German Democratic Union
{{Single source|date=February 2025}}{{short description|Former German political party}}
The German Democratic Union ({{langx|de|Deutsche Demokratische Union}}, DDU) was a left-wing political party. The party was only active in Saarland. The DDU was founded in 1955.
The party, with the {{ill|Saar Communist Party|de|Kommunistische Partei Saar}} (Kommunistische Partei Saar, KPS), objected to the Saar statute. Following Saarland's accession to the Federal Republic of Germany, the party was constituted as the Saarland regional association of the {{ill|League of Germans|de|Bund der Deutschen, Partei für Einheit, Frieden und Freiheit}} (Bund der Deutschen, BdD) on July 7, 1957, but did not formally dissolve.
After Saarland's accession to the Federal Republic, KPS was banned for being a "substitute organization" of the Communist Party of Germany, which had been banned in 1956, thus many KPS members joined the DDU.
The DDU won two seats in the {{ill|1960 Saarland state election|de|Landtagswahl im Saarland 1960}}. {{ill|Erich Walch|de}} and {{ill|Erwin Gieseking|de}} became members of the state parliament.
On March 5, 1961, a Saar regional branch of the {{ill|German Peace Union|de|Deutsche Friedens-Union}} (Deutsche Friedens-Union, DFU) was constituted under the leadership of Gieseking, who was also chairman of the DDU and a founding member of the DFU. The DDU thus functioned “de facto”, according to Rolf Schönfeldt, as a regional association of the DFU, but again did not formally dissolve.
DDU members stood as candidates on the DFU list in the 1961 and 1965 federal elections, whilst DDU ran in the {{ill|1965 Saarland state election|de|Landtagswahl im Saarland 1965}}. However, they failed the re-entry in the state parliament. In 1968, they ran in the Saarland local elections and won a total of 47 seats, before merging with the DFU.{{Cite book |last=Schönfeldt |first=Rolf |title=Parteien Handbuch. Die Parteien der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945–1980 |last2=Stöss |first2=Richard |publisher=Westdeutscher Verlag |year=1983 |isbn=3-531-11570-7 |volume=1: AUD-EFP |location=Opladen |pages=848-876 |language=de |chapter=Die Deutsche Friedens-Union}}