FRG - Opposition Flashcards

1
Q

1950S

What bigger issues to focus on made political challenge not seem as prevalent in Chancellor Adenauer’s government

A
  • Bigger issues to focus on in the 1950s:
  • (1) rebuilding the government and working together in coalition governments
  • (2) establishing a sense of West German identity, with prospects of East German reunification
  • (3) rebuilding the economy and the nation’s infrastructure
  • (4) working for closer European integration
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2
Q

1950S

why did Adenauer administration did not face more opposition during the 1950s?

A
  • The system of basic law
  • Union of political parties
  • Bigger issues
  • Adenauer’s chancellor Democracy
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3
Q

1950S

Why did the KDP oppose the FRG government

A
  • Criticised the government’s economic aims and, instead, emphasised the need for ‘German socialism’, not capitalism, with land reform, a new education system and a democratic government.
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4
Q

1950S

Why did the Socialist Reich Party oppose the FRG government

A
  • Heir to the Nazi Party
  • Condemned what it saw to be the West German dependence on the USA
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5
Q

1950S

Why did the SDP oppose the FRG government

A
  • Critical of ‘Atlanticist’ aims to establish ties to the West and not the GDR
  • Questioned the democratic nature of Germany under Adenaeur
  • ‘Year zero’ approach
  • Economic policies (e.g. wanted the nationalisation of banks, land and key industries, as well as significant social welfare policies)
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6
Q

1950S

What was used to overcome opposition from the Socialist Reich Party

A
  • In 1952, for example, the extreme right-wing Socialist Reich Party was banned under Article 21 of the Basic Law
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7
Q

1950S

In 1953, changes to……………………………..made it harder for small political parties to gain a seat (this was restricted even further in 1957)

A
  • vote allocations and seats in the Bundestag
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8
Q

1950S

What was used to overcome opposition from the KDP

A
  • 1956 - under Article 21, the KPD was also declared unconstitutional in their attitude towards democratic government
  • The moves were politically stabilising and resulted in a Bundestag that was a three-party house (CDU/CSU; FDP; SPD) with shifting and cooperative coalitions
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9
Q

1950S

What was used to overcome opposition from the SDP

A
  • The coalition government which was formed after the first elections in August 1949 had its largest party as the CDU which did not allow the SPD to be represented in the govt,
  • despite receiving 29.2% of votes in the August 1949 election
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10
Q

1950S

What did the KDP do before their disbandment by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956

A
  • Before their disbandment in 1956, the KPD, having been unable to win enough seats in the Bundestag to feel represented there, organised communist demonstrations in the German cities.
  • In Munich in 1953, approximately 6000 communists clashed with the police, who used water cannon to disperse the marchers
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11
Q

1950S

What was Article 21 of the Basic Law

A
  • The article stated that political parties may be freely established and their internal organisation must conform to democratic principles
  • However, if through their aims or behaviours a party seeks to undermine or abolish the free democratic order and endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany —>
  • it will be deemed unconstitutional
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12
Q

1950S

What was the Year Zero approach

A
  • Adenauer and others argued that letting ex-Nazis work within the democratic system was the quickest way to move on from Germany’s past and establish an effective civil service.
  • For this reason, in 1951, Article 131 was added to the Basic Law, officially allowing ex-Nazis to work in the civil service.
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13
Q

Despite the FRG having established itself ……… & ……… in Europe, as a result of…

A
  • politically & economically
  • joining NATO
  • signing the Treaty of Rome - one of the founding members of the European Economic Community [EEC]
  • the ‘economic miracle’
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14
Q

1960s

Why did the Youth Protest against the FRG

A
  • the ‘year zero’ principle - dislocated by the widespread lack of family history
  • the FRG’s military - its involvement with the West through NATO & the possibility that the country might begin to build & store nuclear weapons
  • The way the USA was conducting the war in Vietnam - disgusted by imperialist capitalism
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15
Q

Why did the APO show political dissent in the 1960s
3. SPD changes

A
  • (3) the reduced radicalisation of the SDP from 1959 -
  • economic recession of 1965-1966 —>
  • collapse of Erhard’s CDU govt —>
  • coalition govt with CDU and SDP under Kiesinger —>
  • SPD’s revised policies ‘social market economy’ —>
  • gained the party more power in govt —>
  • left wing (especially students and trade unionists) feeling unrepresented
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16
Q

Why did the APO show political dissent in the 1960s
1. distrust

A

(1) the growing distrust against the conservative government

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17
Q

Why did the APO show political dissent in the 1960s
2. disbandment

A

(2) the disbanding of the KPD and other left-wing parties which could have served as a political platform from which to express dissent

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18
Q

How did the APO show political dissent in the 1960s

A
  • Violent political protest
  • Supported radical theories to oppose the govt
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19
Q

How did opposition movements change in the 60s?

A
  • More violent protests began
  • Increased demonstrations by left wing movement
  • Rise of grass root political protest
  • Rise of active right wing movements at local level
  • not always directed at political issues in the FRG - it was directed at various human rights and moral issues in the world as a whole
20
Q

Why did opposition change during the 60s?

A
  • Increasing political instability: splits and weaknesses of FRG govts
  • Disillusionment of left with gov’t: KPD banned
  • Rise of disaffected youth movement: questioned human rights and moral issues of FRG
21
Q

Why did the SDS show political dissent in the 1960s

A
  • criticised the moderate SPD
  • Vietnam War and nuclear weapons
  • former Nazi officials holding office in govt
  • FRG’s involvement in NATO
22
Q

How did the SDS show political dissent in the 1960s

A
  • April 1968 - Rudi Dutschke was shot by a right-wing fanatic —> ‘Easter riots —> a series of attacks on offices of the Springer Press all over Germany
  • 11 May 1968 - Approximately 80,000 people at demonstration against Emergency Law
23
Q

How did the gov’t control opposition in the 60s?

A
  • BfV and BND
  • ‘68 emergency law
24
Q

What was the Emergency Law

A
  • 30 May 1968 - amendment to Basic Law which gave gov’t increased arrest and surveillance powers, going against constitutional rights
  • also allowed gov’t to use the army inside the country to overcome emergencies
25
Q

Which active right-wing movement also began to emerge in the 1960s

A
  • neo-Nazi NPD founded in 1964, gaining representation in several local Länd parliaments
26
Q

How did political dissent in the FRG change during the 70s and 80s

A
  • Increased levels of left-wing violence and terrorist activity
  • Less so, targeting of fascism and imperialism
27
Q

Why did opposition change during the 70s and 80s

A
  • Fascist methods used to control political opposition movements e.g emergency law, groups felt more marginalised so resorted to terrorism
  • Cyncism towards FRG’s association with the US & Western imperialist tendencies
  • Failed de-Nazification efforts of FRG e.g Kiesenger
28
Q

Who opposed the FRG during the 70s and 80s?

A
  • Left-wing anti-fascist/ anti-imperialist movements e.g West Berlin Tupamaros group
  • Kommune I
  • Baader-Meinhof Gang - Bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies, shoot-outs
29
Q

What political dissent took place in from 1969-71 by a left-wing anti-fascist movement

A
  • West Berlin Tupamaros group
  • formed in Nov 1969,
  • set off a series of bombs in West Berlin
  • later disbanded following the police shooting and imprisonment of the group’s leaders in 1971
30
Q

Members of the ……….. groups faced imprisonment when they tried to bomb the ……………………….in 1969

A
  • Kommune I
  • motorcade containing US President Richard Nixon
31
Q

What terrorist activity took place in September 1972

A
  • Munich Olympic Games
  • Black September Palestinian guerrillas attacked the quarters of the Israeli team, killing 2 athletes & taking 9 hostage
  • They demanded the release of the Baader-Meinhof Gang leaders, along with 234 prisoners held in Israeli jails
32
Q

How did the Baader-Meinhof Gang show active challenge

A
  • bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies, and shoot-outs with police
33
Q

Describe 3 types of attacks the Baader-Meinhof Gang undertook between 1970 & 72

A
  • May 1970 - attacked the Dahlem Institute for Social Research
  • 1970-72 - series of bank robberies
  • May 1972 - bombings such as the headquarters of the US Army in Frankfurt and Heidelberg
34
Q

Though by the end 1970 most of the gang’s leaders were in prison, how did they still actively challenge the state

A
  • hunger strikes —->
  • death of Hoglar Meins in prison in November 1970 —->
  • bombings of the homes of several lawyers and judges involved in the gang members’ prison trials
35
Q

By 1975, all of the Baader-Meinhof Gang were….

A

arrested and some were placed in solitary confinement

36
Q

What is evidence that the governments actions to deal with the terrorism of the 70s was successful

A
  • After this, terrorist activity in West Germany slowed, partly due to govt activity and partly due to a feeling that this form of protest was not achieving anything
37
Q

What evidence is there of active challenge in the 80s

A
  • Kohl faced an outbreak of terrorism directed at other governments and German institutions
  • 1985 - the US airbases in Rein-Main and Frankfurt Airport were bombed
38
Q

How did the govt overcome the Baader-Meinhof Gang

A
  • 1968 Emergency Law - enabled the terrorists to be caught & prosecuted
  • BFV & BND
39
Q

How could the government’s dealing with opposition be compared to a previous regime’s

A
  • As in the Weimar Republic, the governments of the FRG came down more heavily on left-wing extremists,
  • although it could be argued that left-wing groups posed more of a threat to the regime
40
Q

What 2 organisations were set up in 1950 & 1956 to investigate people they suspected of working against the Basic Law.

A
  • 1950 - BfV
  • 1956 - BND
41
Q

How did the Emergency Law widen their powers of arrest & detention

A
  • Initially, both organisations were restricted by the civil rights liberties of the Basic Law
  • However the Emergency Law allowed police activity to track down terrorists
42
Q

What system made the BND more successful

A
  • BEFA - a system that gave the BND centralised access to all police information in the FRG
43
Q

What was established after the shooting of Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972

A
  • The GSG-9
  • special operations unit to act against terrorists
  • close links with the British SAS and US Army’s Delta Force, and operated worldwide
  • October 17, 1977, a team successfully rescued hostages on a plane which had been hijacked on the way to Frankfurt
44
Q

What was introduced in 1950 aiming to protect democracy from political parties like the KDP

A
  • an employment ban, Berufsverbot, restricted employment in government
45
Q

What was introduced in to protect public sector jobs

A
  • January 1972 - the Anti-Radical Decree
  • allowed the vetting of people applying for public sector jobs, from teachers to postmen to civil servants