Growing up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Gysi ‚s father was a promininent member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and served as Minister of Culture.

His uncle Gottfried Lessing founded the Southern Rhodesia Communist Party in what is now Zimbabwe before joining the Communist Party in Britain.

… Gysi has remained at the forefront of the party as it evolved from the SED to the Party of Democratic Socialism until the they joined with upstart party The Electoral Alternative (WASG) and renamed themselves to simply Die Linke, or The Left.