FROM ADENAUER TO WILLY BRANDT:THE RISE OF THE SPD IN THE 1960s

1952: The government rejects organized labor’s demand for “parity co-determination” in the Factory Councils Law

1959: SPD repudiates Marxism with the Godesberg Program

1961: Building of the Berlin Wall & rise of Willy Brandt to national prominence; CDU suffers its first election setback

1963: Adenauer reluctantly yields the chancellorship to Ludwig Erhard

1966: West Germany faces its first recession; formation of “Great Coalition” cabinet under Kurt Georg Kiesinger

1969: Willy Brandt forms a social-liberal cabinet with FDP, dedicated to Ostpolitik

RIVAL VERSIONS OF CO-DETERMINATION (Mitbestimmung):

How many members of the Corporate Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat) should be elected by the workers,

and how many by the share-holders?

3) Parity co-determination, imposed by the Brits on steel in 1947

1) 1/3 by workers (enacted for most industries in 1952)2) Parity minus one (enacted by SPD in 1976)

Steelworkers sign a ballot in 1951 authorizing a strike if their demand to retain parity co-determination was

ignored

Foreign policy considerations inspired Adenauer to cut a deal with Hans Böckler of the DGB to

enact parity co-determination for coal-iron-steel in May 1951

The DGB launched protest strikes in 1952/53 when the government only extended a weak form of co-determination to other branches of incustry

“Elect a Better Bundestag”

(DGB poster, 1953):“Whoever wants peace and progress, whoever

wants freedom and national unification,

whoever does NOT want the return of violent

dictatorship and war, of terror and nights of bombing raids, they

must use their votes to help exclude the forces that want to plunge the

German people into disaster for a second

time.”

DGB MEMBERSHIP STAGNATION IN THE 1960s(close ties with the SPD did not help recruitment)

YEARTotal

members

WomenBlue-collar

White-collar

Civil servants

19505,449,990

840,7124,534,56

5571,332 344,093

19556,104.872

1,047,805

5,042,365

642,340 420,167

19606,378,820

1,093,607

5,144,452

721,658 512,710

19656,574,491

1,030,185

5,157,290

835,202 581,999

19706,712,547

1,027,150

5,088,714

986,112 637,222

Anton Storch (1892-1975); Christian Woodworkers’ Union; co-founder of the DGB and CDU in Hanover; West German Labor Minister, 1949-1957

“Social Insurance”

(chart from 1954)

SPENDING ON SOCIAL WELFARE AS A PERCENTAGE OF GDP (including old-age pensions, jobless benefits, public health services, and assistance to the needy)

1950 1960 1970

France 10.9% 12.7% 15.8%

West Germany

14.1% 14.9% 17.2%

Italy 7.9% 12.0% 16.8%

United Kingdom

8.9% 10.3% 12.9%

USA 4.0% 6.2% 7.5%

Japan 3.2% 4.7% 6.5%

Ludwig Erhard talks with housewives in a department store

A lavish buffet at a reception

for the Max

Planck Society in Munich,

1953

One of countless neighborhoods of inexpensive row housing that sprang up in the 1950s

Riding a Vespa, 1953

The Volkswagen Beetle in

1960

“These days you can’t do

without electricity,

espresso, and coca cola – but you can do without a

cook”

Concern over juvenile delinquency spread quickly(fictional gang members on the set of “The Punks,”

1956)

The German government eagerly promoted travel to the USA, but American influence was sometimes

subversive (Bill Haley in concert in West Berlin, 1958)

The “Anti-Baby Pill” (1961)

The emergence of rock culture (1965)

Fans kiss the guitar of Jimi Hendrix at the “Star Club” of Hamburg during a performance on March 17, 1967

Oskar Kokoschka,“Konrad Adenauer”:To intellectuals and youth he seemed hopelessly out of

touch by 1959

• In foreign policy he broke off diplomatic relations with any country that recognized the GDR (the Hallstein Doctrine)

• He supported strict censorship of films, TV, & radio

• He defended the sexist provisions of the civil code of 1900

“Go with the times. Go with the SPD”(Balloting at the Godesberg Party Congress, 1959)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPD GODESBERG PROGRAM (1959)

The preamble declares simply that “Democratic socialism is rooted in Christian ethics, in humanism, and in classical philosophy.”The SPD “is in favor of national defense.”The SPD “favors a free market wherever free competition really exists. Where a market is dominated by individuals or groups, however, all manner of steps must be taken to protect freedom in the economic sphere. As much competition as possible—as much planning as necessary.”“Co-determination in the iron and steel industry and in coal mining marks the beginning of a new economic structure. The next step should be the establishment of a democratic organization in all large enterprises.”

The East German

government suddenly

banned all travel to

West Berlin on August 13, 1961

Building the Wall, 13 August 1961

Mayor Willy Brandt protests(born as Herbert Frahm,

1913)

Brandt narrowed the gap between

SPD and CDU when he first ran for the chancellorship in

1961, as the CDU/CSU vote slumped from 50% to 45%.

Voting returns for the CDU and SPD in West German Elections (percentage of national vote)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

CDUSPD

“The Mister Germany

Contest for 1961.”

Erhard, Willy Brandt, Franz

Josef Strauss of the CSU, and the

FDP’s Erich Mende each

have their fans, but somehow

Adenauer wins the prize.

JFK visits Berlin on June 26, 1963:“Ich bin ein Berliner!”

The Transformation of

the SPD(hair cream ad,

1963)

Chancellor Ludwig Erhard confers with Rainer Barzel, 1964;

but Adenauer remained CDU chair

“Is the Economic Miracle Over?”Spiegel cover,

January 3, 1966:The FRG

experienced its first recession,

1966-69

Erhard led the CDU to a 47.6% electoral rebound in 1965 but was forced to retire soon thereafter

Partners in the Great Coalition: Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Foreign Minister Willy Brandt, June

1968:Brandt secured authorization for Ostpolitik

“Concerted Action:” Representatives of the government, DGB, and big business meet in Bonn,

November 9, 1967

“We should not speak for the

GDR but with it”(the FDP swings behind Brandt’s foreign policy in

1967).In early 1969 the

FDP and SPD elected Gustav Heinemann as

President.

Brandt came to power not because he defeated the CDU in the election of 1969, but because

Walter Scheel and the FDP changed their coalition policy

Chancellor Willy Brandt honors the dead of the

Warsaw Ghetto

Uprising, 7 December

1970