Transcript The Partition of Germany in the Cold War

THE PARTITION OF GERMANY
1946-47: In the Western zones, democracy revives at the
municipal, then at the state level; but in the Soviet Zone,
civil liberties are suppressed, and the parties, infiltrated.
January 1947: Creation of “Bizonia” (British + U.S. sectors)
with an “Economic Council” elected by state parliaments
June 1948: Currency reform in Bizonia and the lifting of price
controls by Ludwig Erhard
June 1948—May 1949: Soviets blockade West Berlin,
prompting the Berlin Airlift
September 1948: Parliamentary Council begins to draft the
“Basic Law” for West Germany
1949: Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and
German Democratic Republic (GDR)
U.S. and Soviet troops meet on the Elbe at Torgau, April 25, 1945
Stalin as TIME’s
“Man of the Year,”
January 1943
Occupation
zones for
Germany,
Austria, & Berlin
The U.S., British, &
French occupations
collected 6.7 million of
these questionnaires.
3.66 million Germans
had denazification
hearings:
• 25,000 were classed
as “major offenders”
• 150,000 were “minor
offenders”
• 1 million were “fellow
travelers”
The Allies banned the
first two groups from
any government job.
German Denazification Committee, Berlin, 1946
The Auschwitz commandant,
Rudolf Höss, being turned
over to the Polish authorities
in 1945.
• Western military tribunals
in Germany convicted
5,000 war criminals and
executed 486
• The Soviets convicted
tens of thousands
• West German tribunals
imprisoned 6,100
• Over 50,000 Germans
stood trial in occupied
countries; in Poland
alone, 631 were hanged
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), The Question of German Guilt
(Fordham University Press, 2009), based on lectures at
the University of Heidelberg in 1945/46
“There can be no doubt that we Germans, that each German
is in some manner guilty.” Jaspers distinguished:
1. “Criminal guilt” for actions “in clear violation of the law.”
2. “Political guilt” for actions that strengthened the regime.
3. “Moral guilt” for actions in private life that worsened the
suffering of the victims of persecution.
4. “Metaphysical guilt” for the failure to act against evil.
“There exists a solidarity among men as men which
renders each individual accountable for all the wrongs
and injustice in the world, particularly for crimes that
occur in his presence or with his knowledge. When I do
not do what I can to prevent them, then I share
responsibility for them.”
“Black Becomes
White:
Or ‘Mechanical
Denazification’”
(Simplizissimus,
Munich, 1946)
But most Germans
were utterly
absorbed by the
struggle for survival
(Aachen in
December 1944)
“Through the streets,
beggar-like,
We go thanks to the
Nazi Reich”
(placard by Oskar
Pfeiffer, Cologne, 1945)
The Trummerfrauen clear
rubble from the streets of
Dresden and Berlin
after the war
The standard daily ration for the average adult, autumn 1945:
In the American zone, rations amounted to about 1,000 calories
The black market in Hamburg, 1945/46
Plowing Berlin’s Tiergarten to plant potatoes
(1946/47)
A G.I. distributes candy to German children in 1945
German girls
dating American
GI’s in the
Volkspark
Treptow,
Berlin, 1947
The first U.S. CARE package is delivered to
a German family in Bremen, November 1947
In the Western zones,
free elections were held
in cities in 1946 and
states in 1947.
THE NEW STATES:
Schleswig-Holstein
Hamburg
Bremen
Lower Saxony
North Rhine-Westphalia
Rhineland-Palatinate
Hesse
Baden-Württemberg
Bavaria
SPD chair
Kurt Schumacher
(1895-1952):
Lost an arm in the
Great War;
SPD youth
organizer;
elected to Reichstag
in 1930;
imprisoned 1933-45.
SCHUMACHER’S PROGRAM FOR A
POST-MARXIST SPD
The SPD must transform itself from a “class party” for
blue-collar workers into a “people’s party” with appeal
for intellectuals, white-collar workers, small business,
and idealistic Christians.
Large-scale industry must be nationalized. Businessmen
accepted democracy in the USA, Schumacher granted,
but in Germany “democracy will be socialist or there will
be none at all,” because German capitalists “always feel
compelled to convert their money into political power
and use it against democracy and peace.”
The SPD should stand up for the rights of the German
nation. Its worst mistake in the Weimar Republic had
been to allow the Right to monopolize nationalism.
Only “Socialism & Democracy”
can hold the occupation zones
together (1947)
“Forward, SPD, for a free
Germany” (1949)
“The Union:
The Gathering of all
Christians on the
Political Level”
(CDU poster,
North RhineWestphalia, 1946)
CHAMPIONS OF “CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM”
(trade unionists on the left wing of the CDU)
Jakob Kaiser (1888-1961);
chair of Berlin CDU, 1946/47;
cabinet minister, 1949-57
In 1945 they cofounded the
German Labor
Federation
(DGB),
Germany’s first
unified trade
unions for
workers of all
political
outlooks, as well
as the CDU
Karl Arnold (1901-1958),
PM of North RhineWestphalia (1947-1956)
Jakob Kaiser was a hero of the Resistance and close
associate of Carl Goerdeler:
His Gestapo mug shots, October 1938
Ever since April 1933, he had sought with Social Democratic
friends to merge the socialist, Christian, and liberal trade
unions to promote labor unity.
In 1946 the old
socialist, Christian, and
liberal trade unions all
merged in a single
“German Labor
Federation” or DGB.
DGB May Day Parade,
Bremen, 1947:
“We all demand a
unified Germany,
a just peace,
reconciliation between
the peoples.”
(About 60% of union
members voted SPD,
and 30% CDU.)
CDU CHAMPIONS OF THE “SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY”
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967),
Mayor of Cologne (1917-1933),
German Chancellor (1949-1963)
Ludwig Erhard (1897-1977),
Minister of Economics (194963), Chancellor (1963-66)
They sought
economic &
political
integration
with the West
and to abolish
all
“concentrations
of power.”
The CDU’s diverging demands in 1946:
Stuttgart: “Free Trade with
the countries of the world”
Berlin: “Christianity,
Democracy, Socialism”
KPD leader Wilhelm Pieck and SPD leader Otto Grotewohl
found the Socialist Unity Party of the Soviet Zone, April 1946.
Secretary of State George C. Marshall appeals for a
“European Recovery Program” at Harvard, June 5, 1947
In December 1947 the Soviets
deposed Jakob Kaiser as the
elected chair of the Berlin
CDU when he refused to
denounce the Marshall Plan
In the Western zones
every citizen received
40 new Deutsche
Marks on June 21,
1948, and Economics
Director Ludwig
Erhard deregulated
prices.
The stores
proclaimed: “New
currency… New
Prices!”
The Soviets blockaded West Berlin when the new currency was
introduced there (a U.S. “raisin bomber” arrives in October 1948)
Prime Minister Karl Arnold (Northrhine-Westphalia, CDU)
welcomes the Parliamentary Council to Bonn, September 1, 1948
KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE “BASIC LAW”
OF 1949 AND THE WEIMAR CONSTITUTION
The President is elected indirectly and reduced to
ceremonial functions.
A chancellor can only be replaced through a
“constructive” vote of No Confidence in the Bundestag.
Proportional representation is retained, but no party
gains seats unless it wins at least 5% of the vote.
No popular referendum is allowed.
A strengthened federal upper house of parliament
safeguards the autonomy of the states.
A powerful Supreme Court can strike down laws and
ban any political party that is anti-democratic either in
program or internal structure.
THE TONE OF THE FIRST FRG ELECTION CAMPAIGN
WAS QUITE BITTER
“Broken Glass Brings
Good Luck!”
(cartoon, 1949):
Schumacher alleged
that Adenauer was the
candidate of the Allies
and the Pope.
Adenauer alleged that
the Social Democrats
were the dupes of
Stalin.
OUTCOME OF THE FIRST
WEST GERMAN ELECTION, August 14, 1949
(voter turnout=78.5%)
PARTY
CDU/CSU (including Bavarian Christian
Social Union)
SPD (Social Democratic)
SHARE
31.0%
FDP (Free Democratic)
KPD (Communist)
Bavarian Party (particularist)
German Party (Hanoverian nationalist)
Center Party (Catholic confessional)
German Conservative Party
11.9%
5.7%
4.2%
4.0%
3.1%
1.8%
29.2%
The CDU formed a government coalition with the FDP and
German Party.
Konrad Adenauer sworn in as the first Chancellor of the
Federal Republic of Germany, September 1949
The East German “People’s Congress” proclaims the
foundation of the German Democratic Republic in October
1949, while Young Pioneers sing praises of Stalin
POSSIBLE REASONS WHY
DEMOCRACY FLOURISHED AFTER 1945
1. Allied occupation policy
2. Healthy growth in the world economy, 1945-70
3. Adoption of a superior written constitution by the
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
“Federal Republic of Germany” in 1949
The elimination of the East Elbian landowning nobility
as a social class
A learning process among German politicians & voters
A learning process among German business and labor
leaders
New support for liberal democracy among artists and
intellectuals
Women finally achieved genuine emancipation