frg Flashcards
1
Q
when and how was the frg created?
A
- may 7 1945 - germany signed final surrender
- usa/britain/france/ussr took control of gov - 4 zones
2
Q
when was the potsdam conference?
A
july 17 - august 2 1945
3
Q
what happened at the potsdam conference?
A
- focused on disarming, demilitarising, decentralising and denazifying
- east/west tension
4
Q
what political parties were established in the frg and when?
A
- 11 june 1945 - kpd re-formed, but wanted german socialism, not capitalism or communism, land reform, new education, democratic gov
- 15 june 1945 - spd re-formed, more radical than kpd, wanted nationalisation of industries + social welfare systems
- centre party unsuccessful in reestablishing itself
- cdu/csu set up, made up of smaller faith based parties, wanted social support for the poor
- 1947 - liberal groups (unions, smaller liberal parties formed fdp)
5
Q
what aspects were there to the east/west division?
A
- cold war
- 1945-47 - yugoslavia, albania, bulgaria, hungary and poland all became communist states
- west set up marshall plan for countries fighting communists
- april 1946 - kpd and spd formed sed (socialist unity party), most significant party in soviet zone
6
Q
what was the timeline of east/west separation?
A
october 1946 - elections in berlin, kpd/spd only win in the soviet zone
- 29 may 1947 - usa/britain form bizonia
- 14 june - soviets set up german economic commission in response
- 1 march 1948 - bank of german states created in western zones
- 20 march - usa leaves allied control council
- 20 june - bizonia announces deutschmark
- 23 june - soviets announce their own currency, to be used in all of berlin, dm introduced in western zones
- 24 june - ussr closes all transport links to berlin
- june 1948 to may 1949 - berlin airlift
- 22 may 1949 - frg formed
- 7 october - gdr formed
7
Q
when was basic law introduced?
A
23 may 1949
8
Q
what comprised basic law?
A
- free liberal democracy
- ratified by 2/3 of länder parliaments
- equal rights, free speech, state education for all
- could be repressive - allowed to ban political parties who could undermine the frg (anxiety towards extreme political groups present)
9
Q
when were the 1949 elections and what were the results?
A
- 14 august 1949
- cdu/csu - 31%
- spd - 29.2%
- fdp - 12%
- adenauer was chancellor
- ussr responded by setting up gdr, where SED was the majority party
10
Q
who was adenauer?
A
- chancellor from 1949-63
- authoritarian/forceful style - called a chancellor democracy as he had more power than allowed
- controlled foreign and domestic policy until 1955 as chancellor and foreign minister
- kept coalitions working together until 1957, when cdu/csu won their first majority and remained majority party until 1969
11
Q
what were adenauer’s policies?
A
- 20 september 1949 - set out policies - uniting germany, european integrations
- spd was critical of his focus on the west, some thought this was the fastest way for frg to become self governing
- worked to exclude left wing opposition (socialist reich party banned in 1952, changes to vote allocations made it harder to get a seat in 1953, kpd declared unconstitutional in 1956, seat allocation changed even more in 1957 for small parties)
- stabilising, 3 party house with shifting coalition, countered democracy of basic law
12
Q
how was the civil service restored?
A
- young germans felt as though too many ex-nazis were allowed in the government but in 1939 all gov workers had to be nazis
- adenauer said allowing them in was the quickest way to reestablish the civil service, saw 1945 as year 0
- 11 may 1951 - article 131 allowed ex nazis to work in the civil service
- 1952 report named 4 ex nazis working in foreign ministry, said it could be bad for international rep of the frg
- 1953 - league of expellees party won enough seats to be part of the coalition, but broke up in 1954 w members joining cdu
- accepted ex nazis into the army in 1955
13
Q
what were adenauers other policies?
A
- worked to limit freedom of speech, worried the bundestag esp spd
- 1959 - spd gained support after suggesting a free market economy
- january 1961 - adenauer tried to set up gov controlled tv station before election campaigns
- ruled unconstitutional on february 28
- october 1962 - article published which criticised west german troops, adenauer supported arrest of journalists involved
- fdp ministers resigned in protest and adenauer promised to resign in 1963 in order to get an spd coalition
14
Q
when was erhard chancellor and what did he do?
A
- spd had split into atlanticists and gaullists (prepared to work with france but wanted to shift focus to east germany) and was gaining influence
- followed atlanticist’s policies (wanted to work with usa and britain)
- tried introduce emergency law to tap phones, search homes, open mail etc in times of political tension
- spd refused to support this
- 1966 - introduced a budget with such heavy taxation that ministers resigned
- resigned after he was unable to form a coalition
15
Q
when was kiesinger chancellor and what did he do?
A
- 1966-69
- led a cdu/csu/sdp grand coalition with brandt as vice and foreign minister
- opposition from small extremist parties - neo nazi national democratic party, students, german federation of trade unions - gov became more repressive
- 28 june 1968 - csu and spd voted to pass a bill for emergency laws, even tho spd had been against it
- hoped shift towards ostpolitik would help gain support
16
Q
when was willy brandt chancellor and what did he do?
A
- 1969-74 - spd member, led spd/fdp alliance
- critical of ex Nazi assimilation
- supported ostpolitik, met with opposition from the bundestag
- decriminalised homosexuality and reduced voting age to 18
- csu tried to undermine sdp/fdp coalition
- october 1970 - several fdp politicians joined cdu
- march 1972 - several spd members joined as well
- forced a vote of no confidence, which failed by 2 votes
- brandt called early election in november 1972, where the spd won the most seats in the highest turnout ever
- 1974 - discovered that one of brandts advisors was a gdr spy
- 24 may 1974 - brandt resigned, even though he didn’t know about this
17
Q
when was schmidt chancellor and what did he do?
A
- 1974-82
- spd
- won 1976/1980 elections as there was no viable cdu candidate, and introduced careful policies
- adopted economic measures like high taxation and welfare cuts, accused of being as conservative as the csu
- faced opposition from green party (environmentalists)
- october 1 1982 - forced resign after vote of no confidence
18
Q
when was kohl chancellor and what did he do?
A
1982-1998
- called early elections on 6 march 1983 - csu/cdu won w 48.8% which consolidated his position
- faced opposition from greens on the left and republicans (1983) on the right
- media uncovered scandals about every party in parliament except for the greens
- promised continuity - had similar economic/ostpolitik policies to earlier govs
- faced sustained outbreak of terrorism - 1985 bombings of usa airbase in reinmain and frankfurt airport
- wanted unification
19
Q
what led to the fall of the berlin wall?
A
- 1989 - hungary opened border to the west
- january 1 1989 - east gernany relaxed travel restrictions
- 161k people applied to emigrate by september
- august - austria abolished visa requirements for hungary/east germany and 3k germans fled west by the end of the month
- september - hungary allowed east germans to cross any border
- thousands of east german went to frg
- 9 november 1989 - all travel restrictions lifted
20
Q
what initial opposition was there to the frg?
A
- political dissent and active challenges were less important than other issues
- eg rebuilding government, building sense of identity, rebuilding economy’s bc country, establishing the frg as a moderate member of europe
demonstrations and marches in the 1950s - basic law used to ban right wing socialist reich party in 1952 - kpd organised communist demonstrators in cities after failing to win enough seats in the bundestag
- 1953 - 6k communists clashed with police, who used water cannon to disperse marchers
21
Q
what changes were there to opposition in the 1960s?
A
- new waves of youth protests following the baby boom
- young people objected to year 0, wanted their families to take responsibility
- protests against the frg military - involvement with the west through nato,a nod the potential use, storing or building of atomic bombs
- didn’t like the vietnam war, disliked the usa and saw them as repressive capitalists
22
Q
what was the APO?
A
- the extraparliamentary opposition
- young intellectuals who didn’t trust the conservative government
- there were no left wing parties to absorb them after the kpd was banned and spd became less radical in 1959
- violent political protests
- had strong university membership, students who supported radical theories to oppose the government
23
Q
what was the SDS?
A
- german socialist student union
- part of the SPD but broke away in 1961 as the party became less radical, felt unrepresented
- protested about vietnam war and nuclear weapons, nazis holding office in the government, frg’s involvement with NATO
- 1965 - led by rudi dutschke
24
Q
what happened during sds demonstrations?
A
- 1967 - benno ohnesorg (student) shot during demonstrations against human rights record of iran, led to increase in membership but also a split over how violent demonstrations should be
- ensslin said violence was the only answer following the shooting
- april 1968 - dutschke shot by right wing fanatic who read criticisms of student protests in the spring press (newspaper)
- easter riots followed - series of attacks on sprinter press offices
- last demonstration was 11 may 1968 against the emergency law, 80k people gathered
25
Q
what challenges were to the government during the 1970s?
A
- violence increased to terrorism
- police/gov thrown off by terrorists refusing to work through conventional protest
- developed hardline policies - put up wanted posters
- regular gun battles with the police as terrorists tried to avoid arrest
- 1971 - one of the members of the west berlin tupamaros was shot by the police, other leader was in prison, so it’s members disbanded and moved on to other groups
26
Q
what was the baader-meinhof group?
A
- set up in early 1970
- went to jordan to train with a palestinian terrorist group
- bombed dahlem in may 1970
- end of 1970 - most of the leaders were in prison, called for hunger strikes
- bombed several lawyers/judges homes
- 1975 - all of them were arrested
27
Q
how were the public policed in the frg?
A
- 1950 - BFV set up, 1956 - BND
- both for investigating people working against basic law, but couldn’t open mail, search homes or monitor calls
- tried to pass laws for this in 1960, 1962 and 1965, wasn’t passed until 1968
- 1968 - emergency law
- BEFA - gave BND centralised access to all police info in FRG
- less terrorism by end of 70s
- 1972 munich olympics - israeli athletes shot, led to GSG-9 being set up as a special operations unit against terrorists
28
Q
how were people managed in the frg?
A
- 1949 - berurfsverbot (employment ban) in gov, aimed at political parties which threatened democracy, including kpd
- less than 100 people lost their job between 1950-72
- may 1951 - article 131
- january 1972 - anti radical decree, allowed for political vetting of everyone applying for a state job
29
Q
what happened at the nuremberg trials?
A
- started october 18 1945
- 22 defendants, 12 sentenced to death, 3 life imprisonment, 3 acquitted, 5 imprisoned
30
Q
how was denazification carried out?
A
250k arrested by end of 1946
- western zones re-educated the youth after hitler youth/propagandist education
- may 1946 - allies banned nazi schoolbooks, film and slides that taught nazi racial theory
- teachers vetted to weed out nazis, same w librarians
31
Q
how did people react to denazification?
A
- resigned acceptance - polls said between 1/2 and 2/3 of people thought it was necessary
- indignation - allies committed war crimes too, why was only germany punished
- avoidance - nazi supporters
- cynicism - apart from nuremberg trials, nazi prosecution was patchy
- desire to move on - by 1947, more than 85% of bavarian teachers who lost jobs through denazification were employed again, some teachers moved to different zones after being banned in one
32
Q
what support was there for the frg?
A
- people had been taught that democracy was weak by nazis
- also cycnical after weimar
- election turnout figures were high, were only less than 84% during first vote in 1949
- number of people who believed bundestag represented public interest doubled from 1951 and 1964
33
Q
what other measures of support were there?
A
- people demonstrated against changes that restricted democracy, such as 1968 emergency law
- marched in support of democracy and against repressive regimes in other countries, eg military junta in greece after 1967
- protested shift to ostpolitik due to repressive communist regime in ussr
34
Q
women post ww2 stats
A
- 1948 - 7.3m more women than men in germany
- divorce rate was 80% higher than 1946
35
Q
what was the status of women in the frg?
A
- 1953 - ministry for family affairs set up, provided wives/mothers with financial benefits
- bundestag split between giving women equal rights (spd) or not (cdu)
- article 3 of basic law - equality under the law for all citizens
- women theoretically equal
- 1958 - revised civil code to give women legal freedom
36
Q
were women working in the frg and what did they think of women in work?
A
- 1977 - marriage and family law revised to give women equal rights in marriage
- 60s/70s - womens liberation movements against kinder kuche kirche
- 1982 survey - 50% of men, 54% of women said a man’s career was more important than his wife’s
- 70% of men and 68% of women thought women should stop working in marriage
37
Q
what women’s liberation movements were there?
A
- active in 60s/70s
- 1967 - students in west berlin set up commune to live on equal terms, women ended up doing all the cooking and cleaning and left after 6 months
- january 1968 - action council for womens liberation set up in west berlin, set up daycare centres and organised campaigns with daycare teachers
- paragraph 218 - said abortion was a crime, targeted by radical feminist groups
- alice schwarzer - leader of the campaign, put 30 women on cover of magazine Stern saying ‘we’ve had abortions’
- published pamphlets with womens health info, including contraception
38
Q
what was the role and status of women by 1989?
A
- women in gdr were more likely to work full time with state crèches providing childcare, but needed to work to have sufficient income for the family
- frg - motherhood had a higher status than most other countries
- families had tax breaks and benefits to encourage women to stay home for 3 years after giving birth
- 50% of women with a child under 15 had a paid job, half of these were part time
39
Q
what was education like in the frg?
A
- denazification, weeded out nazis in unis, removed nazi teachers and textbooks
- allies said schools could reopen autumn 1945
- basic law said lander were responsible for schooling - little secular schools in south, flourished in the north, varied curriculums
- disputes over nazi history - taught factual european history, not german
- 60s/70s - discussions on fairer schooling, introduced gesamtschulen (comp schools)
- 1971 - brandt tried to pass new bill with reform of university, aid for poorer students and mobility within secondary schools - didn’t get majority in bundesrat
- school restructuring didn’t happen
40
Q
what was the educational crisis 1960s?
A
- concerns abt increase in number of uni studens but decline in quality of facilities
- curriculum too old fashioned - catered towards more privileged students, wanted to make it more democratic
- schooling free until end of secondary
- no. of students in gymnasium - 850k in 1960 to 2m in 1980
- 240k uni students in 1960 to 750k in 1980
- 1971 - federal education promotion act - funding/loans to help children from working class families go to uni
41
Q
what cultural tensions were there in the frg?
A
- easily removed nazi controls and reintroduced pre nazi culture and free press
- harder to retain culture that nazis had approved of eg music of wagner due to allied influence in western zones
- 1950s - shared ideologies across all ages eg anti nuclear movement and ecological lifestyle movements etc
42
Q
what generational tensions were there in the frg?
A
- 1960s - increasing tensions as baby boomers grew up, esp with year 0
- older people wanted comfortable traditional consumerist lifestyle, young ppl pressed for the opposite
43
Q
ethnic minorities in the frg stats
A
- millions of reufgees after ww2, no official count until 1947
- 1 april 1947 - 10 million refugees/expellees
44
Q
how were guest workers introduced in the frg?
A
- 1955 - full employment, gov wanted workers from abroad
- ppl were wary, gov guaranteed they would be given the same wages, and would give german workers preference while hiring
- federal office for labour recruitment set up in nuremberg, people signed one year contracts and employees provided accommodation
- 1961 - programme stepped up after berlin wall and loss of east german labour force
- favoured men 20-40 yrs old
- took jobs germans were happy to leave for other work
45
Q
what happened with guest workers in the 60s?
A
- 1961-71 - 870k germans left jobs in mining and 1.1m guest workers took those jobs
- lots of guest workers renewed contracts, brought families over, unions help0ed them adjust but not with assimilation longterm
- supported by church organisations
- 1966 recession - landlords refused to take guest workers as tenants, hostility from right wing groups
46
Q
what challenges were there to guest workers in the 70s/80s?
A
- under pressure to leave during oil crises and rise in unemployment
- november 1973 - gov put a stop on hiring, banned permits of workers families in the country
- no. of guest workers fell to under 2m
- 1974 - ford offered voluntary severance packages, said mass layoffs were likely. workers accepted even tho it was based off points system
- 1975 - gov gave guest workers children same rights as others
- 1977 - ban removed and workers started coming in again
- 1978 - first federal commissioner for foreigners affairs appointed by schmidt to promote integration
47
Q
what was the economy like in 1945?
A
- war production badly effected by - allied bombing, loss of land which provided raw materials (eg upper silesia), damage to electricity gas and water supplies, sabotage by foreign workers
- food production affected by loss of farm workers to the front and bombing of transport links
48
Q
how far was economic recovery achieved from 1945-55?
A
- war industries banned, war related industries had outputs restricted
- reichsmark worthless - black market thrived, hard to get workers with meaningless wages
- transport/communications links across zones hampered economic recovery
- 160k german prisoners of war stayed in france instead of returning to germany
- 10m germans came as refugees ahead of soviet army, or expelled from eastern europe under reallocation of land
49
Q
what was west germany like after 1949?
A
- relations between ussr and west deteriorated, cold war developed
- economic aid given to western zones under marshall plan of 1948 ($1.4m)
- deutschmark created, stabilised economy and broke up black market
50
Q
what economic reforms did erhard make?
A
- march 1948 - appointed director of economy administration
- worked to create free market economy
- 18 june 1948 - announced rm would be replaced by dm on 21 june
- 24 june - economic council gave erhard power to abolish all but most essential rationing
- wages stayed fixed until november 1948 to allow business to establish themselves
- people stopped boarding goods, consumables available in shops
- currency reform only affected cash and monetary savings
- military gov warned tax on all assets, money to be used to compensate people who lost things during the war
- 1952 - bundestag passed equalisation of burdens act - raised and redistributed money to people in need
51
Q
what were the consequences of erhards reforms?
A
- factories and businesses could start producing/trading again, had to replace machinery and train workers
- some businesses failed after currency reform because they couldn’t pay taxes
- businesses had to lay off workers, but managed to keep going
- unemployment rose from 440k in june 1948 to 940k in january 1949
- 1950, unemployment hit 1.8m but fell to 1m in 1955
- production increased
52
Q
what opposition was there to erhards reforms?
A
- from economic council/bundestag for going from command to social market economy
- britain opposed idea thought social market economy would lead to exploitation of workers
- usa supported erhard with experience of social market economy
- people wanted pre command economy with cartels and fixed prices back
- erhard wanted competition within industries
- combo of capitalist market + gov that supported the poorest won over supporters in the bundestag
- 1951 - policy of codetermination allowed for workers reps on managerial boards in the industry
53
Q
what factors contributed to the economic miracle?
A
- korean war - 1950, sparked need for war supplies, frg was banned but industrial goods, chemical, steel and electrical goods were in need in other countries that shifted to war production. 1955 - frg joined nato and was allowed to rearm and produce war materials
- new investment - businesses recovered enough by mid 1950s to invest in new, more efficient equipment, concentrated on high quality goods, low prices, exports grew, businesses hired more and invested more
- workers - influx of refugees post war, pool of guest workers, needed training but formed efficient workforce, kept wages low, 3.6m skilled workers came to frg from gdr during 1950s
54
Q
what possible economic problems were there?
A
- growth could not keep going at rapid rate of 1950s/early 60s
- berlin wall in august 1961, reduced number of workers crossing into the frg
55
Q
what challenges were there to the economy?
A
- 1966 - economic growth slowed
- rising levels of gov spending
- 1965 - rm46.7 million spent on social welfare, 115.9m by 1970
56
Q
what happened during the 1966/7 recession?
A
- trade reduced, unemployment increased
- guest workers left, 1.3m at the start of 1966, 990k by september 1967
- fall in productivity
- increase in public spending
- schiller (economics minister) increased gov planning, intervention and control, subsidies for agriculture and coal industry
- 1967 economic stabilisation law - gov intervention in times of economic crisis to limit regional spending
-1968 - provision added to basic law where money could be moved from wealthier länder to poor ones - schillers policies failed, replaced by helmut schmidt
57
Q
what happened during the oil crises in 1973 and 78?
A
- relied on oil rather than coal, bought from middle east at affordable prices
- 1940, frg spent dm10.8 billion on 140m tonnes of oil
- october 1973 - 4th arab israeli war broke out and opec put up prices in 1973 and again in 1968
- frg got 40% of oil through opec
- 1973 - 140m tonnes of oil cost 32.8 billion, 49 billion in 1978
- unemployment rose 1974-5, baby boomers reached employment market, foreign guest workers contracts weren’t renewed
58
Q
how did german industries adapt to the oil crises?
A
- not hit as hard
- oil consumption dropped, encouraged car free sundays, speed limits on autobahns to save fuel
- gov propaganda to push energy saving tactics, invested in atomic power to reduce oil dependence
- didn’t subsidise oil prices, made it expensive to encourage cutbacks
- higher income tax in 1975
59
Q
what economic challenges were there in the 80s?
A
- wealth group widened
- hostility towards guest workers
- 1978 - exported more to opec countries than it imported
- 1981 - unemployment hit 1.7m, highest since 1950
- spending on unemployed increase
- 1981 - gov cut public spending, benefits, housing allowance
- 1982 gov cut spending even more harshly, said welfare support created dependency
- kohl cut public holidays, reduced retirement age to 58
- gov sold off shares in state run institutions
60
Q
how did the frg integrate into the european economy?
A
16 april 1948 - oeec set up to manage european economic recovery, administers marshall plan aid in europe
september 1950 - european payment union set up by oeec to manage economic cooperation across countries including frg
1951 - frg joins GATT set up in 1948 to establish favourable trade agreements among members
18 april 1951 - frg joins council of europe
1951 - joins ecsc to set up trade links in europe, come into effect in july 1962
9 may 1955 - frg joins nato
25 march 1957 - frg signs treaty of rome to become one of the founders of EEC
61
Q
how did living standards change? (welfare)
A
- 1945 - war damage led to starvation and homelessness
- 1/5 of housing bombed flat, 1/3 of remaining houses were damaged, pressure from refugee influx
- 40s/50s - housing and food most pressing issues
- ministry of housing set up, rents frozen, building industry given tax concessions to build homes
62
Q
how did living standards change? (spending patterns)
A
- 1963 - 63% of homes had a fridge, 42% had a tv, 36% had a washing machine
- 1985 - figures rose to 82%, 82%, 87%
- 1980s - 90% of people covered by benefits and healthcare, pension reforms
- people lived 12 years longer on average in 1980 than 1950
- 1960s - 1% of households owned 35% of the wealth, 78% by 1973, 45% by 1988
