2. Opposition to government 1945–1989

Question 1

The Basic Law

Answer 1

The Basic Law that ensured free speech, freedom of the press and no censorship which meant opposition had a voice again

Question 2

Political dissent and active challenge were less important than the bigger issues of the time…

Answer 2

Rebuilding the government by working together in useful coalitions to avoid problems that the Weimar government had

Establishing the FRG as a viable, moderate member of Europe and building a sense of identity while leaving room for reunification with East Germany

Rebuilding the economy and physically rebuilding the
country

Voters wanted parties that trod a moderate line so SPD (the party with the most radical political agenda) was not part of the government and became the group that voiced political opposition in the 1950s - argued against Adenauer’s ‘year zero; and his desire to align the FRG with Europe.

Question 3

Basic Law clause towards political parties

Answer 3

The government used a clause in the Basic Law that said political parties could exist as long as they did not threaten the constitution or the principles of democracy to ban the right-wing Socialist Reich Party in 1952 because it was expressing views too reminiscent of those of the Nazi regime and therefore a threat to democracy

Question 4

Demonstrations and marches in the 1950s

Answer 4

The KPD began to organise communist demonstrations (unable to win enough seats in the Bundestag) - in Munich 1953, the police used water cannon to disperse 6000 communist marchers

Question 5

Challenges in the 1960s

Answer 5

Youth protest: young people objected to the ‘year zero; (principle that helped Adenauer rebuild the civil service) They adopted the slogan ‘What did you do in the war, Daddy?’ to taunt the older generation and because some young people genuinely felt dislocated by the widespread lack of family history ad a result of the ‘year zero’ behaviour.

Protests against the FRG’s military - it’s involvement with the West through NATO and the possibility it might start to build and store atomic weapon

Question 6

The APO - The Ausserparliamentarische Oppostion (the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition)

Answer 6

Left wing group with left-wing intellectuals (students or young professionals) as core members who distrusted the established conservative government because there were no left-parties to absorb them after the KPD was banned and the SPD revised it’s policies to become less radical. Violent political protest began to gather force

Question 7

The SDS - The German Socialist Student Union

Answer 7

Previously part of the SPD but broke away because it felt the party was becoming less radical and no longer represents its feeling e.g over rearmament
Much radical protest in the 1960s and violent terrorism in the 1970s was not always directed at political issues but at various human rights and moral issues in the world e.g The SDS protested about the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons
The SDS also protested about former Nazis holding office in government and the FRG;s involvement in NAT)

Question 8

The Easter Riots 1960s

Answer 8

Series of attackers by the SDS on offices of the Springer Press after a right-wing fanatic shot Rudi Dutschke (SDS Leader) after reading criticisms of student protests by by the conservative newspaper owner Axcel Springer

Question 9

Demonstration against the emergency laws

Answer 9

May 1968 against the Emergency Law with 80,000 people protesting against what they saw as a violation of the Basic Law’s human rights principles and concern that concern that the emergency law could give the government extraordinary powers - law was passed anyways

Question 10

Challenges in the 1970s

Answer 10

Government pressure on protest and dissent via the emergency laws and police control reduced the amount of protests but made some groups feel more marginalised and so increase the level of violence by resorting to terrorism

Question 11

Terrorist groups in the 1970s

Answer 11

Terrorist groups were fluid e.g. In 1971, one of the leaders of the West Berlin Tupamaros was shot by the police whilst the other was in prison so its members moved on to other groups

The police developed hard-line policies including putting up posters of wanted terrorists and appealing to the public to turn them in and regular gun battles sometimes several times a month

Question 12

Red Army Faction - Baader-Meinhof Gang

Answer 12

One of the most long-lived terrorist groups (first known action = bombing in Dahlem in May 1970) - Most gang’s leaders were in prison by the end of the 1970s and they called for hunger strikes - Hoglar Meins (one of the strikers) died in prison and this resulted in bombings of homes of several lawyers and judges involved in the trials that sent the gang members to prison.

Question 13

Result of the Red Army Faction being arrested

Answer 13

By 1975 all the Baader-Meinhof Gang were arrested - their were some bombings in Stockholm and Paris to show support for them but then terrorist activity in the FRG slowed.

Question 14

Public reaction to protests

Answer 14

level of sympathy for terrorist groups - a public poll in 1970 showed that one in five Germans felt sympathy for the Baader-Meinhof Gang which suggests government action against these groups did not always get a positive reaction from members of the public which could be seen as a lack of success

Question 15

The government’s difficult position (similarities to Weimar)

Answer 15

It wanted to uphold democracy and free speech but did not want this democracy overthrown by groups from either side

Like Weimar it came down on more heavily on left-wing extremists although it could be argued that these groups posed more of a threat - (terrorist groups in the 1970s were left-wing)

Question 16

Policing the people

Answer 16

Federal Intelligence Service (BND) - set up in 1956

Entitled to investigate people they suspected of working against the Basic Law. but were hampered by civil liberties granted to people under the Basic Law: they were forbidden to open mail, search homes or monitor phone calls.

Question 17

Expanding the power of the Federal Intelligence Service

Answer 17

The government tried to pass a law to allow the BND to use measures that went against civil liberties and to have wider powers of arrest and detention in 1960.

The law finally passed in 1968 (called the Emergency Law) as protested by students, unions and other groups became more violent

Question 18

The Emergency Law

Answer 18

Passed in 1968 allowed the BND to use measures that went against civil liberties e.g. opening mail, search homes and make arrests

Protested by students, unions and other groups became more violent

Led to significant arrests and the drop of open protests but also an increase in underground violent opposition (unintended consequence)

Question 19

Success of policing the people?

Answer 19

Emergency law led to significant arrests and the drop of open protests but also an increase in underground violent opposition (unintended consequence)

By the end of the 1970s there was much less terrorist activity which can be seen as a success although it as the government’s actions that encouraged the rise of terrorism in the first place

Question 20

Government response to terrorism in the 1970s

Answer 20

After the shooting of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the GSG-9 (police tactical unit of the German Federal Police) was set up to act against terrorists which had close links with the British SAS and US Army’s Delta force.

Question 21

Successes of the GSG-9

Answer 21

In October 1977, a team successfully rescued hostages on a plan that had been hijacked in its way to Frankfurt and ended up in Mogadishu Somalia. IT also took part in some arrests of Baader-Meinhof members

Question 22

Managing political extremism - The Breufsverbot

Answer 22

Employment ban was initially aimed at political parties including the KPD and parties with similar aims to the Nazis bur was seldom applied - fewer than 100 people lost their jobs between 1950-1972

Question 23

Managing political extremism - The Radikalenerlass

Answer 23

Anti-Radical Decree in January 1972 passed which allowed the political vetting of everyone applying for a state job because most extremist protests came from universities.

Question 24

The de-Nazification polices of the Western Allies 1945-1949

Answer 24

German people had to face defeat, huge economic problems and the division of their country by the Allies into zones of influence

The allies agreed de-Nazification was the first steps needed: producing a changed culture/politcal outlook from the national identity hammered into them by the Nazis

Question 25

The Nuremberg Trials

Answer 25

War crime trials held in Nurembyrd (where Hitler held yearly mass rallies) were off Nazi leaders who had neither commited suicide or escaped

The Fuhrer myth changed - Hitler became the person to take all the blame

Surveys show the trials were accepted as a necessary part of losing the war

Question 26

De-Nazification policies

Answer 26

Problems classifying who was a Nazi as many people joined the party to keep their jobs but did not have nazi sympathies

‘Year zero’ approach: people should be allowed to het on rebuilding their lives without too close examination of what they had done before 1945 which would be allowed to become ‘year zero’

In May 1946, the Allies banned Nazi schoolbooks/films that taught Nazi racial theory or books that asked how many marriage loans could be paid from the cost of keeping a disabled person alive

Question 27

Positive reactions to de-Nazification by Germans

Answer 27

Resigned Acceptance: Germany had lost and the allies were bound to want to punish Germany and do their best to eradicate Nazism

Desire to move on: these people believed in the ‘year zero’ and many people wanted to follow this pragmatic course - the quickest way for the government to rebuild the countries structure was not to look too closely at the past of those qualified to do the work

Question 28

Negative reactions to de-Nazification by Germans

Answer 28

Cynicism: some pointed out the allies were guilt of allowing ex-nazis with useful skills to leave germany and start a new life in their country - 1600 ex-Nazi scientists and doctors avoided prosecution by agreeing to work for the USA

Indignation(anger/annoyance): The allies had dropped atomic bones and in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, bombed Dresden and soviet troops wiped out German villages so why were only Germans being punished for war crimes? The allies were censorship the press, vetting teachers but were critical of the nazis who did the same thing

Question 29

Youth Reaction to de-Nazification

Answer 29

Youth protest: Many of the young who had grown up in the new Germany were impatient with the ‘year zero’ policy wanting to know what their families had down in Nazi Germany.

They adopted the slogan ‘What did you do in the war, Daddy?’ to taunt the older generation and because they felt dislocated by the widespread lack of family history as a result of the ‘year zero’ behaviour.

Question 30

The nature of support for democracy in the FRG - voting

Answer 30

Germans had been taught to see democracy as weak by the Nazis because evidenced by the experience of democracy under the Weimar government

Significant level of support for democracy between 1949-89 seen in the high turnout figures for elections - always above 85% except for 1949 (voting happened for the first time and people were stuck in old attitudes) - higher than Britain which showed people wanted to participate in the democratic process

Question 31

The nature of support for democracy in the FRG - surveys

Answer 31

By the 1960s, surveys showed that the majority of Germans felt that the FRG represented the best time in German history and most people believed that democracy was the best kind of government

Question 32

The nature of support for democracy in the FRG - protests

Answer 32

People protested against changes that the government wanted to make that would restrict democracy e.g the emergency law