The German Democratic Republic (GDR), often known in English as East Germany, was founded in 1949 and was absorbed into the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990. Its original constitution was written in 1949. It was heavily based on the "Weimarer Reichsverfassung", such that the GDR would be a federal and democratic republic. Because the original version did not accurately reflect the actual political climate of the GDR, it was decided in the late 1960s to replace the old constitution with a new version.

The new constitution of the German Democratic Republic was ratified in 1968 and better reflected the communist roots of the GDR as well as the political rule of the Socialist Unity Party.

Section 1 of this constitution begins with the lines, "The German Democratic Republic is a socialist state of workers and farmers. It is the political organization of the workers in city and country under the leadership of the working class and their Marxist-Leninist party."