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STAGES IN THE PARTITION OF GERMANY

STAGES IN THE PARTITION OF GERMANY. 1946-47: Suppression of democratic parties and expropriation of capitalists & big landowners in Soviet Zone January 1947: Creation of “ Bizonia ” (British + U.S. sectors) with an “Economic Council” elected by state parliaments

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STAGES IN THE PARTITION OF GERMANY

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  1. STAGES IN THE PARTITION OF GERMANY 1946-47: Suppression of democratic parties and expropriation of capitalists & big landowners in Soviet Zone 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 May 1949: Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and German Democratic Republic (GDR)

  2. The U.S., British, & French occupations collected 6.7 million of these questionnaires.

  3. German Denazification Committee, Berlin, 1946(see Kettenacker, pp. 17-8)

  4. The Auschwitz commandant, SS Colonel Rudolf Höss,being turned over to the Polish authorities in 1945.Allied military tribunals in Germany convicted 5,000 war criminals and executed 486, while another 50,000 Germans stood trial in formerly occupied countries.

  5. 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: • “Criminal guilt” for actions “in clear violation of the law.” • “Political guilt” for actions that strengthened the regime. • “Moral guilt” for actions in private life that worsened the suffering of the victims of persecution. • “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.”

  6. 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)

  7. The Trummerfrauen clear rubble from the streets of Dresden and Berlin after the war

  8. The standard daily ration for the average adult, autumn 1945:In the American zone, rations amounted to about 1,000 calories

  9. The black market in Hamburg, 1945/46

  10. Plowing Berlin’s Tiergarten to plant potatoes(1946/47)

  11. A G.I. distributes candy to German children in 1945

  12. German girls dating American GI’s in the Volkspark Treptow, Berlin, 1947

  13. The first U.S. CARE package is delivered toa German family in Bremen, November 1947

  14. In the Western zones, free elections were held in cities in 1946 and states in 1947.THE NEW STATES:Schleswig-HolsteinHamburgBremenLower SaxonyNorth Rhine-WestphaliaRhineland-PalatinateHesseBaden-WürttembergBavaria

  15. KPD leader Wilhelm Pieck and SPD leader Otto Grotewohl found the Socialist Unity Party of the Soviet Zone, April 1946. (See Kettenacker, p. 26) In December 1947 the Soviet Military Authority abruptly deposed the elected leadership of the Eastern CDU….

  16. Western SPD chair Kurt Schumacher(1895-1952):Lost an arm in the Great War;SPD youth organizer;elected to Reichstag in 1930; imprisoned 1933-45.

  17. 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 legitimate rights of the German nation. Its worst mistake in the Weimar Republic had been to allow the Right to monopolize nationalism.

  18. Only “Socialism & Democracy” can hold the occupation zones together (1947) “Forward, SPD, for a free Germany” (1949)

  19. “A new, free Germany: Only on this foundation, the Christian Democratic Union. Get involved! Help to build! Vote CDU!”

  20. CHAMPIONS OF “CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM”(trade unionists on the left wing of the CDU) Karl Arnold (1901-1958), PM of North Rhine-Westphalia (1947-1956) Jakob Kaiser (1888-1961); chair of Berlin CDU, 1946/47; cabinet minister, 1949-57 In 1945 they co-founded the German Labor Federation (DGB), Germany’s first unified trade unions for workers of all political outlooks, as well as the CDU

  21. 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.

  22. 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.)

  23. Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Mayor of Cologne (1917-1933), German Chancellor (1949-1963) CHAMPIONS OF THE “SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY” Ludwig Erhard (1897-1977), Minister of Economics (1949-63), Chancellor (1963-66) They sought economic & political integration with the West and to abolish all “concentrations of power.”

  24. The CDU’s diverging demands in 1946: Stuttgart: “Free Trade with the countries of the world” Berlin: “Christianity, Democracy, Socialism”

  25. The Marshall Plan as the wind in Europe’s sails(West Germany, 1950): The European Recovery Program was launched in June 1947 and invested $11 billion to revive European industry

  26. The occupation powers in the three western zones gave 40 new Deutsche Marks to every citizen on June 21, 1948. The stores proclaimed: “New currency… New Prices!”

  27. An American “raisin bomber” is greeted by thankful West Berliners at the height of the Soviet blockade in October 1948

  28. “Up to Here: Democracy and Peaceful Reconstruction.Over There: Dictatorship, Warmongering, Collapse”(Cold War tensions in Berlin, 30 April 1949)

  29. Prime Minister Karl Arnold (Northrhine-Westphalia, CDU) addresses the Parliamentary Council, Bonn, September 1, 1948

  30. 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 its program or internal structure.

  31. THE TONE OF THE FRG’S FIRST 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.

  32. OUTCOME OF THE FIRSTWEST GERMAN ELECTION, August 14, 1949(voter turnout=78.5%) The CDU formed a government coalition with the FDP and German Party.

  33. President Theodor Heuss (FDP) swears in Konrad Adenauer (CDU) as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, September 1949

  34. The East German “People’s Congress” proclaims the foundation of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949, while Young Pioneers sing praises of Stalin

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