on the abortion law, when there were 14 'nays' and 8 absentees among the CDU deputies. After Nuschke's death, August Bach, another former DDP member, led the party for the remainder of the 1950s. In 1966 long-time general secretary Gerald Götting was elected chairman. Götting, who was chairman of the Volkskammer (and de facto vice president of the GDR) from 1969 to 1976, carried on and elaborated the pro-government line. Götting remained chairman and an SED ally until Erich Honecker was deposed in favour of Egon Krenz in October 1989. On 2 November 1989, Götting was deposed by inner party reformers. In December 1989 Lothar de Maizière, a lawyer and deputy chairman of the Evangelical Church Synod of East Germany, was elected chairman. From that point on the party deposed (and later expelled) its former top figures, and became the strongest proponent of speedy reunification with West Germany. In March 1990, the CDU became the main element of the Alliance for Germany, a centre-right coalition. It won the first (and as it turned out, only) free general election and became the biggest party in the People's Chamber. In April de Maizière became Prime Minister of the GDR, heading a grand coalition that immediately set about reuniting the country with the West. In August 1990, the Democratic Awakening, a minor member of the governing coalition, merged into the East German CDU. The merger brought Democratic Awakening spokeswoman and future Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel into the party. In October 1990, the East German CDU merged into the West German CDU. Newspaper The official newspaper of the party was Neue Zeit, published by Union: Verlag. International relations The CDU maintained close relations with other Christian democratic parties in the Soviet bloc. Relations with the state-sponsored and -controlled Catholic PAX Association in Poland and the Czechoslovak People's Party (CSL) were especially close. There were some contacts with individual members of the Italian Christian Democracy party (DC), the Belgian Christian People's Party (CVP) and Christian Social Party (PSC) and the Dutch Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). Although the East German CDU and its West German counterpart were often at odds with each other, they maintained official relations. The East German Christian Democrats also had close relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. Chairmen General secretaries East German CDU politicians Else Ackermann Sabine Bergmann-Pohl (Last Head of State of the GDR) Dieter Helm (later became the parliamentary