Classnotes and Study Guides:
Part 2.1: From Devastation to Economic Miracle
for Students in my First Year Seminar: From Holocaust to German Unification
at McDaniel College, compiled by Dr. Mohamed Esa
Sources: Hoffmeister, Tubach: Germany 2000, Internet and other materials
(Page numbers refer to Hoffmeister, Tubach)

1. Basic Terms and Dates
2. Reconstruction and Economic Miracle
3. Groupe 47 (Gruppe 47)
 

1. Basic Terms and Dates

Conferences [Determination of the future of occupied Germany]

  • November 28- December, 1943 Teheran [Reeducation of the Germans]
  • February 3-11, 1945 Yalta [Demarcation line between the Allies and the Soviets]
  • July 17- August 2, 1945 Potsdom [ Division of Germany in 4 zones]
5 D’s
  • Denazification
  • Democratization
  • Decentralization
  • Demilitarization
  • Deindustrialization (Dismantling)
Political parties:
  • CDU
  • SPD
  • KPD
  • FDP
  • SED (KPD+SPD)
Terms
  • Trümmerfrauen Rubble Women (Women of the Ruins)
  • Stunde Null Zero Hour
  • ACC Allied Control Council
  • Währungsreform Currency Reform
  • Rosinenbomber Candy Bomber
  • Soziale Marktwirtschaft Social Market Economy
  • Basic Law German Constitution
Dates
  • Bizone January 1947 (US and British zones)
  • Marshall Plan June 5 1947 [Called after US Secretary of State George C. Marshall]
  • Berlin Blockade June 24, 1948 - May 12, 1949
  • Berlin Airlift June 26, 1948 - May 12, 1949
  • May 8, 1949 Creation of Federal Republic of Germany (FDR)[West Germany]
  • Conrad Adenauer First West-German Chancellor after the war.
  • October 7, 1949 Creation of German Democratic Republic (GDR) [East Germany]
  • October 1954 Creation of NATO
  • May 1955 Creation of the Warsaw Pact
2. Reconstruction and Economic Miracle

What factors did contribute to the "economic miracle" in West-Germany?

  • People’s determination to rebuild their lives and "gain prosperity
  • Cheap labor force (refuges) kept wages down.
  • Currency reform of 1948
  • Marshall Plan
  • Political stability through cooperation with the Allies and Basic Law
  • Low payments for reparations and for the occupying forces
  • Internal reconstruction and external recognition
  • Social Market Economy
  • Prominent and skilled leaders (Theodor Heuss, Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard)
How did Konrad Adenauer help lead Germany to reconstruction and recognition?
  1. He "ended suspicions among West European nations and won back respect for Germany in the eyes of the world." He achieved this through:
  • Friendship (with France and Britain)
  • Alignment (with USA and NATO)
  • Reconciliation with the Jews
  1. Knazlerdemokratie (chancellor democracy): "mixture of authoritarian control and grudging recognition of democratic institutions." From 1951 until 1955, he was chancellor, foreign and defense minister
  2. Integration of Germany into the Western community, into the European Community (1952) and NATO (1955). The integration brought peace, prosperity, and respect for West-Germany.
Who is the architect of the "Wirtschaftswunder" (the economic miracle)? Who was he? 

Ludwig Erhard, Economics minister under Adenauer, later vice-chancellor and in 1963 chancellor

What helped achieve the Wirtschaftswunder?

  • The economic aid given by the Marshall Plan He
  • Currency reform of 1948
  • Erhard promoted private initiative based on market principles.
  • West Germany had no military expenditure.
  • The refugees from the East provided a large reservoir of people, ready to work hard and cheap.
  • Petersberg agreement - Stopping the dismantling of German industrial facilities (November 1949
  • German membership in international organizations
  • International economic freedom
  • Lifting the economic controls on German industries
  • "Soziale Markwirtschaft" (social market economy)
Describe the system of the "Soziale Marktwirtschaft" (social market economy)
  • Rejection of the laissez-faire doctrine: no governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights.
  • Free market economy: "as little state as possible, as much state as necessary"
  • Market was to be controlled only by:
    • prices were determined by supply and demand
    • competition
    • private initiative
    • efficiency
    • profit
    • tax deductions and incentives for innovations and investments
    • Kartellgesetz (monopoly or anti-trust laws [against restraints of competition])
    • full employment and collective bargaining
  • Consumerism and materialism
  • "Prosperity for all"
How can we measure economic prosperity in West Germany? In statistical terms???
  • Stable prices
  • Unemployment:
    • 1950: 11%
    • late 1950s: full employment)
  • Production level of the prewar period was achieved in 1952.
  • Housing: 1950: 10 million housing units; in 1966: 16 million
  • Automobile: 1946:
    • 9 in 1000 owned a car
    • 1960: 70 per 1000
    • 1963: 128 per 1000
    • 1964 German car production was second to the USA
  • Autobahn:
    • 1949: 1,300 miles
    • 1960s: 4500 miles
  • From 1950 until 1963:
    • The exports grew sevenfold
    • Car productions grew twentyfold
    • Germany was the strongest economic Power in West Europe
    • Germany was the world’s second largest exporting country
  • "In 1949 an industrial laborer worked 4 hours, 13 minutes to earn one kilogram (2.2 lbs.) of butter; in 1960, 2 hours, 19 minutes."
How did Germany gain international recognition?   
  • Economical success
  • Membership in international organizations
  • Alignment with the West (Europe, USA and other industrialized countries)
  • Helping developing countries (the Third World)
  • Generous and prompt financial restitution to the Jewish people
  • Success in international sporting events: soccer (1954), swimming, winter sport, etc.
What does the Basic Law (German constitution) say about individual rights?   
  • "Free development of personality" (Article 2)
  • "Freedom of association" (Article 9)
  • "Right to form associations to safeguard and improve working and economic conditions is guaranteed to everyone and to all trades, occupations, and professions." (Article 9)
What do these constitutional guarantees mean for the labor force?   
  • Reorganization of trade unions
  • Stability of economic system
What is the name of the German Trade Union?
Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB)
When was it founded and how many individual trade unions does it consist of?
1949, 16
What does "Mitbestimmung" (codetermination) mean?   
  • It refers to the workers participation in industrial management and gives them a share in corporate decision making (such as mergers, takeovers, and manpower), and profits.
  • Through their elected Betriebsrat (workers council), workers have much to say in the daily operations of their company and running factories. They have a voice in work rules, production schedules, new technology, and job evaluations.
How important are the Coteremination Act and the Works Constitution Act?   
  • They gave West German industry a measure of labor peace.
  • Voluntary wage restraints
  • Settlement of disputes through collective bargaining
  • Enhancement of management-labor cooperation
  • Strikes and lockouts were kept to a minimum
  • Rising prosperity of blue-collar workers
  • Elimination of militancy and class struggle

    • Example: In 1975 there were:
    • in Germany only 3 strike days per 1000 workers
    • in Great Britain 262 strike days per 1000 workers
    • in France 209 strike days per 1000 workers
    • in the USA 399 strike days per 1000 workers
3. Groupe 47 (Gruppe 47)

What was the Gruppe 47? Who initiated it? When was it founded?

  • An association of young writers, artists and critiocs who met regularly to read and critic each others works.
  • It was initiated in 1947 by Hans Werner Richter and Alfred Andersch who founded a prison journal, Der Ruf (The Call), when they were POWs in the United States.
Name some prominent members of the group. 
  • Hans Werner Richter, Heinrich Böll, Gnter Grass, Hans-Magnus Enzensberger, Martin Walser, Ingeborg Bachman, Ilse Aichinger, Peter Handke
What did they believe in? 
  • They believed in individualism as self-reliance.
  • Richter advocated "a new literary-artistic subjectivity" and rejected traditional cultural norms.
  • "The individual will become the stable center of a new social existence." (Richter, H. W. Almanach der Gruppe 47.)
  • The process of writing was more important than the edn product.
  • Their literature was more experimental and expressionism was the most appropriate literary style for many members. See the poem "Death Fuge" by Paul Celan
  • Some members advocated a democratic Socialism.
The group transformed itself from an intimate circle of writers into a powerful cultural institution.
© Dr. Mohamed Esa, Dept. of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures at McDaniel College
Send comments and questions to mesa@mcdaniel.edu Thanks!