Germany 1945-2000
The Division
The idea of zones of occupation emerged in 1944
The Allied Control Commission should control the occupation.
Berlin was to be under four-power control.
The Yalta Conference 1945
The zones of occupation should have an equally big population.
France got a zone of its own
Demilitarization – Denazification – Democratization.
Oder-Neisse became the German eastern border.
Each Allied country was to take reparation from its own zone.
Democratization
Anti-fascist groups were formed before the war ended.
These were suppressed in all four zones.
The Soviet Zone
German communist trained in the USSR were brought to Germany before the war ended.
KPD was favoured but lost the local elections in the summer and autumn 1945.
KPD and SPD merged together.
The new party system was imposed from above.
The Western Zones
Democracy was to emerge from the grass-roots.
Political parties had to get a license to become legal.
Conservative parties were favoured.
The Germans associated democracy with national defeat, humiliation and economic ruin.
Denazification
The Nuremburg Trials
Minor trials were held up to the 60s.
The Simon Wiesental Centre.
The Soviet Zone
Nazism had emerged from certain socioeconomic structures.
These structures had to be changed.
The Junker class was eradicated.
Key personnel were changed.
1947 eighty percent of the school-teachers were under the age of thirty-five.
The Western Zones
First collective guilt then rehabilitation.
Focus was on individuals.
People were classified
Major offenders, offenders, lesser offenders, followers, not guilty.
Economic growth rather than political measures wiped out Nazism in Germany.
Economic Revival
Initial problems
Ruined houses, industries, communications…
Ten million refugees from the East.
Demobilized soldiers returning.
A barter economy.
The Soviet Zone
Industries were dismantled. Reparation continued up to 1953.
The destruction was less than in the West.
The industries lost their contact with purveyors in the East and the West.
Small plots led to collectivization.
The Western Zones
Initial reparations. Limited German industrial production.
1947 the Bizone was set up and the French zone joined 1949.
The Truman Doctrine meant that anti-Communism replaced anti-Nazism.
A wealthy Germany was regarded as less susceptible to Communism
1947 the Marshall Plan was decided.
20 June 1948 the Deutschmark was introduced.
24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949 the Berlin Blockade. 227 000 flights.
The
establishing of the two Germanies 1949
The Federal Republic
1948 the Parliamentary Council convened to set up a constitution.
1949 the Federal Republic was proclaimed.
Political leadership was needed to organize further economic progress.
Allied politicians and politicians in West Germany sacrificed unity.
Instead they got a functioning state and economic progress.
The constitution
The president
A ceremonial figurehead.
Was elected indirectly by electoral college.
The government.
Was headed by the Chancellor.
Constructive veto of no confidence. Then General Elections.
The parliament
The Bundestag – the lower house
One vote for a named local candidate.
One vote for a party.
Proportional representation.
The five percent hurdle.
The Bundesrat – the upper house
Elected by the local states
Can veto decisions concerning the local states
The GDR
The constitution
The Volkskammer – the lower house
In theory a multi-party system
One simple list of candidates.
The SED was guaranteed a majority
The Länderkammer – the upper house
Corresponded the Bundesrat
1952 the five local states were replaced by 16 Bezirke.
1958 the Länderkammer was abolished
The president
Was abolished 1960.
The Politburo.
The Central Committee.
The Party Congress.
1968 SED’s leading role was mentioned in the new constitution.
The
Divided Germany 1949-1961
The division was not permanent yet.
1952 Stalin offered a united neutral Germany in return for no rearmament of FRG.
If this offer was serious has been debated.
Adenauer sacrificed German unity to get a liberal-conservative state an economic growth.
The uprising 1953 made the USSR support Ulbricht’s hard line communism.
Reform communists were purged and a homogeneous party emerged.
The Federal Republic
1949 FRG became a member of NATO.
1955 FRG gained full sovereignty.
1959 FRG is one of the founding members of the EEC.
The Hallstein Doctrine was adopted 1955.
The Federal Republic was the sole representative of the whole German people.
No diplomatic contacts with states which recognized the GDR.
The Political parties developed into catch-all peoples parties.
They did not represent single groups of interest like the parties of the Weimar Republic.
CDU/CSU became the leading party. 31% 1949, 50% 1957.
1959 SPD left its radicalism and became a more catch-all party.
Economic growth due to the social market.
Economic improvement was generally associated with CDU/CSU.
“No experiments” was Adenauer’s slogan.
Democracy now was associated with improving economic conditions.
1950-70 the household’s incomes grew 400 percent.-
Constant inflow of refugees kept wages low and kept productivity up.
3.5 million arrived from the East, 0,5 million returned.
Co-determination in bigger companies.
The GDR
1950 the GDR joined the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (COMECON).
1952 the building of socialism was declared as the main goal.
1954 the USSR announced East German sovereignty.
1956 The National Peoples Army was set up and integrated in the Warsaw Pact.
Consolidation was based on repression rather than success.
1953 a spontaneous rebellion took place.
Lack of organisation rather than Soviet tanks caused the failure.
The work norm remained unchanged.
Ulbricht’s Stalinist fraction controlled the party.
De-Stalinisation in the USSR 1956 caused problems for Ulbricht.
The upraising in Hungary saved him.
The USSR could not afford a destabilization of the GDR.
The economy lagged behind.
Diverging
Societies 1961-1988
The Federal Republic
Political changes
1949-1963 Kondrad Adenauer, CDU
1963-1969
Ludwig Erhard, CDU
1966-1969 Kurt Georg Kiesinger, CDU, the Grand Coalition CDU+SPD
1969-1974 Willy Brandt
1974-1982 Helmut Schmidt
1982-1998 Helmut Kohl
1998- Gerhard Schröder
The modernization of the Federal Republic
The economy came into line with the other European economies.
The Industrialists used the democratic institutions for lobbying.
Democracy was no longer regarded as a threat.
Guest workers arrived and were intended to stay for some years.
A polarization between old conservatives and young radicals appeared.
Willy Brandts new policy towards the Eastern Europe
The Moscow Treaty 1970
The prevailing borders of all states in Europe were to be respected.
The FDR and the USSR declared that they had no territorial claims on each other.
The Oder-Neisse line was to be the Polish western border.
The Warsaw Treaty 1970
The Oder-Neisse line was to be the Polish western border.
Two German states in one German nation
This meant international recognition of the GDR in return for nothing.
The GDR could establish international contacts with the West.
No ambassadors but permanent representatives were exchanged between GDR/FRD.
The conservatives criticized Brandt’s policy vehemently.
They found it unconstitutional and meant appeasing an illegitimate GDR
Brandt called al general election 1972 and got popular support.
The constitutional commitment to reunification remained.
The inner-German border was not fortified on the western side.
The Federal republic regarded it as a border between two local states.
East Germans who left for the Federal Republic could apply for citizenship.
Political changes
1974 Helmut Schmidt replaced Willy Brandt
One of Brandt’s senior aid was revealed as an East German spy.
Helmut Schmidt was a right-wing Social Democrat orientated to the West.
Left-wing protests against nuclear power and nuclear missiles
The Bader-Meinhof Gang.
1982 the FDP changed side and supported the CDU/CSU led by Helmut Kohl.
Economic changes
The Ruhr area became obsolete.
High-tech industries were established in the south: Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich.
Dissent and opposition
The old army was dissolved and the new one was under parliamentary control.
The integration of former Nazis strengthened the stability.
The NDP was successful in local election in the 60s, but then faded away.
Hippies, flower power and other groups to the left were no threat.
The Bader-Meinhof Gang wanted to provoke a harsh response from the state.
Decree concerning radicals.
The Federal Republic’s reputation as a state of law was stained.
The economic success of the Federal Republic prevented dissent from growing.
The GDR
1949-1971 Walther Ulbricht
1971-1989 Erich Honnecker
The economy improved to a degree.
The New Economic System
Profit was to be the measure of a company’s success
Bonuses were based on this.
Technology and science were emphasised.
All this was stopped after the Prague Spring, when recentralization began.
Young people made career in the GDR instead of leaving for the West.
Many people accepted the system and tried to make the best of it.
The suppression was reduced.
The Protestant church had a little freedom and limited criticism could be aired in church.
The church dared not turn to radical criticism and lose its little freedom.
Outward conformity not inner commitment was expected.
The always present State Security Police (Stasi) kept opposition at bay.
Economic changes
Under Honnecker the VEBs were replaced by combines.
Agriculture was based on big units of production and mechanized.
Specialized farms for grain production and animal husbandry.
The economy was fairly efficient.
The GDR was dependant on import of fuel and raw materials.
30 percent of the trade was with market economies in the west.
The FRG eased trade with the GDR by loans and favourable credits.
The FRG was GDR’s biggest trading partner in the West (30%).
This made the GDR dependant of the GFR and political concessions were made.
Dissent and opposition
Widespread dissent in the 50s.
The dissenters wanted to topple the regime and a reunification of Germany.
Isolated intellectual dissent in the 60s and 70s
The dissenters wanted improvements of within the system.
The western life-style was rejected.
Principled dissent in the 80s.
1978 a summit meeting between representatives of the state and church met.
The state accepted a limited opposition within the church.
The state risked a growing dissent.
The church risked a takeover from non-Christian groups.
Martin Luther was used as a prominent person.
The causes of East German stability
The lack of fraction within the SED.
No reform communists like in the CSFR.
No free trade union like in Poland.
The opposition was easily suppressed.
House arrest and exile in the Federal Republic was frequently used.
A good access to consumer goods compared to the rest of Eastern Europe.
Low prices and rents but low quality and limited choice.
What caused the fall of communism?
The opposition within the churches increased.
Gorbachev´s new policy inspired local SED leaders but not the hardliners in the Politburo.
1989 the Brezhnev Doctrine was replaced by the Sinatra Doctrine.
In the summer 1989 Hungary started to dismantle the fortified border with Austria.
Previously had the Solidarity overthrown the regime in Poland.
The warm welcome of the East Germans was shown on TV.
The
Gentle Revolution 1989
Was triggered the revolution?
Organized groups outside the church emerged.
The regime turned to a policy of reform instead of pure suppression.
The leadership was changed.
The process
The New Forum was founded in August.
The Monday meetings in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig started.
Hungary opened its western border (10 September).
East Germans needed a visa to visit Czechoslovakia. (3 October)
Troops were gathered in Leipzig to stop demonstrations. (9 October)
The troops withdrew and that became a turning point.
East Germans no longer needed a visa to go to Czechoslovakia. (27 October)
9 000 left every day, that makes 375 an hour.
Shortage of labour became a problem in the GDR.
The Federal Republic had difficulties housing the newly arrived.
The refugees had full access to the welfare system of the Federal Republic.
The slogan changed from Wir sind das Volk
to Wir sind ein Volk.
The entire Politburo resigned
The Berlin Wall was opened on November 9.
71 years after the collapse of imperial Germany.
In December 1989 a government headed by Hans Modrow replaced the SED-leaders.
The GDR was indebted and the costs to rebuild the country were enormous.
Local government began to disintegrate.
First the government of the GDR, the Soviet Union and Britain rejected a reunification.
The opposition wanted a “Third Way”.
A general election was held 18 March 1990
CDU/CSU argued in favour of article 23 in the constitution.
East German local states were to be set up and then apply for joining the FRG.
48 percent voted for this.
SPD argued in favour of article 146 in the constitution.
Negotiations were to be held between the two German governments.
A new constitution was to be elaborated.
After the election the 2+4 negotiations were held.
The GDR, FRG, US, USSR, UK and France.
16 July Gorbachev declared that he did not object a united Germany in NATO.
Warsaw Pact troops were to be withdrawn four years.
The five East German states were reconstituted.
East Germany was in a bad bargaining position when the country was falling apart.
West German products became available at West German prices.
Final
Remarks
The impact of the Nazis
After the division violence almost disappeared in the two Germanies.
The Nazis destroyed the old structures from imperial Germany and the Weimar Republic.
The Nazis did not success in reshaping the people.
Most people made a difference between their private and public life.
The Nazis created the “zero hour” and a problematic history due to the Holocaust.
The stability of the two Germanies
The structure of the elites.
The material success.
The character of dissent.
The international system.