The PDS is the legal successor of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) (the communist party of the GDR). Established in December 1989 by renaming itself from SED first to SED-PDS, then to PDS, it renounced most of the extreme aspects of SED policy while retaining much of its ideology.
In the first all-German elections in December 1990, the PDS gained 10% of the vote in the former GDR and 17 seats in the Bundestag. In October 1994, the PDS won four directly elected seats, to re-enter parliament with a total caucus of 30 seats despite staying below the 5% hurdle for proportional representation. In 1998, the party improved its result slightly to 5.1% of the national vote and 36 deputies. In the 2002 election, the PDS stayed below 5% and won only two direct deputies (Petra Pau and Gesine Lötzsch), the only PDS members of parliament.
The party is part of coalition administrations in the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin. It controls many town councils.
The current chairman is Lothar Bisky. Some well-known members of the PDS are Gregor Gysi and Hans Modrow.
It is one of the founders of the European Left party.
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In fact, a common joke is that PDS doesn't really stand for Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus but rather Praktisch die selben ("Practically the same").
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