Walther, who is the namesake of the Walther graph, died in 2005 of a heart attack during a soccer game.
Political career
East Germany
Walther about the principles of the DSU
"The first is Germany as soon as possible. The second, the social market economy here as quickly as possible. And thirdly, we want to be a union, a union of free states. We want our old structures, our state structures, back."[4]
In June 1990, Walther, previously deputy leader since the founding in January, was elected leader of the German Social Union.[8] His ascension to the leadership meant a further right-wing drift of the party, causing some, most notably former leader and Minister for Economic Cooperation Hans-Wilhelm Ebeling as well as Deputy Minister-President of East GermanyPeter-Michael Diestel, to leave the party in protest.[6]
Walther faced many problems as leader of the DSU. The party suffered from electoral decline,[9] was disorganized, both in terms of the internal organisation, most notably membership records,[8] of the party and the Volkskammer group; for example, the DSU held the deputy chairmanship of the Volkskammer's powerful budget committee, but the DSU swapped out its chairman two times in just half a year.[4] The Volkskammer group under Walther also frequently clashed with its coalition partners, most notably on the issue of the date of German reunification; all other parties in the coalition discussed much later dates and had to resort to parliamentary maneuvering to shut down the DSU's frequent proposals of an immediate reunification.[4][10]
The internal turmoil of the party also stoked conflict; ministers Ebeling and Diestel had left the DSU (both joining the CDU shortly thereafter), but stayed on as ministers. Walther called for their removal,[4] but to no avail, meaning the DSU was technically part of the de Maizière cabinet, but without representation.
In the case of Deputy Minister-President Diestel, the DSU Volkskammer group had already tried to oust him back in May due to Diestel's alleged softness in dealing with employees that were former Stasi agents. Walther even proclaimed to have a successor to Diestel ready, but refused to name him.[7]
Germany
Walther (front row, second one from the right) in October 1990 at a meeting of the other East German political leaders with Head of the ChancelleryRudolf Seiters.
In the 1990 German federal election, the DSU under his leadership failed to pass the five-percent threshold. The party received only about 1 % in the new states and 0,19 % nationwide.[11] The DSU, already fearing it would miss the five percent threshold nationwide, had originally advocated for the five percent threshold being separate for former East Germany.[4]
A large reason for their crushing defeat was the adamant refusal of the CDU and Helmut Kohl personally of a demand by the CSU, whereby the CDU would stand down in three single-member constituencies, which would have allowed the DSU to bypass the five-percent threshold. Walther had defended this so-called Huckepackverfahren (English: piggybacking), which has had historical precedent, for example in the 1957 West German federal election, from accusations of favoritism in the Volkskammer.[12]
The party also failed to make inroads in the 1990 state elections in former East Germany and after the CSU dropped its immense financial support, the party quickly faded into irrelevancy.[6] Walther himself joined the Christian Democratic Union in 1993, for which he was elected to the Ilm-Kreis district council.