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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
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2
Q

when was the potsdam conference?

A

july 17 - august 2 1945

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3
Q

what happened at the potsdam conference?

A
  • focused on disarming, demilitarising, decentralising and denazifying
  • east/west tension
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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)
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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
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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

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7
Q

when was basic law introduced?

A

23 may 1949

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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

germany (4 decks)

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