Democratic government in West Germany. Flashcards
What happened at the Yalta Conference?
At the Yalta conference on the future of post-war Europe, the USSR, America and Britain agreed to divide Germany between four zones of occupation.
What were the four zones?
- The French in the West, the British in the north-west, the USSR in the east and the USA in the south. Berlin was also to be divided between the four powers.
When was the Yalta conference held?
It was held before the Second World War was over, but when the Allies were certain of victory. It was held between 4th - 11th February 1945 at Yalta in the Crimea. The three main decision makers were Josef Stalin, Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
What happened after the Second World War?
- The period after the Second World War saw conflict develop between the victorious powers, as the Soviet Union worked to strengthen its influence in Eastern Europe and the United States sought to limit the expansion of communism in Europe and the world. The two superpowers were keen to ensure their power and security, and were divided by their conflicting ideologies.
- Tensions came to a head over the occupation and government of Germany. In the eastern Soviet zone, a pro-Soviet communist government was established, while the authorities in the Western, anti-communist British, American and French ocupied zones increasingly co-operated with one another. Tensions rose through the first half of 1948 as the Soviets increasingly disrupted travel to and from Berlin.
What was the Berlin blockade?
- Stalin wished to secure Soviet dominance over the whole of Germany and doubted the commitment of the USA to remain as occupiers. He also felt that the unification of the rest of Germany posed a threat to Soviet power.
- Stalin launched the Berlin blockade on 24th June 1948. Land and water connections into non-Soviet West Berlin were cut off, and rail and road traffic into the city stopped. Water was suspended and on 25th June, food supplies were also ended. Stalin aimed to force Britain, America and France out of Berlin.
- The Soviets did not obstruct the airlift and on 12th May 1949, ended the blockade. The Berlin blockade was the first open confict of the Cold War.
When was the FRG established?
On 23rd May 1942, shortly after the blockade had ended, the Trizone became the Federal Republic of Germany. The country was no longer officially occupied. In October 1949, The German democratic republic under Soviet domination in east, was announced. Germany was to be divided in this way for 41 years.
What happened at the Postdam conference
At the Postdam conference, the Soviet Union, the USA and Britain agreed to prosecute leading Nazis and sought to remove from positions of power or influence, those who had contributed to the regime. This was known as denazification. In post war Germany, the Nazi party was banned and symbols of Nazi rule destroyed. Senior Nazis and military figures were arrested. In the initial period following the war, there was considerable enthusiasm among the victorious powers for denazification. After 1949, the policy all but ended.
The liberation of the camps and denazification.
At the time of the liberation of death camps such as Bergen Belsen, Allied Soldiers often forced local populations to view the evidence of the atrocities committed by visiting the camps. Sometimes, German civilians were compelled to assist with the burial of bodies of the victims. This confrontation with the destruction and suffering wrought by the Nazi regime was partly to denazify the general population.
War crimes trials.
- A major focus of the denazification process were the Nuremburg war crimes trials of 1945-46. Under the judisdiction of four judges, an international criminal coirt presided over war crimes trials of senior Nazis. The first trial involved the prosecution for war of 23 people, mainly senior Nazis. Ten of these defendants were executed, and Hermann Goering comitted suicide the night before his execution. The SS and the Gestapo were found to be criminal.
- The Nuremburg trials represented denazification in the sense of bringing some of those responsible for atrocities to justice and it provided a forum to present the evidence of Nazi criminality to the German publuc and the wider world.
Cultural and educational denazification.
- Symbols of Nazi rule such as the large swastika at the Nuremburg stadium, were destroyed. In education, efforts were made to retrain teachers.
The limitations of denazification.
Denazification did not continue after the election of Konrad Adenuer and in 1951 a law was passed calling the process in West Germany to a halt. By this stage, the Allies did not oppose the move.
What after the Second World War?
In the decades after the Second World War, West Germany developed into a peaceful, prosperous and mainly stable nation, with a Western-oriented, pro-US foreign policy. Germany became a member of NATO and enjoyed substantial economic, development which produced higher living standards. Politics in the era until the mid-1960s was dominated by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
What was the Basic Law?
The new federal republic of Germany was governed under the terms of a basic law which acted as its constitution. The Allies retained a veto on German law and the new state was not free to determine its foreign policy, but the basic law saw the restoration of democracy to Germany. Under the basic law:
- A federal Parliament, elected by universal suffrage in elections, was to be held every four years. Half of the seats were allocated proportionally and half on a first-past-the-post.
- The Chancellor was the head of government and most powerful politician. The Chancellor was appointed by the president and needed the approval of the Bundestag and was usually the head of the largest party in the Bundestag.
The Weimar constitution and the basic law of the FRG.
The basic law tried to deal with some of the perceived flaws in the Weimar’s constitution in order to try and make democracy in Germany stronger and more stable.
- The powers of the President were limited.
- Parties needed to get a minimum of 5% of the vote in order to get any representation in the Bundestag.
- A chancellor and his government could only be brought down by a vote of no confidence if another party was ready to govern.
- Only half of the seats in the Bundestag were determined on the basis of proportional representation.
- The constitutional court upheld basic civil rights.
- The basic law also emphasised human rights and pledged the government to uphold them.
What was the CDU?
The CDU was formed after the Second World War out of the remnants of the Catholic and fairly conservative Centre party. Catholic conservatism was less tainted by association with Nazis than other strains of right-wing politics, and Adenauer’s CDU built itself into a powerful political force in the new Germany.
What was the SPD?
The Social democratic party which had continued to exist in exile and underground throughout the war, re-established itself in post-war West Germany, initially as a Marxist party in favour of the unification of Germany. Their first post-war leader was Kurt Schumacher.
What happened with Adenauer in power?
Konrad Adenauer, a former centre party mayor of Cologne, was instrumental in the establishment and development of the CDU and became its first leader. In the first West German Bundestag elections of August 1949, the CDU emerged as the strongest party ans a month later, with the support of the Free Democrats, 73-year old Adenauer was chosen by the Bundestag to be the first chancellor of post-war Germany. In power, Adenauer dominated government and pursued certain policies vigorously.
Integration, not denazification.
Adenauer denounced the denazification policies and instead launched a policy whereby former Nazis were to be integrated in post- war Germany. Adenauer argued that this was neccessary to build a unified and harmonious country. Even when his state secretary, Hans Globke was revealed to have been involved in drafting anti-semitic laws in Nazi Germany, Adenauer refused to sack him. He also called upon the Allies to continue the sentences of those convicted of war crimes.
Restitution.
Adenauer did however believe that Germany needed to make amends to the Jewish people for Nazi crimes against them and supported the formation of a Claims conference for Jewish victims of Nazism and also the payment of large reparations to Israel. This payment of 3 billion Deutschmarks to Israel was pushed through by Adenauer with SPD support, in the face of opposition from many German people and many in the CDU. The German restitution laws were passed in 1953, although they were limited in their scope.
Western-oriented foreign policy.
Adenauer believed that the future of Germany lay with a Western-oriented foreign policy and with this in mind, he rejected Stalin’s overtures about possibility creating an independent and non-aligned unified German state in 1952. He pushed for Germany’s membership of NATO which was attained in 1955 in return for various German pledges committting to limiting their future military capabilities. Adenauer was instrumental in creating a degree of unity with France.
When did construction of the Berlin wall begin?
Construction of the Berlin wall was started in August 1961 by the East German government to separate the Communist eastern part of the city from the west. The East German government claimed its construction was to prevent infilration in East Germany but in fact its primary purpose was to stop emigration from the east to the west. The wall came to symbolise divided Germany.
A social market economy.
Adenauer and Economics minister Ludwig Erhard pursued a mixed economic model, combining capitalism with social welfare. This helped create sociaol harmony, and along with the strong economic growth of the post-1950 era, helped to create legitimacy and stability in the FRG.
Later years.
Following his success in assuring the return of the final 10,000 German prisoners of war held by the soviet union, Adenauer’s CDU won a strong victory in the 1957 election. Later this year, he supported the formation of the European Economic community, which further strengthened links with France. Adenauer stepped down from power in 1963 after a scandal implicating the government in repressive practices and died in 1967 at the age of 91.
