The Left (Germany)
The German left party, founded in 2007, heir of the East German state party and West German dissent.
Overview
Die Linke formed in 2007 from the PDS, successor of the East German SED, merged with the WASG, a West German union left around Oskar Lafontaine. Under Gregor Gysi and later Sahra Wagenknecht and Jan van Aken it consolidated a democratic socialist platform: higher minimum wages, rent control, wealth taxes, and opposition to foreign deployments. It governs in eastern states in coalition and lost its Bundestag fraction in 2023 before returning in 2025, partially to the BSW breakaway of Wagenknecht. The party anchors the leftmost end of the German spectrum and preserves the East German political heritage in democratic form.
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