The Senate Momper held office from March 16, 1989, to January 24, 1991, initially as the government of West Berlin and, after German reunification on October 3, 1990, together with the East Berlin Magistrat Schwierzina as the government of the new Land Berlin. After the surprising election victory in the Election to the House of Representatives on January 29, 1989, the red-green coalition between the Berlin Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Alternative List for Democracy and Environmental Protection (AL) replaced the previous CDU/FDP government under Eberhard Diepgen. Governing Mayor became Walter Momper (SPD). The SPD/AL alliance was the second red-green state government in Germany after the 3rd Börner government in Hesse (1985 to 1987).

The fall of the Berlin Wall marked a turning point both for Berlin and in the twenty-month term of office of the Senate. After the reunification of Germany and Berlin, Senate Momper held office for more than three months together with Magistrate Schwierzina as the government of Berlin as a whole. After ongoing conflicts, the AL left the coalition on November 15, 1990, two weeks before new elections to the House of Representatives were scheduled anyway. The reason for this was the battle of Mainzer Straße initiated by Erich Pätzold (SPD). In the first all-Berlin election to the House of Representatives on December 2, 1990, both the SPD and the AL suffered heavy losses.

Prerequisites

The CDU/FDP Senate under Eberhard Diepgen

In the former SPD headquarters in West Berlin, the CDU had been the strongest parliamentary group in the House of Representatives since 1975 and the governing mayor since 1981. The Social Democrats, who achieved their second-best result in Berlin's post-war history in the 1963 election with 61.9%, had suffered losses in almost every election since then. After Richard von Weizsäcker was elected Federal President in 1984, Eberhard Diepgen governed a CDU/FDP Senate. Diepgen, who was regarded as a less charismatic technocrat and string-puller,Wilfried Rott: Die Insel. Eine Geschichte West-Berlins 1948–1990. München 2009, p. 367. was clearly confirmed in the elections to the Berlin House of Representatives on March 10, 1985. The CDU was represented in the House of Representatives with 69 seats, the SPD received 48, the Alternative List 15 and the FDP 12.

The Antes scandal was uncovered throughout the entire 10th legislative period. Until the change of government in 1981, it had been the SPD that was mired in the so-called "red swamp" or "Berlin felt", from the Garski Affair to the Kreisel Affair and others.Wilfried Rott: Die Insel. A History of West Berlin 1948-1990. Munich 2009, p. 382. However, even Richard von Weizsäcker was unable to change the network of relationships between the public sector and the private sector in the island city; in his government declaration, he had fiercely criticized the established system of taking advantage and patronage of office as "party politics". On the contrary, the system of corruption became even more entrenched under the CDU government.Wilfried Rott: Die Insel. Eine Geschichte West-Berlins 1948–1990. München 2009, p. 383. The personal, extremely close network of a group of high-ranking CDU politicians, on which Diepgen's position was based, now proved to be part of this system.Wilfried Rott: Die Insel. Eine Geschichte West-Berlins 1948–1990. München 2009, p. 377 ff. CDU building senator Klaus Franke and FDP environmental senator Horst Vetter had to take off their hats, while interior senator Heinrich Lummer also had to resign because of a previous collaboration with the NPD. The CDU trivialized the scandal and saw itself as the victim of a "smear campaign".Wilfried Rott: Die Insel. Eine Geschichte West-Berlins 1948–1990. München 2009, p. 381.

Election campaign

Despite all the scandals, Diepgen was relatively popular in Berlin, even if he was considered rather pale and far from enjoying the same level of reverence as von Weizsäcker, Willy Brandt or Ernst Reuter. Various polls showed that between the leading candidates Eberhard Diepgen and Walter Momper, around 60% of Berliners would have opted for Diepgen if they had been able to elect the governing mayor directly.Horst W. Schmollinger: Die Wahl zum Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin am 29. Januar 1989. Ein überraschender Wandel im Parteiensystem. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 20, p. 311. He benefited from a dense series of major events on the occasion of the 750-year-celebration in 1987 and when West Berlin served as Cultural City of Europe in 1988, which seemed to overshadow Berlin's political problems and the CDU's affairs.Horst W. Schmollinger: Die Wahl zum Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin am 29. Januar 1989. Ein überraschender Wandel im Parteiensystem. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 20, p. 312. The CDU relied entirely on the Mayor bonus. Most of the election posters showed a portrait of the governing mayor with the campaign slogan "Berlin needs him", later "Berlin wants him".„Wir haben uns entschieden". In: Die Zeit, Nr. 5/1989.

The SPD, on the other hand, avoided personalizing the election and did not particularly highlight its leading candidate Walter Momper, leader of the SPD parliamentary group since March 1985 and party chairman since June 1986, in the election campaign. It concentrated on traditionally social democratic policy areas. From 1987, campaigns began on rent control, the design of the land use plan, equality for women and against the health policy of the Bonn CDU/FDP coalition.Horst W. Schmollinger: Die Wahl zum Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin am 29. Januar 1989. Ein überraschender Wandel im Parteiensystem. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 20, p. 310.

The election campaign became increasingly empty as election day approached. The slogans on the election posters seemed interchangeable and sometimes incomprehensible: "Happy new Berlin" (CDU), "Berlin is freedom" (SPD) or "A happy 1993" (FDP). Only the AL proactively took up issues that were important to the population, but relied on the alternative milieu and shied away from costly advertising measures. Shortly before the election, the far-right party Die Republikaner, which was running for the first time, polarized and polemicized Die Republikaner party polarized with xenophobic and authoritarian accentuated television advertisements as well as an event dominated by the federal chairman Franz Schönhuber and accompanied by violent counter-demonstrations.

The attitude of the SPD and AL towards a red-green coalition before the election

As the CDU/FDP federal government under Helmut Kohl seemed to be inexorably losing its reputation in the Federal Republic, a mood for change was emerging and a red-green majority seemed possible in the federal elections in December 1990, an SPD/AL government in Berlin could have served as a test case for a red-green federal government.Gudrun Heinrich: Rot-Grün in Berlin. Die Alternative Liste in der Regierungsverantwortung 1989–1990. Marburg 1993, p. 33. However, because it seemed almost inconceivable before the election that the SPD and the Alternative List would be able to make up the roughly 12% point deficit to the CDU/FDP government, the AL and even more so the Social Democrats went into the election campaign without having seriously considered a possible joint coalition.

In view of the predicted election result, it was easy for the SPD to rule out an alliance with the AL and thus reassure frightened voters. The AL, on the other hand, had decided to declare its willingness to cooperate with the Social Democrats after rejecting a possible coalition or even just toleration in the run-up to the 1985 election to the House of Representatives. The special insularity of West Berlin had led to the AL taking a special path vis-à-vis the federal Greens.Gudrun Heinrich: Rot-Grün in Berlin 1989–1990. In: Joachim Raschke: Die Grünen. Wie sie wurden, was sie sind. Köln 1993, p. 810. It was particularly strong in the left-alternatives spectrum of the city, whereas the classic environmentalists had not played any particular role.Gudrun Heinrich: Rot-Grün in Berlin 1989–1990. In: Joachim Raschke: Die Grünen. Wie sie wurden, was sie sind. Köln 1993, p. 809. In addition, the AL was formally independent of the federal party, even if it took on the role of a state association. The disputes between the Realos aiming for government participation and the Fundis focusing on fundamental opposition, which dominated and threatened to divide the federal party in the 1980s, never played such a significant role in the AL. Instead, the AL was regarded as a relatively homogeneous, yet decidedly left-wing regional association that placed basic democratic decision-making processes a particularly high priority.Gudrun Heinrich: Rot-Grün in Berlin 1989–1990. In: Joachim Raschke: Die Grünen. Wie sie wurden, was sie sind. Köln 1993, p. 809 f.

Polls before the election

Dates CDU SPD AL FDP REP 25 January 1989Umfrage im Auftrag des Springer-Verlags; Ergebnisse laut taz 26 January 1989, Lokalteil Berlin, p. 17. 41% 36% 11% 7% c. 25 January 1989Infas-Umfrage im Auftrag des SFB; Ergebnisse laut taz 26 January 1989, Lokalteil Berlin, p. 16. 40% 36% 10% 8% 3% 10 January 1989Infas-Umfrage im Auftrag des SFB-Magazins Kontraste; Ergebnisse laut taz 11 January 1989, Lokalteil Berlin, p. 17. 43% 34% 11% 9% c. 28 December 1988Umfrage im Auftrag des Stern; Results according to taz of January 11, 1989, local section Berlin, p. 17. 43% 38% 10% 6%

Despite the Berlin CDU's distress caused by the Antes scandal, polls predicted a clear majority for the CDU/FDP coalition just three weeks before election day. It was only a few days before the election that there were signs of a neck-and-neck race between the political camps, albeit still with a black-yellow majority and a clear lead for the CDU over the SPD.According to an Infas survey commissioned by the SFB magazine , the situation on the labor market was the most important issue for 24% of respondents, environmental protection for 23% and housing construction for 20%.Two weeks earlier, a survey commissioned by Stern had revealed that rents and housing shortages were the most important issues, followed by foreigners and university overcrowding.taz, January 11, 1989, Berlin local section, p. 17.

Election to the House of Representatives on January 29, 1989

Second votes Mandate CDU 37,7 55 SPD 37,3 55 AL 11,8 17 REP 7,5 11 FDP 3,9 –

The election to the House of Representatives on January 29, 1989 caused surprises in several respects:Eckhard Jesse: Die Wahl zum Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin am 7. Dezember 1990. Die Korrektur der Korrektur von 1989. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 22 (1991), p. 391. The CDU, whose victory had been considered certain, suffered a heavy defeat and collapsed by 8.7% points with 37.7% of the vote. The SPD, on the other hand, gained 4.9% to 37.3% and, with 55 parliamentary seats, won as many seats as the CDU. Together with the likewise strengthened Alternative List (11.8%, +1.2%), this resulted in a clear majority for the Red-Greens, as the FDP - also surprisingly - the CDU's previous coalition partner, with 3.9% (-4.6%), clearly failed to re-enter the House of Representatives. The third result, which had not been predicted in any way and was taken note of with shock, was the entry of the Republicans, who received 7.5% of the vote and thus eleven seats at the first attempt.

Coalition building

Coalition negotiations