The Volkskammer was the supreme power organ of the German Democratic Republic. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it.

The original Constitution of East Germany was promulgated on 7 October 1949. It was heavily based on the Weimar Constitution and nominally established the GDR as a liberal democratic republic. In 1968, the East German government adopted a new, fully Communist constitution that was based on Marxism–Leninism, political unitarism, and collective leadership. There were further amendments to the 1968 constitution in 1974. With the political events of 1989, there were attempts to draft a new constitution for East Germany, but these efforts never materialized due to the dissolution of East Germany and the accession of its states into the neighboring Federal Republic.