HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 15

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HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 15

• Reconstruction
• West Germany

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The Basic Law

• Based on 4 key principles
• The rule of law
• Democratic participation for all
• Federalism
• Social welfare
• Established the Federal Republic of Germany as a
  federal parliamentary democracy with separation
  of powers between the Executive, Legislative and
  Judicial branches of government.

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Government Structure under the Basic Law

• Bi-cameral parliament
• Bundestag Elected every 4 years through
  universal suffrage. 50 of members directly
  elected, 50 elected through party lists. Parties
  need to win over 5 of the vote to gain
  additional proportional representatives.
• Bundesrat Made up of representatives of the
  Länder, has the power to approve or veto
  legislation.
• President of the Republic a largely ceremonial
  head of state elected by Bundestag members
  representatives of the federal Länder.
• Chancellor head of government elected by the
  Bundestag. Can only be removed from office
  through a constructive vote of no confidence.
• Länder have extensive powers over administration,
  education, law order.
• Federal Constitutional Court based on the US
  Supreme Court, designed to protect the
  constitution and had powers to settle disputes
  between the federal government and the Länder.

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Party Politics

• SPD (Social Democratic Party) Continuity from
  1875.
• Espoused a programme calling for public ownership
  a planned economy.
• Committed to reunification and opposed European
  integration in the 1950s. In 1959 at Bad
  Godesberg
• Officially renounced its Marxist roots.
• Christlich Demokratische Union (Christian
  Democratic Union, CDU) Formed in June 1945.
• Represented a break from the pre-1933 parties and
  amalgamated the constituency of the old Centre
  Party with a number of centre-right groups
• Based on the principles of Christian Socialism
• Stood for free market economics
• Opposed social democracy.
• Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic
  Party, FDP) - Founded in Dec. 1948
• Stood for individualism and liberalism
• Appealed to those who were alienated by the
  socialism of the SPD the Clericalism of the CDU
• Despite its small size limited electoral
  strength it wielded considerable power
  influence, often acting as kingmaker
• Members of the FDP served in nearly every federal
  coalition between 1949 1990, and it provided 2
  of West Germanys 5 Presidents.

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The 1949 Bundestag Elections
Party deputies
     
CDU/CSU 31,0 139
SPD 29,2 131
FDP 11,9 52
KPD/DKP 5,7 15
DRP 1,8 5
DP 4,0 17
BP 4,2 17
Centre 3,1 10
Others 9,1 16
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Economics Minister
Ludwig Erhard and President TheodorHeuss, 1949
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Election Results, 1949-89
Source T. Kirk, Cassells Dictionary of Modern
German History (2002)
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Why were extremist parties not successful?

• Allied control parties needed concession of High
  Commissioner.
• SRP banned in 1952 by Federal Constitutional
  Court.
• KPD banned in 1956 by Federal Constitutional
  Court.
• Right wing parties as Bund der Heimatvertriebenen
  und Entrechteteten (BHE) absorbed by CDU/CSU.
• Nationalist takeover of Liberal party (FDP)
  prevented by Allies (arrest of leaders).
• Economic success story.

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Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967)

• Born in Cologne
• Devout Catholic and passionate Rhinelander
• Pragmatic authoritarian he has been compared to
  Bismarck and Stresemann.
• Determined to integrate Germany into Western
  Europe
• Did little to address the problems of the recent
  past
• 1917-33 Served as mayor of Cologne.
• 1921-33 Chairman of the Prussian Council of
  State.
• 1934 Imprisoned by the Nazis.
• 1948-49 Chairman of the Parliamentary Council.
• 1949-63 Chancellor of the FRG

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Chancellor Democracy
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Ludwig Erhard (1897-1977)
Economics Minister (1949-63) Chancellor
(1963-66)
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The Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle)

• Dramatic economic growth after 1949
• Reasons for economic miracle
• Introduction of the Deutschmark halted inflation.
• US investment through the Marshal Plan (4.4
  million).
• Large, adaptable workforce (partly made up of
  refugees from Eastern Europe).
• German determination to pull together for the
  national good few disputes between labour and
  capital.
• Germany had fewer burdens on her exchequer than
  other powers no overseas commitments, colonial
  wars etc.
• The Korean War (1950-53) increased demand for
  industrial goods and removed reluctance to buy
  German goods exports boomed.
• Unemployment fell from 1.9 million in 1950 to
  200,000 in 1961.
• GNP trebled during the 1950s, annual growth
  averaged just under 8
• Gap between rich and poor widened, but standards
  of living rose across the board average income
  for industrial workers rose by 250 between 1950
  and 1962.

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The Social Market Economy

• Advocacy of the free market wedded with a
  corporate framework
• The role of the state to pick up the slack left
  by the market and introduce welfare measures to
  cancel out the inequalities caused by capitalism.
• General agreement that the state should provide a
  safety net to make sure that citizens did not
  fall below a certain standard of living.
• Equalization of Burdens Law (1950) transferred
  wealth from the well off to provide for those who
  had lost everything during the war.
• 1957 Pensions increased index-linked so they
  would keep pace with cost of living.
• Increased prosperity due to the economic miracle
  was slow to filter through to ordinary Germans.
  But, by the end of the 1950s the population was
  growing, the working week had been reduced to 45
  hours, and ownership of consumer goods had
  increased.

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Society

• Defeat and division wrought profound changes in
  German society
• The old Prussian Junker class had lost their
  economic and political power
• The Ruhr Barons who had dominated German
  industry were in decline.
• Gradual increase in social mobility and a
  levelling out of German society.
• Women outnumbered men due to war-time losses, and
  under the Federal Republic there were changes in
  gender roles
• The Basic Law guaranteed equal rights for women
• Law of Equality of the Sexes (1957) extended
  property rights
• More employment opportunities with economic
  growth
• But women still earned 40 less than men on
  average
• Nevertheless, West German society in the 1950s
  and 60s was still conservative and patriarchal.
• The Natural Order

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Dealing with the Nazi Legacy

• Measures to confront the Nazi past limited in the
  1950s.
• Moves to compensate victims of National
  Socialism, extremist parties banned by the
  Constitutional Court.
• Many former Nazis in the civil service such as
  Hans Globke, head of the Chancellors Office
  (1953-1963). Globke drafted Nazi anti-Semitic
  legislation in the 1930s.
• The judiciary reluctant to censure sadistic Nazi
  judges.
• Damaged Germanys reputation abroad led to a
  feeling that the Germans had buried their heads
  in the sand rather than confronting the legacy of
  National Socialism.

Hans Globke (1898-1973)
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Foreign Policy

• Adenauers aims
• International recognition via economic
  cooperation, cultural integration, and
  democratisation
• Reconciliation with France
• Close relationship with United States essential
  for security in bipolar international system
  (Soviet Threat)
• Aims of the Western Powers
• Defeat German militarism and idea of revenge by
  integration.
• Factors which helped rehabilitation
• Perceived Soviet Threat especially after 1949
  (Soviet Atomic Bomb) German participation
  needed, good bargaining position for Adenauer
  concessions.
• Korean War (1950-1953).

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Foreign Policy

• 1951 Signing (in Paris) of the European Coal and
  Steel Community (ECSC).
• 1952 Signing (in Paris) of the European Defense
  Community (EDC). The Stalin note offering a
  united neutral Germany.
• 1954 Signing of the Paris Agreements. FRG/BRD is
  invited to join NATO permitting West German
  rearmament and Italy and the FRG/BRD accede to
  the Western European Union (WEU).
• 1955 Full sovereignty returned to the Federal
  Republic.
• 1957 The Treaty of Rome is signed establishing
  the European Economic Community. The Saar returns
  to Germany as a Land (to be followed in 3 years
  by economic reintegration).
• 1963 French-German Friendship Treaty is signed
  in Paris.

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The Spiegel Affair (1962)

• The affair tested limits of freedom of the press
  and showcased the development of democracy in the
  Federal Republic
• News magazine Spiegel had reported the
  Bundeswehrs limited readiness for conflict with
  Russians.
• Spiegel offices were occupied by police, Augstein
  arrested, as well as the articles author.
• Popular demonstrations began to free Augstein
  beginnings of widespread protest culture?

Copies of Der Spiegel being confiscated from the
magazines offices.
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West Germany after Adenauer

• 1965-69 Grand Coalition.
• 1969 election CDU 46.1 of vote, SPD 42.7,
  FDP 5.8 - SPD-FDP Coalition formed under Willy
  Brandt.
• 1969-72 Ostpolitik attempts to normalize
  relations between the two German states.
• 1972 Basic Treaty German states agree to
  develop good relations, settle disputes without
  force respect one anothers independence.
• Wide-ranging reforms marriage family law
  modernized, welfare reform educational reform.
  A response to growing unrest in the 1960s.

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Warsaw Ghetto, Dec 1970
Brandt pays tribute to the uprising that lasted
from April to May of 1943
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West Germany after Adenauer

• 1974 Brandt forced to resign in spy scandal.
• 1982 SPD FDP unable to agree on a budget
  vote of no-confidence brought the CDUs Helmut
  Kohl to power.
• 1983 election CDU won nearly 50 of the vote,
  the Green Party emerges as a national political
  party with 5.4 of the vote 27 deputies in the
  Bundestag.
• A move to the right in the 1980s, accompanied by
  efforts to cast off the stigma of Nazism take
  pride in being German.

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Conclusion

• The Federal Republic became a stable
  parliamentary democracy aided by economic
  recovery and the spread of prosperity.
• There was continuity with the past, particularly
  under Adenauer.
• West Germany a viable democracy with a
  distinctly conservative colouration. (Carr)

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Konrad Adenauer (CDU) 1949-1963
Ludwig Erhard (CDU) 1963-1966
Kurt Georg Kiessinger (CDU) 1966-1969
Willy Brandt (SPD) 1969-1974
Helmut Schmidt (SPD) 1974-1982
Helmut Kohl (CDU) 1982-1998
Gerhard Schröder (SPD) 1998-2005
Angela Merkel (CDU) 2005-Present