germany, and if possible in the European Union , enacted within a binding treaty, dissolved. The Left welcomes European integration , while opposing what it believes to be neoliberal policies in
10920-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
11076-458: The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the Russian military intervention in Ukraine to be illegal; however, Gysi commented that older elements of the party have a strong penchant for Russia and the Soviet Union . The party declared in May 2014 that Ukraine should not receive any kind of support from Germany as long as there are fascists inside its government. Some members of the party (like MP Andrej Hunko ) are strong supporters of
11232-462: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
11388-511: The Brandenburg government, in which they had participated since 2009. In the 2019 Thuringian state election , Ramelow led the party to its best ever result, winning 31.0% and becoming the largest party in a state legislature for the first time, though his red-red-green government lost its majority. In February 2020, the FDP's Thomas Kemmerich was elected Minister-President with the support of AfD and
11544-517: The Bundestag. During the campaign, the party was subject to frequent criticism. At one event, Oskar Lafontaine described Fremdarbeiter ("foreign workers", a term associated with the Nazi regime) as a threat to German labour. He claimed to have misspoken, but in an article published in Die Welt , a group of prominent German writers accused him of deliberately appealing to xenophobic and far-right voters. In
11700-483: The CDU invited the SPD to join his Alliance partners – the German Social Union (DSU) and Democratic Awakening (DA) – in a grand coalition . The SPD was initially cool to de Maizière's offer, in part because of the presence of the right-wing populist DSU in de Maizière's grouping; the SPD had originally been willing to govern alongside all parties other than the PDS and DSU. However, they ultimately agreed, and
11856-431: The CDU victory. This may refer to a FW poll showing that 35% of voters believed an Alliance for Germany-led government would be most capable of solving the country's problems, while only 27% believed an SPD-led government would; 29% believed a grand coalition would be most capable. This was in stark contrast to other polls, conducted without reliable methods, which predicted a landslide SPD victory. In order to determine
12012-523: The CDU, LDPD, and NDPD, were former bloc parties which had been subordinate to the SED until 1989, engendering doubt about their ability to portray themselves as parties of change. Election forecasts predicted a clear victory for the Social Democrats; in a survey published at the beginning of February, the SPD was favoured by 54 percent of voters, followed by the PDS with 12 percent and the CDU with 11 percent. Oskar Lafontaine , who had been elected as
12168-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
12324-780: The European Union. The party strives for the democratisation of the EU institutions and a stronger role of the United Nations in international politics. The Left opposed both the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War , as well as the Lisbon Treaty . The party has a mixed stance towards the Russo-Ukrainian War . Gregor Gysi has described Russia as state capitalist , and the party has called
12480-529: The FDP, they moved into third place. After the formation of a second grand coalition between the CDU and SPD, The Left became the leading party of the opposition. The party narrowly retained its seats in the Hessian state election held on the same day as the federal election. The Left suffered a major loss in Brandenburg in 2014, losing a third of its voteshare and falling to third place. Nonetheless, it continued as
12636-718: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
12792-482: The German Bundestag for about two months before the (regular West) German federal election was held on December 2 as all-German election. The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 resulted in the Socialist Unity Party of Germany giving up its monopoly on power, and permitting opposition parties to operate for the first time. They began to form in large numbers throughout November and December 1989. Opposition groups formed
12948-475: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
13104-447: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
13260-675: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
13416-646: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
13572-551: The Left includes many different factions, ranging from communists to social democrats . During the joint party convention with the Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative in March 2007, a document outlining political principles was agreed on. The official program of the party was decided upon by an overwhelming majority at the party conference in October 2011 in Erfurt . The Left
13728-584: The Left to support Gauck in the decisive third round of the election; however, after Jochimsen withdrew, most of the Left's delegates abstained. Wulff was elected by an absolute majority. The party was isolated ahead of the March 2012 presidential election . The federal CDU/CSU–FDP government invited the SPD and Greens to agree on an all-party consensus candidate; The Left was excluded. Those invited eventually agreed to support Joachim Gauck. The Left again refused to support him. SPD chair Sigmar Gabriel once again criticized
13884-549: The Left to support their candidate for the 2010 presidential election , former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records Joachim Gauck . They suggested that this was an opportunity for the Left to leave their communist past behind them and show unconditional support for democracy. However, the party refused to support him, highlighting his support of the War in Afghanistan and his attacks on their party. They also rejected
14040-507: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
14196-519: The SED replaced long-time leader Erich Honecker with Egon Krenz , who began a program of limited reforms, including the legalisation of opposition groups. He also loosened restrictions on travel between East and West Berlin, which inadvertently led to the fall of the Berlin Wall . The SED gave up its " leading role " in November, and Krenz resigned soon afterward. He was succeeded by Gregor Gysi , part of
14352-464: The SED was no longer a Marxist-Leninist party. It added Party of Democratic Socialism to its name, dropping the SED portion in February. The PDS oriented itself as pro-democratic, socialist, and supportive of East German sovereignty. The party chose Modrow as its lead candidate for the 1990 East German general election but was decisively defeated, finishing in third place with 16.4% of votes cast. The PDS
14508-573: The SPD after the North Rhine-Westphalia election, joined WASG in June. He was chosen as the party's lead candidate for the federal election and shared the spotlight with Gregor Gysi of the PDS. Polls early in the summer showed the unified Left list winning as much as 12 percent of the vote, and for a time it seemed possible the party would surge past the Greens and FDP and become the third-largest party in
14664-548: The Volkskammer would cease to exist. The chamber's last legislative period therefore only lasted four and a half months. The treaty took effect on 3 October 1990; on the same day, 144 of the 400 Volkskammer deputies became members of the Bundestag (63 from the CDU, 33 from the SPD, 24 from the PDS, 9 from the BFD, 8 from the DSU, and 7 from Alliance 90 and the Green Party). The 8 DSU members joined
14820-595: The West German SPD's Chancellor candidate for the next federal election , was sceptical of reunification and pessimistic about the SPD's chances of victory in either country. At the SPD's party conference in Berlin in December 1989, he warned of a "national drunkenness" that reunification could inspire, and described the potential membership of a united Germany in NATO as "historical nonsense". Meanwhile, West German CDU leader and incumbent Chancellor Helmut Kohl made unification
14976-546: The abolition of all barriers to access for investors from the West, and the immediate introduction of the Deutsche Mark with an exchange rate of 1:1 to the East German mark . It also promised the establishment of a social security network, an environmental program, and secure energy supply, and the harmonisation of law with the West (in particular the abolition of criminal offences related to political activity). Other points were
15132-448: The areas of public investments, education, research and development, culture, and infrastructure, as well as increasing taxes for large corporations . It calls for increases in inheritance tax rates and the reinstatement of the individual net worth tax. The party aims at a linear income tax progression, which would reduce the tax burden for lower incomes, while raising the middle- and top-income tax rates. The combating of tax loopholes
15288-463: The case for the parliamentary group leadership, which was co-chaired by both Gregor Gysi and Lafontaine between 2005 and 2009, and solely by Gysi thereafter. After his retirement in 2015, however, the dual chairmanship was reintroduced. The executive committee originally comprised 44 members, but was reduced to 26 at the 2022 party congress. The Left is noted for having an unusually strong and formalised system of internal factions, which are outlined in
15444-576: The composition of the East German representatives in the Bundestag between German reunification and the first post-reunification elections in December 1990, the results of the 1990 Volkskammer election were recounted, using the new states of Germany as constituencies. This was possible since the original election results were declared on the Kreis level, and the states were re-established by simply amalgamating Kreise together. The results in each Kreis forming
15600-446: The conservative Christian Wulff , favourite of Chancellor Angela Merkel , instead putting forward their own nominee, television journalist Luc Jochimsen . The red-green camp reacted with disappointment. SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel described The Left's position as "bizarre and embarrassing," stating that he was shocked that they would declare Joachim Gauck their enemy due to his investigation of GDR injustice. The SPD and Greens expected
15756-486: The constitution. The new parliament quickly passed several pieces of major legislation, including a new law regarding local government on 17 May, a law ratifying the monetary, economic, and social union with the Federal Republic of Germany on 18 May (which became effective on 1 July), and constitutional amendments on 17 June. On 21 June, the Volkskammer formed a special committee, chaired by Joachim Gauck , to control
15912-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
16068-452: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
16224-525: The dispute, including prominent former MdB Fabio De Masi . Die Tageszeitung reported that Wagenknecht's supporters had begun planning a breakaway party to compete in the 2024 European elections . In the 2023 Berlin state election , The Left lost two seats in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin ; further, in the 2023 Bremen state election , they retained their 10 seats in the Bürgerschaft of Bremen . In
16380-706: The dissolution of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi). On 20 September 1990, the Volkskammer voted 299–80 to accept the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany , which had earlier been approved in a 442–47 vote by the West German Bundestag . The treaty stipulated that East Germany would unify its territory with Federal Republic of Germany via Article 23 of the Basic Law , meaning that East Germany and
16536-507: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
16692-530: The election the lead candidate of Democratic Awakening, Wolfgang Schnur, was exposed as a Stasi informant by Der Spiegel . The Alliance for Germany presented its election program under the title "Never again socialism" ( „Nie wieder Sozialismus“ ). Its key points included German reunification using the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany as an all-German constitution , the establishment of rights to private property and unrestricted freedom of trade,
16848-401: The election, spoke of the difficulties of the task. He attributed this to the unpredictable behaviour of the electorate as well as the total lack of infrastructure and methods for gauging public opinion, which forced the institute to build an entirely new polling model. Despite beginning work at the end of 1989, FW only released one poll before the election, which Jung claimed accurately predicted
17004-467: The first member of the party to serve as head of government of any German state. The Left achieved modest gains in the city-states of Hamburg and Bremen in 2015. They suffered a loss in Saxony-Anhalt reminiscent of that in Brandenburg 18 months earlier, falling to third place and losing a third of their voteshare. In September, the Left joined government in Berlin after the 2016 state election as
17160-622: The first time. It comfortably surpassed the electoral threshold in Bremen in 2007 , and throughout 2008 won seats in Lower Saxony , Hesse and Hamburg . The "five-party system" in Germany was now a reality in the west as well as the east. A string of electoral successes followed during the "super election year" of 2009. The Left achieved 7.5% in the European elections , confirming their enduring nationwide popularity. Six state elections were held throughout
17316-470: The formation of a grand coalition between the Alliance for Germany, SPD, and BFD. On 12 April 1990, he was elected Prime Minister of the GDR by the Volkskammer with 265 votes in favour, 108 against, and 9 abstentions. The new cabinet was also confirmed. The partners in the coalition commanded a two-thirds supermajority in the Volkskammer, making it an übergroß coalition with enough seats to pass amendments to
17472-544: The four parties formed government. The government, which was able to amend the constitution thanks to its two-thirds supermajority of seats in the Volkskammer, subsequently organised and ratified the reunification of Germany, resulting in the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and accession of its states into the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990. 144 members of the Volkskammer expanded
17628-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
17784-474: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
17940-467: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . 1990 East German general election General elections were held in East Germany on 18 March 1990. They were the first free elections in that part of Germany since 1932 , and were the first and only free elections held in
18096-427: The latter state. BSW, conversely, performed strongly and placed third in each state. In October, the party congress elected Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken as the new co-leaders with only marginal opposition. The Left advocates for democratic socialism as an alternative to capitalism . The Left is vocally anti-fascist and anti-militarist . As a platform for left-wing politics in the wake of globalization ,
18252-428: The minimum number of members required to sustain an official faction in the Bundestag, and it was preemptively dissolved on 6 December. In February it was reorganised as a group with reduced status . Former faction leader Dietmar Bartsch declined to run again. Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann , who previously ran against Wissler and Schirdewan for the federal leadership, announced their intention to contest against
18408-413: The minor Free Democratic Party of the GDR . The Alliance for Germany, which included the CDU, DSU, and Democratic Awakening (DA), was also created as an emergency solution. These two alliances, forged six weeks before the election, had to organize their election campaigns in an extremely short time. At the beginning of the campaign period, the SPD appeared to have a clear edge over the other parties. As
18564-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
18720-530: The narrow victory of Kohl for the CDU/CSU–FDP. The campaign was criticized as an obvious attempt to discredit the whole political left ; the PDS reinterpreted it for itself by printing red socks. In January 2005, a group of disaffected Social Democrats and trade unionists founded Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (WASG), a left-wing party opposed to federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder 's Agenda 2010 labour and welfare reforms. The party made
18876-408: The new groups and old parties were often lacking less in physical infrastructure and more in political and campaign experience. This gap was closed through a massive commitment by West German parties, which supported their partner parties in the GDR, and were able to compensate for the organizational advantage held by the PDS. The CDU formed "district partnerships": each Eastern CDU district association
19032-453: The new relationship, the PDS renamed itself the Left Party.PDS ( German : Linkspartei.PDS ). The joint list ran under the name The Left.PDS ( German : Die Linke.PDS ), though in the western states, where the PDS was shunned for its association with the GDR, "PDS" was optional. The alliance's profile was greatly boosted when former federal Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine , who had left
19188-630: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
19344-409: The party congress in June. Katja Kipping , who had served as deputy leader since 2007, was elected as co-leader with 67.1% of votes. Bernd Riexinger was elected as the other co-leader with 53.5% of votes, winning a narrow contest against Dietmar Bartsch . In the 2013 federal election , The Left received 8.6% of the national vote and won 64 seats, a decline from 2009. However, due to the collapse of
19500-475: The party include solidarity and more self-determination for workers, a ban on hydraulic fracturing , the rejection of privatization , and the introduction of a federal minimum wage , and more generally the overthrow of property and power structures in which, citing Karl Marx 's aphorism, "man is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, despicable essence." Concerning foreign policy, The Left calls for international disarmament , while ruling out any form of involvement of
19656-570: The party shortly before the election. Further, reports of sexism and abuse arose within the Hesse branch, including claims that implicated Janine Wissler. In April, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow resigned as co-leader, citing the party's recent troubles and desire to spend more time with family. Further losses came in the Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia state elections in May. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine highlighted fault lines within
19812-519: The party statutes. Factions with sufficiently large membership are entitled to send delegates to party congresses. In addition, there are around 40 working groups within the party. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It
19968-441: The party, claiming they harboured "sympathy for the German Democratic Republic." The Left put forward Beate Klarsfeld , a journalist and outspoken anti-fascist who had investigated numerous Nazi war criminals. She received 10.2% of the delegate votes. Gauck was elected in the first round with 80.4% of votes. The Left's fortunes began to turn in 2011, and they suffered a string of setbacks and defeats through 2013, particularly in
20124-632: The party. The leadership and majority took a strongly pro-Ukrainian stance, while the faction around Sahra Wagenknecht opposed sanctions against Russia. At the party congress in June, incumbent Janine Wissler was re-elected as leader, while co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL) group Martin Schirdewan was elected as Hennig-Wellsow's successor. They both faced challenges from candidates aligned with Wagenknecht's faction, winning majorities of 57% and 61% of votes respectively. During
20280-602: The primary goal for his party in both the East and West. To promote this position, almost four hundred rallies were held during the Eastern election campaign featuring around eighty top politicians from the Western CDU and CSU; the Alliance for Germany held around 1,400 election events in total. At one such event on 20 February 1990 in Erfurt , 150,000 people gathered to see Kohl; 200,000 attended when he spoke in Chemnitz. Three days before
20436-719: The pro-leadership duo of Clara Bünger and Ates Gürpinar . On the first ballot, Reichinnek defeated Bünger 14 votes to 13; Gürpinar withdrew in favour of Bünger in the second ballot, but she was defeated again by Pellmann, again 14 to 13. Wissler and Schirdewan announced in August 2024 that they would not seek re-election at the upcoming party congress. In September, the party suffered major defeats in state elections in Brandenburg , Saxony and Thuringia . They were reduced to fourth place in Thuringia with 13%, while in Brandenburg and Saxony they fell below 5%, only narrowly retaining their seats in
20592-493: The promotion of monument protection, education reform, the preservation of day nurseries, the re-establishment of the federal states ( Länder ) and freedom of the press. At the first party conference of the revived SPD, held in Leipzig from 22 to 25 February 1990, the basic party program was adopted, as was its election program. The core was the demand for an ecologically-oriented social market economy . The PDS election program
20748-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
20904-471: The right to work, the system of children's institutions, the involvement of cooperative and public property in the economy, and anti-fascism and internationalism . Central to its platform were demands to maintain the status of former SED members and land reform undertaken by the SED. Instead of unification with the West, the PDS advocated for the creation of a confederal structure between the two countries while preserving their individual statehood, and sought
21060-465: The second largest party in both states. The electoral collapse of the Social Democratic Party in the federal election on 27 September 2009 saw The Left's vote surge to 11.9%, increasing its representation in the Bundestag from 54 to 76 seats, just under half as large as the SPD's parliamentary group. It became the second most popular party in the eastern states with 28.5%, while experiencing
21216-500: The second-largest member of a coalition with the SPD and Greens. In the 2017 federal election , The Left fell to fifth place due to the re-entry of the FDP in fourth place and the ascension of AfD to third place. The party suffered substantial losses in its traditional eastern heartland, but made a net gain nationally thanks to an improvement in the western states, rising to 9.2% of votes (up 0.6 points). Throughout 2017, they failed to make
21372-445: The state as the parliament worked towards German reunification with success. The Alliance for Germany , led by the new East German branch of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), won 192 seats and emerged as the largest bloc in the 400-seat Volkskammer , having run on a platform of speedy reunification with West Germany . The East German branch of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which had been forced to merge with
21528-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
21684-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
21840-422: The traditionally conservative south. In January 2010, Oskar Lafontaine announced that, due to his ongoing cancer treatment, he would not seek re-election to the party leadership at the upcoming party congress. At the congress in May, Lothar Bisky also chose not to nominate for re-election; Klaus Ernst and Gesine Lötzsch were elected as the party's new leaders. Just a few weeks later, the SPD and Greens invited
21996-418: The two parties. With the established eastern base of the PDS and WASG's potential for growth in the west, the parties hoped to enter the Bundestag together. They agreed to form an electoral pact, in which they would not run against one another in direct constituencies and would create joint electoral lists featuring candidates from both parties. They also agreed to unify into a single party in 2007. To symbolise
22152-419: The wealthy through higher inheritance tax and a wealth tax . The Left won 4.9% of votes and 39 seats in the 26 September federal election, its worst showing since its official formation in 2007, narrowly failing to cross the 5% electoral threshold . The party was nonetheless entitled to full proportional representation as it won three direct constituencies ; two in Berlin and one in Leipzig . This meant
22308-523: The western states, which has been home to 85% of Germany's population. The 1994 German federal election also saw a "red socks" campaign used by the centre-right , including the CDU/CSU and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), to scare off a possible red–red–green coalition ( SPD –PDS– Greens ). Analysts have stated that such a strategy likely paid off, as it was seen as one of the decisive elements for
22464-534: The western states. They failed to win seats in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg , and suffered losses in Bremen , Berlin , and Saarland . Crucially, the party lost its seats in the Landtags of Schleswig-Holstein , North Rhine-Westphalia , and Lower Saxony . On 11 April 2012, Gesine Lötzsch resigned as party co-leader, citing medical conditions her husband was suffering. Klaus Ernst subsequently announced he would not seek re-election as leader at
22620-543: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
22776-415: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
22932-419: The year, and in each of them the party either surged ahead or consolidated earlier gains. They saw an upswing in Thuringia and Hesse and won seats for the first time in Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland . Oskar Lafontaine ran as the party's lead candidate in Saarland, leading the party to a massive success with 21.3% of the vote. In Saxony and Brandenburg , The Left's vote declined slightly, but it remained
23088-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
23244-407: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
23400-579: Was brought forward to March 18 after negotiations between representatives of the Round Table and government of Hans Modrow on 28 January. This meant that the campaign was only seven weeks long. Only the PDS had immediately operational party machinery, as well as the extensive financial resources required for an election campaign. The newly founded parties and groups, by contrast, were often still entangled in debates about their platform and only had minimal operational infrastructure. Civil rights activists had managed to secure offices in many places, meaning both
23556-400: Was cancelled on 27 October due to the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany ; the party instead held a fully digital congress on 26–27 February 2021. Hessian parliamentary leader Janine Wissler and Thuringia branch leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow were elected co-chairs on 27 February, winning 84% and 71% of votes cast, respectively. During the 2021 German federal election , The Left
23712-562: Was eager to become a partner in a coalition government with the SPD and Greens. As the CDU/CSU collapsed in the polls and the SPD surged, the last month of the campaign saw the conservative government engage in a Red Scare campaign against The Left and the prospect of a red–red–green coalition , utilising red-baiting and fearmongering about extremism; the party had elected a new moderate leadership and put forward an observably more moderate programme than previous elections. A capital flight to Switzerland ensued due to fear of increased taxes for
23868-456: Was entitled "Democratic Freedom for All - Social Security for Everyone". The PDS described itself as a democratic socialist party campaigning for a humane working world, and striving for a socially and ecologically-oriented market economy that would pursue social security for all based on merit. In addition, it demanded the disarmament of both the East and West. It sought to preserve the GDR's social values and achievements, which it held to include
24024-427: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
24180-400: Was excluded from further political developments due to the aversion of the opposition, now in power, which considered it essentially tied to the Communist regime despite its change of name. After debuting with a meagre 2.4% nationwide in the 1990 German federal election immediately after reunification, the PDS gained popularity throughout the 1990s as a protest party in the eastern states. In
24336-439: Was supported by a Western CDU district association. Many Western party members visited the East to aid their corresponding party in the campaign. Ahead of the election, the Bavarian Christian Social Union in West Germany allied itself with the Eastern German Social Union . The Free Democratic Party endorsed the hastily-assembled Association of Free Democrats , which included the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD) and
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