FRG

Question 1

What is a free market economy?

Answer 1

An economy where the gov does not interfere in the policies of businesses to control the economy, including prices and wages.

Question 2

What is a social market economy?

Answer 2

A free market economy with elements of social support for the poorest. E.g. a ‘socially responsible’ free market economy.

Question 3

Who was the first economic minister of the FRG?

Answer 3

Ludwig Erhard 1949-63. He believed in the social market economy.

Question 4

Why was economic recovery held back between 1945-49?

Answer 4

Reparations - the French and Soviets dismantled factories, undermining any chance for econ recovery.
The Reichsmark was almost worthless.
Each Allied zone was run by a military high command and governed very differently.
Economic and physical devastation in Germany meant that some Germans left and never came back.

Question 5

How was the economic recovery kick-started between 1945-55?

Answer 5

Marshall Plan 1947 - $1.4 million.
The Deutschmark was created in 1948 which helped to stabilise the economy and break up the black market. It also meant that wages were now worth something.

Question 6

What evidence is there that the West German economy had recovered dramatically?

Answer 6

Rise in exports - 1950, 8,363 (million marks) and in 1970, 125,300.
Unemployment - 1950, 8.1% and in 1965, 0.5%.
Volkswagen - sales of VW expanded. In the 1960s, sales averaged 400,000 a year.

Question 7

Why did the economy recover so rapidly?

Answer 7

• The Korean War (1950-53) - The war in Korea sparked a need for war supplies. The FRG’s industrial good were in high demand. Joined NATO in 1955 so was allowed to re-arm.
• New investment - many businesses had recovered by the mid-1950s and were able to invest in new, more efficient equipment and factories. Produced high-quality goods which were sold at low prices. Good rep led to more imports.
• Workers - influx of refugees meant that there were a large pool of guest workers for businesses to draw on. During 1950s, 3.6m workers came from East Germany.

Question 8

What happened during the recession of 1966 and 1967?

Answer 8

Trade reduced and unemployment increased.
The number of guest workers, who were vital to economic growth) decreased from 1.3 million at the start of 1966 to 991,000 by the end of 1967.
Industrial productivity fell.

Question 9

How did Karl Schiller (economics minister) respond to the recession?

Answer 9

Government planning, intervention and control was increased.
Cartels were introduced to stop prices rising
1967 Economics stabilisation law - allowed gov intervention in times of economic crisis to limit regional spending and introduced Five year plan system for all soending.

Question 10

What were the oil crises of 1973 and 1978?

Answer 10

The Fourth Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1973 and OPEC (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries) put oil prices up. 1972 - 10.8bn DM for 140m tonnes, 1978 - 49bn DM.
FRG got 40% of its fuel from OPEC.
Unemployment rose sharply - not helped by the post war baby boom. Ban was placed on recruiting guest workers.

Question 11

How did the FRG overcome economic challenges in the 1970s?

Answer 11

• Exports remained high due to high demand.
• Measures were introduced to reduce oil consumption, car free Sundays, propaganda encouraging people to be eco-friendly, atomic power, gov did not subsidise oil.
• Public spending was cut and income tax raised in 1975.
  1973, gov put a stop on hiring guest workers and banned permits for families of workers already in the country.

Question 12

What evidence is there that the FRG sought to establish closer ties with Europe?

Answer 12

• 1951, joined the Council of Europe.
• 1955, FRG joined NATO, anti-communist.
• 1957, signed the Treaty of Rome to become one of the founding members of the European Economic Community(EEC). 1958-69, imports and exports doubled with countries in the EEC.

Question 13

How did WW2 affect living standards in West Germany?

Answer 13

• 1/5 of all housing had been bombed.
• influx of refugees led to more pressure on availability of housing. Rationing was required.

Question 14

What evidence is there that living standards rose between 1949 and 1989?

Answer 14

• 1949, 222,000 new homes built, 1971, 553,000 built.
• By 1971, 96% of new homes had central heating, this was 0% in 1952.
• Incomes rose and wages kept ahead of prices.
• As the economy strengthened, standards of living rose and consumerism rose.

Question 15

Did everyone experience a similar rise in their standard of living?

Answer 15

No, social inequality deepened. In the 1960s, `1% of all households owned 35% of the wealth in the FRG. This rose to 78% of the wealth in 1973, and dropped to 45% in 1988.

Question 16

What are the main features of the Basic Law?

Answer 16

• Equal rights to all German citizens, regardless of sex, race, political views, or religion.
• Free speech, the freedom to form unions or other groups, free assembly and no censorship.
• State education for all (although private schooling allowed)
• Article 20, the FRG was a democratic and social federal state. State authority is derived from the people.
• Article 21, political parties must conform to democratic principles. If not they are abolished.

Question 17

How did the Basic Law overcome problems encountered in the years of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 17

• Parties had to gain at least 5% of votes to gain representation in the Bundestag. Restricted the rise of extremist parties.
• Under Article 21, political parties who were seen to be undermining the democratic nature of the FRG could be abolished.

Question 18

What similar problems did FRG governments still encounter?

Answer 18

• The need for coalition governments was not avoided.
• First election, CDU/CSU won 31% while the SPD won 29.2% and the FDP/liberal parties won 11.9%.

Question 19

In what ways did Adenauer bring about greater political stability to West Germany?

Answer 19

• Forceful management of the Bundestag and government meant that he kept FRG coalitions together until 1957, when the CDU/CSU won a majority, remained until 1969.
• 1952, the extreme right-wing Socialist Reich Party was banned and in 1956, the KPD was disbanded.

Question 20

What was the Hallstein Doctrine?

Answer 20

• The doctrine hardened West Germany’s attitude towards East Germany.
• Refused to recognise the legality of the GDR as a separate.
• Would no longer have any relations with any country which had diplomatic relations with the GDR.

Question 21

Why did people criticise Adenauer’s approach to governing the FRG?

Answer 21

• SPD and FDP called his leadership ‘Chancellor democracy’ suggesting that he had more power than the Basic Law allowed.
• Appointed weak ministers whom he treated as advisors not equals.
• SPD did not like closer ties with the West. Thought it would hold back German unification.
• Article 21 moves were seen as undemocratic.
• Criticised for his year zero approach. Had he allowed too many ex-Nazis into his government.

Question 22

Which chancellors succeeded Adenauer?

Answer 22

• Erhard (1963-66)
• Kiesinger (1966-69)
• Brandt (1969-74)
• Schmidt (1974-82)
• Kohl (1982-98)

Question 23

Why did the CDU become increasingly divided in the 1960s?

Answer 23

Splitting between Atlanticists, who wanted to carry on working with the West, and Gaullists, who wanted to shift the focus to cooperation with East Germany.

Question 24

What happened during Erhard’s chancellorship?

Answer 24

Erhard followed Adenauer’s ‘Atlanticist’ policies.

Question 25

What happened during Kiesinger’s chancellorship?

Answer 25

• Rising opposition pushed the government to be more repressive, the Emergency Law was passed through the Bundestag in 1968.
• A shift towards towards a foreign policy of Ostpolitik (eastern policy) rejecting the Hallstein Doctrine and working with the GDR.

Question 26

What happened during Brandt’s chancellorship?

Answer 26

• SPD/FDP coalition government.
• Pushed ahead with the policy of Ostpolitik, which remained a policy until 1989.
• Between 1970 and 1972, several FDP and SPD members joined the CDU and forced a vote of no confidence which failed by two votes. He won most seats next general election.
• 1974, Brandt’s advisors turned out to be a spy which made him step down despite the support of his party and the Bundestag.

Question 27

What happened during Helmut Schmidt’s chancellorship?

Answer 27

• Economic and domestic upheaval.
• Accused of adopting right wing economic measures (higher taxes and welfare cuts)
• Faced growing opposition from the Green Party, which was set up in 1980 following concern of environmental issues during the 70s and 80s.
• Vote of no confidence forced him to resign in 1982.

Question 28

What happened during Helmut Kohl’s chancellorship?

Answer 28

• A sustained outbreak of terrorism directed at other governments and German institutions (e.g. the bombings of US airbases in Rein-Main and Frankfurt Airport in 1985)
• Kohl worked for the unification of Germany, which seemed a distant prospect. But by 1989, the GDR was under increased pressure to open its borders. They later relaxed its travel restrictions.

Question 29

Who opposed the FRG in the 1950s and why?

Answer 29

• KPD criticised the gov’s economic aims and opposed capitalism.
• Socialist Reich Party, did not like the west. Like Nazis.
• SPD, criticised the Atlanticist aims, wanted German unification, questioned the year zero approach.

Question 30

How did the government deal with opposition in the 1950s?

Answer 30

• Article 21 banned KPD and Socialist Reich Party.
• Adenauer did not allow the SPD do be represented despite them receiving 29.2% of the vote in 1949 election.
• Set up the BfV (1950) and the BND (1956) to investigate people working against the Basic Law. However, both organisations were limited due to the Basic Law, couldn’t open mail, search homes or monitor phone calls.

Question 31

Why did Adenauer’s regime not receive more opposition?

Answer 31

• Bigger issues, general understanding that there were bigger issues to focus on rather than opposing. e.g. rebuilding the economy and infrastructure.
• Nature of the Basic Law, ability of extremist parties to be represented were limited.
• Union of political parties reduced polarisation of politics.
• Adenauer’s chancellor democracy, authoritarian style and forceful management of the Bundestag

Question 32

How did opposition movements change in the 1960s?

Answer 32

• More violent, political protest began to gain force.
• Increased movements of disillusioned left-wing movements.
• Rise of political protest at social, grass-roots level (particularly among the youth who protested against the previous generations who lived in Nazi regime)

Question 33

Why did opposition change in the 1960s?

Answer 33

• Increased polarisation/instability of politics, weaknesses of FRG governments, collapse of Erhard’s gov, Atlanticist vs Gaullists in the CDU.
• Unrepresented left in government and parliament, banning of KPD, students and trade unions.
• Rise of a disaffected youth movement of post WW2 world who began to question moral issues (Vietnam War, NATO, Auschwitz generation in office) German Socialist Student Union.

Question 34

How did the government control opposition in the 1960s?

Answer 34

• Use of the BfV and BND to investigate people suspected of working against Basic Law.
• Passed the 1968 Emergency Law, gave police more powers of arrest and surveillance (such as telephones) which could go against basic constitutional rights. Government could become more centralised in national crises, and the army could be used inside the country.

Question 35

How did opposition against FRG governments change in the 1970s?

Answer 35

Increased levels of left wing violence and terrorist activity in the 1970s and (to a lesser extent) the 1980s targeting fascism and imperialism.

Question 36

Why did opposition change in the 70s and 80s?

Answer 36

• Gov methods of control, backlash of the fascist-like 1968 emergency law. Opposition groups felt more marginalised from society, their voice was restricted and, therefore, resorted to acts of terrorism.
• Imperialism, continued cynicism towards US imperialist moves abroad (e.g. Vietnam War) and FRG’s association with western powers.
• Failure of de-nazification.

Question 37

Who opposed the FRG in the 70s and 80s and why?

Answer 37

• Left wing groups protested against an authoritarian regime comparable to that of the Nazis.
• Kommune I groups (formed in the 60s) tried to bomb the motorcade containing US president Nixon when visiting West Germany.
• The Baader-Meinhof Gang engaged in a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police. Conducted a series of bank robberies between 1970 and 1972 and in 1972, bombed the headquarters of the US army in West Germany.

Question 38

How did the government control opposition in the 1970s?

Answer 38

• 1968 Emergency Law.
• BfV and BND
• After the shooting of Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972, the Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG-9) was established as a special operations unit to act against terrorists. Worked with the British SAS and US Delta Force.

Question 39

What evidence is there of support for democracy 1949-89?

Answer 39

• Level of turnout for elections was high, Germans wanted to participate in elections and democracy.
• By the 1960s, surveys showed that the majority of German people felt that democracy was the best government style.
• Voter turnout was always higher than Britain.
• People became impatient with the year zero policy.
• People protested against the policy of Ostpolitik.
• Members of the public marched in support of democracy and against repressive regimes in other countries.

Question 40

What evidence is there of a lack support for democracy 1949-89?

Answer 40

• Under the year zero policy, the education system was slow to distribute democratic ideas. In 1961, only 1/3 of all students in the university of Frankfurt believed in the future of democracy.
• The 1960s saw a rise of active right wing movements, with the neo Nazi NPD (National Democratic Party), founded in 1964, gaining representation in several local lander parliaments.
• A public poll in 1970 showed that 1/5 Germans felt some sympathy for the Baader Meinhof Gang.

Question 40

What were the attitudes towards female employment and education during the years of the FRG?

Answer 40

• Immediately after WW2, women worked to help rebuild the German economy due to the loss of able-bodied men.
• Adenauer spoke about making more jobs available to women but the gov did not make this happen.
• Women’s pay for full-time employment was still 1/3 lower than that of men.
• In 1982, a survey showed that 50% of men and 54% of women believed a man’s career was more important than his wife’s.
• Before the German Civil Code (1900) was revised, married women had to have permission from their husband to work.
  Even after this, women could not work if it interfered with their role as a wife and mother until 1977.

Question 41

What were attitudes towards women’s roles in family life?

Answer 41

• Even after the shortage of men after WW2, traditional marriage was once again society’s ideal.
• In 1953, a Ministry for Family Affairs provided wives and mothers with financial benefits.
• By 1989, the roles of married women were largely defined by family life, which grant motherhood a high status.
• Married women had to wait until 1977 to experience an increased status on society. Then, the Marriage and Family Law was revised to give women equal rights and shared responsibility in marriage.

Question 42

What women’s organisations existed during the years of the FRG?

Answer 42

• Women’s liberation movements were active in the 1960s and 1970s and sought to overturn society’s established role of a women as a wife, mother and homemaker
• 1968, Action Council for Women’s Liberation set up day-care centres for children.

Question 43

What were women’s roles in politics in the years of FRG?

Answer 43

• Few women were involved in politics during the FRG. Only 4 women on the parliamentary council which drew up the Basic Law for the FRG in 1949. Failed to acquire an unconditional gender equality clause in the Basic Law.

Question 44

What was a guest worker?

Answer 44

• By 1955, the FRG started to look overseas to recruit people to work in Germany’s industrial sector on a temporary basis.
• Signed recruitment agreements with Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia.
• The people were called ‘guest workers’.

Question 45

How many foreign workers were recruited?

Answer 45

• From 1960 to the stop on recruitment in 1973, the number of foreign workers grew from 280,000 to 2.6 million.

Question 46

What evidence is there that people were tolerant towards ethnic minorities in the 1950s/1960s?

Answer 46

• Gov guaranteed non-German workers the same wages.
• In 1964, 25% of workers in Germany had been living in the FRG for at least three years.
• 1964, minister of labour made a speech about the importance of guest workers and how they had been the foundations of Germany’s success.

Question 47

What evidence is there that people were intolerant of ethnic minorities in the 1950s/1960s?

Answer 47

• Unions were worried that guest workers would drive wages down, accept bad working conditions and therefore, undercut existing workers. Gov agreed to give German workers preference when hiring.
• The temporary recession of 1966 produced significant amount of hostility to foreign workers, especially those who did not speak much German or try to integrate. Many landlords refused to take guest workers which confined them to living amongst each other.

Question 48

What evidence is there that people were tolerant towards ethnic minorities in the 1970s/1980s?

Answer 48

• In 1975, the government gave guest workers’ children the same benefits as other children due to the rise in unemployed guest workers.
• In 1977, the ban on accepting foreign workers in Germany was lifted.
• The governments tried to persuade the Lander to provide mixed-culture learning groups with classes of Germans and the children of guest workers.
• Foreign children in schools rose from 165,000 in 1976 to almost 200,000 in 1983.

Question 49

What evidence is there that people were intolerant of ethnic minorities in the 1970s/1980s?

Answer 49

• During the oil crises in the 1970s and rise in unemployment, guest workers were again under pressure to leave jobs and Germany. In 1973, the government put a stop on hiring foreign workers and banned permits for families of workers already in the country. Number of guest workers fell to just under 2 million.
• While politicians and people generally continued to view guest workers as temporary residents, there was little incentive for either minority groups of West Germans themselves to work for assimilation.

Question 50

Why did the treatment of minorities vary during the years of the FRG?

Answer 50

• The success of the economy and rates of unemployment.
• Opportunities (or lack of) for assimilation presented by the government.
• Attitudes of the West German population towards minorities, as well as attitudes of ethnic minorities themselves.

Question 51

How did the process of de-Nazification under the Allies affect education in the FRG (1945-49)?

Answer 51

• Temporarily shut all schools in order to de-Nazify the curriculum and staff.
• Western allies could not agree on a common education policy by the time the FRG was set up in 1949.
• 1946, the allies banned school materials which taught Nazi racial theory.

Question 52

Was the de-Nazification of the education system successful?

Answer 52

• The year zero policy in the early years of the FRG slowed down the de-Nazification process.
• By 1947, more than 85% of the school teachers in Bavaria who lost their jobs through de-Nazification were back in work.

Question 53

What was the structure of the education system in West Germany?

Answer 53

• Lander was responsible for educational and cultural policy which meant that experiences of education varies across the country.
• Like education in the WR, the state provided free education, the state provided free education up to the end of secondary school.
• The Federal Education Promotion Act (1971) provided a mixture of state funding and state loans to encourage students to go to university. 1960, 239,000 went uni, 1980, 749,000.

Question 54

What attempts were made to re-structure school in the FRG?

Answer 54

In 1971, the Brandt government tried to introduce a federal framework for restructuring schools, including support for the disadvantaged, less streaming by ability, more mobility within secondary schools and a reform of the university structure. It was passed by the Bundestag but did not get the majority it needed in the Bundesrat so never became law.

Question 55

What were characteristics of the curriculum taught in schools?

Answer 55

• Educational authorities continued to use the curriculum and teaching methods used in the Weimar era.
• Curriculums varied depending on the Lander.
• Debates on how recent German history should be taught (WW1 and the Nazi period). This led to dry factual teaching being taught, often with a focus on European and not German history.

Question 56

What influenced culture in the FRG?

Answer 56

• De-Nazification, Nazi controls on culture were removed, the ‘degenerate’ culture was reintroduced, and a free press was re-established.
• Many Germans adopted the western culture. American films flooded the West German market after 1945.
• Regional culture began to develop.
• Younger film makers developed new styles and new themes of film from the 1960s. The New German Cinema was set up in 1962 and focused on the ‘unassimilated past’ of Nazi Germany or the social problems in the FRG.
• Alexander Kluge’s Yesterday Girl considered the problems of an East German female migrant worker in the FRG.

Question 57

What cultural tensions existed in the FRG from 1960?

Answer 57

• Old vs young, tensions between the older generation who wanted the year zero policy and the younger generation who wanted to confront the past.
• E.g. older generations wanted a familiar traditional German culture and comfortable consumerist lifestyle (due to the shortages and upheavals of the 1940s). In contrast, the younger generation pressed for a less consumerist lifestyle and culture which confronted the immediate past rather than embracing the distant or American culture.