Changing of living standards in the FRG Flashcards
What was the housing situation like post war?
1 5th of housing had been bombed flat whilst one third that were still standing were damaged.
What lead to even more pressure on housing?
The refugee crisis
What happened as the FRGs economy strengthened?
The standard of living rose and people began to spend their money on consumer goods.
By 1963, what percent of people had a fridge, TV and washing machine?
63%, 42%, 36%
By 1985, what percent of people had a fridge, TV and washing machine?
82%, 82%, 87%
By the 1980s what percent of people were covered by benefits and healthcare?
90%
What did pension reforms of the 1980s do and why was this important?
It meant that most people received a pension which was important because people in 1980 lived on average 12 years longer then those in 1950
What about the 1980s had shown that the living situation somewhat got worse?
Social inequality had deepened. Even in the 1960s, when the economy was at its best 1 percent of households owned 35% of the wealth. In 1973, the top percent of households owned 78% of the wealth whilst in 1988 they owned 48% of the wealth
In 1948 how many more women were there then men in Germany?
7.3 million
What rate rapidly rose in the 1940s?
The divorce rate
In 1948 how much higher was the divorce rate than in 1946?
80%
What idea did the allies try to reintroduce that the Nazis had suppressed?
The idea that individuals and individual families matter.
What was the most important task of the allies in the FRG and what did this mean for women?
To rebuild the economy, the size of the task and the lost of so many able bodied men meant women had to work. They worked at anything and everything from clearing the rubble to building and office work.
Why did fewer women get involved in politics during the early FRG?
The Nazis propaganda that politics were not for women had been ingrained in them.
What was the ministry for family affairs?
This was set up in 1953 to provide wives and mothers with financial benefits.
How dud the FRGs early government do little to make work attractive for women?
Adenauer made speeches about the importance of making more jobs available for women and making working conditions more equal but the government did not actually make that happen.
Who were the main supporters of equal rights for women in the bundestag?
The SPD
What was the CDUs stance on women?
They did not want to encourage women to work by providing equal pay or working conditions.
What did article 3 of the basic law state?
Unqualified equality under the law for many citizens although many wanted to add the old in principle phrase.
How many women were there in the parliamentary council that drew up the basic law?
4 vs 61 men
What did the Civil Code still state after 1948?
That the husbands had the power over their wives and children
When was the civil code revised?
- This gave women full legal freedom.
What did the original civil code mean for women?
Women still needed their husbands permission to go to work and the husbands got full control of the women’s property upon marriage.
When was the marriage and family law revised and what did this mean?
1977, this gave women equal rights in marriage.
What did the government also revise in 1977?
It overturned the part of the civil code that said that women could only work if it did not interfere with their role of wife and mother which had been in force since 1900 and was a significant expression of the 3ks
What had lead to the changes in womens rights in Germany?
The liberation movements of the 50s and 70s
What did a 1982 survey show about the German populations view on women?
50 percent of men and 54 percent of women said that a mans career was more important than his wifes. 70 percent of men and 68 percent of women thought that women should stop work on marriage. 70 percent of men and women thought that men should work and women should care for the home.
What were womens liberation movements mainly popular with?
Students and radicals, so they were mostly city and university based/
What did West Berlin students set up in 1967?
A commune to live on equal terms. The women ended up doing almost all of the cooking and cleaning and left after 6 months.
What was set up in January 1968?
The action council for women’s liberation in West Berlin.
What did the actions council for womens liberation do?
It began with practical action, setting up day care centers and organising a campaign with nursery school teachers to get the government to change the way day care and schools were run.
What had happened to the action council for womens liberation by 1969?
It had been split in two as there was a mothers faction who were shed as not been theoretical enough and mot looking at women outside of the family.
What did the more radical womens focused groups target?
Paragraph 218 and abortion rights
What was paragraph 218 of the penal code?
It made it a crime for women to seek an abortion or for doctors to perform one unless there was a strong medical reason for doing so.
Who was Alice Schwarzer and what did she do?
She was one of the leaders of the more radical womens campaigns. She put 30 pictures of women on the cover of the magazine stern with the title “weve had abortions.”
What did groups who protested paragraph 218 also do that was not protests?
They set up refugees for battered women, not only in cities but also in small towns. They wrote magasines and published pamphlets explaining about womens health including contraception. A largely city based lesbian movement evolved with its focus on west berlin.
What did no happen in the development of womens groups?
There were not groups focused actively on campaigning for progress in equality in the workplace and laws against sexual discrimination.
Why were most Germans still opposed to abortion despite these campaigns?
The influence of the 3ks and the church
What law was passed due to pressure from womens rights groups in 1974?
The passing of a law which allowed abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
What happened to the pro abortion law in 1975?
Due to a huge public outcry, it was declared unconstitutional by the federal court in 1975 because it violated the rights of the fetus.
What was the role of women like in the GDR?
They had much more equal status and were far more likely to work full time state creches provided childcare for them to do so.
Why were women so much more likely to work in the GDR?
They were more likely to have no other choice due to the income/
Why did motherhood have a higher status in the FRG?
Families had tax breaks and encourage mothers to stay home at least for the first 3 years of a child life
What percent of women in the FRG who had a child under 15 had paid jobs?
50% half of which were only part time.
What drove the fact that so many women stayed at home?
The school time hours.
What were the main aims of the allies in reforming German education after ww2?
- Denazifying the cirrcuulam 2. Stopping the reintroduction of confessional schools 3. Stopping the early selection of career paths at age of 10
How did the allies attempt to remove nazification in schools?
They removed Nazi teachers and school books
Why did allies reopen schools before not fully reforming them?
Children still needed education in reading writing and numeracy so they reopened schools in August 1945
Did the allies succeed in changing the education system before the FRG was set up?
No
What did the basic law say about education?
The lander remained responsible for educational and cultural policy
What did the lander still being responsible for schools result in?
There being few secular schools in the south whilst they flourished in the North and the curricula varying widely between the lander. There were also disputes over the teaching of history, for example should Nazi history be taught.
How did most of the lander end up teaching history?
With dry, factual history teaching mainly European events, not German.
Why did school restructuring never happen?
Despite meetings throughout the 50s and 60s, to make education available for all on a fairer basis, and the introduction of comprehensive schools they could never agree.
What framework for education did Brandt’s government try and fail to pass?
They tried to in 1971, introduce a framework that all lander would adopt. This included help for the disadvantaged, less streaming by ability, more mobility within secondary schooling and the reform of the university structure. The Bundestag passed it but it did not get the majority it needed in the budestrat to become law.
Why was their an educational crisis in the FRG in the 60s?
Student numbers had risen but facilities like the lecture theatres and the student accommodation were inadequate. Critics said that the curriculum was too old fashioned. For example, it did not teach technology or economics and seemed to only cater for the children of civil servants, academics and well off.
When did the state provide free education upto?
Secondary school
How did the SPD government encourage working class students to go to university?
In 1971 the federal education promotion act was passed. This provided a mixture of state funding and state loans to encourage working class students to go to university.
How did the number of children in gymnasium change from 1960 to 1980?
The number increased from 843,000 to 2,019,000
How did the number of students attending university change from 1960 to 1980?
It went from 239,000 to 749,000
Why was there a cultural divide between older and younger Germans?
Germans had traditionally seen their country as a leader of European culture and after the war, especially older Germans, wanted to regain that position. They believed in the year zero policy and older Germans had lived through the trying economic times of the past so wanted a easy consumeristic society. Many young people found it easier to adopt the cultural offerings of the allies such as Hollywood movies in the American zone, or Shakespeare in the British zone, then to readopt things that the Nazis had approved of such as Wagner’s music. Young people also rejected consumerism, and in the 1960s they also began rejecting American culture and the year zero policy.
What cultural movements attracted all generations from the 50s onwards?
The anti nuclear movement and various ecological alternative lifestyle movements. These shared a rejection of consumerism and a desire for a more peaceful, equal society.
How is film an example of the cultural divide within the FRG?
Until the 1960s, the most popular type of film were homeland films. In contrast, there were American films with escapist and romantic plots, in complete contrast to the struggles of an every day Germans life. During the 1960s, younger film makers developed new styles and themes such as ones looking at the social problems within the FRG.
What do some historians argue the popularity of homeland films meant for the FRG?
Their strongly regionalistic character helped the FRG create a regional culture in contrast to a strongly nationalistic Nazi one.
What was the new German cinema?
This was set up in 1962 and focused on the unassimilated past of Nazi Germany or the social problems of the FRG. After 1965, they had state sponsorship from the board of young German film.
What are two examples of films produced by the new German cinema?
Yesterday girl looked at the problems of an east German female migrant worker in the FRG. Young Torless examined the German persecution of the Jews.
What book was highly influential in removing the year zero approach and what was it about?
The inability to mourn. It was written by psychoanalysis’s and they said that most Germans in the Nazi period has acted as if the Germans who lived through the Nazi period had acted as if Nazism was an infectious disease, something which they had recovered from and were not responsible for. It said that Germans had to face their past/
How did the inability to mourn influence people?
It was widely read and some Lander reformed their history teaching in schools and universities to include Nazi Germany because of it.
What caused a need for more workers in the 1950s?
The economic boom. In 1955 there was more or less full employment so the government wanted to employ more workers from abroad.
Why did the unions at first dislike the idea of more foreign workers coming in?
There was already a significant number of foreign workers in the country and unions feared that workers would force wages down and undercut existing workers by accepting less favorable conditions.
How did the government combat the unions worries about foreign guest workers?
They guaranteed non German workers the same wages and agreed to give preference to non German workers when hiring.
How did the FRG hire foreign workers?
A federal office for labour recruitment was set up in Nuremburg to run offices in the countries with which west Germany had labour recruitment treaties. People applied for work and had a physical examination to make sure that they were fit for the job. They then signed a contract for a job, which they could not leave, for just one year.
What were living conditions like for the foreign guest workers?
The employer provided basic accommodation, often in dormitories near factories and outside towns, cutting them off from the community.
When did the foreign worker programme step up and why?
After 1961 when the Berlin wall was built as West Germany had lost its East German labour force.
What type of workers did the foreign workers programme favour and what type of jobs did they do?
Men of 20-40 years and they were given heavy manual labour, they did jobs that ordinary Germans did not want to do.
Between 1961 and 1973 how many manual/agricultural workers changed to white collar jobs?
About 3 million.
Between 1961 and 1971 how many Germans left mining and how many guest workers replaced them?
About 870,000 men left mining and they were replaced by 1.1 million guest workers.
When did more female guest workers start entering the FRG and what types of jobs did they do?
1960 at the request of some industries, they did jobs such as electronics and hospitality.
What type of jobs did the illegal guest workers take part in?
They took part in the worst jobs possible for very low wages and no accommodation or anything else provided.
What type of rights did foreign workers have in the FRG?
They did have guarantees under their contracts with their employers, but not with the same rights as human citizens. Even if their contracts were renewed, it was still only on a year by year basis.
Who did guest workers have support from?
Church organizations such as the catholic organisastion caritas. They also had hekp from their own organisastions.
What caused increased hostility towards guest workers in the 60s?
The 1966 recession
How were guest workers treated during the recession?
Many landlords refused to take guest workers as tenants so this confined them to living among other guest workers in the poorest areas.
Where did Germany have labour recruitment treaties with?
Italy in 1955. Spain and Greece in 1960. Turkey in 1961. Morocco in 1963. Portugal in 1964. Tunisia in 1965. Yugoslavia in 1968.
What caused opposition to guest workers in the 70s?
The oil crisis and the sudden rise in unemployment.
How did the government respond to the issues of the 70s?
In November 1973, the government put a stop on hiring and banned permits for families of workers already in the country. This lead to the number of workers decreasing to under 2 milion.
In 1975, what rights were guest workers given?
The government allowed guest workers children the same rights as German children.
When was the ban on foreign workers removed?
1977
What did the government set up to work for the rights of foreign workers and to promote their integration in 1978?
The Federal Commissioner for Foreign Affairs who was appointed by Schmidt.
What other rules were set up for foreign workers in 1978?
A clear set of rules for applying for unrestricted residence but not citizenship.
What was one of the main issues the government had with the foreign workers and why?
The education of the children of guest workers. The Basic law was to provide democratic education and equal opportunity for all. However there were significant cultural problems with educational providers as 60 percent of the guest workers children were Muslim.
How did the government try to persuade the lander to educate the guest workers children?
They tried to persuade the lander to provide mixed culture learning groups with classes of Germans and the children of guest workers. They were given books in their mother tounge and in German.
What were the issues that Muslim children faced?
Most started school at 6 with no pre school education and language help as much preschool education was run by Christians, mainly Catholics.
How did Muslim guest workers try to get their children to be educated?
Many groups set up their own Koran schools because children were not learning in state schools. However, this did not help integration and attracted a lot of hostility.
When was there a sharp rise in guest workers?
The 1980s
