The Development of the Two German States, 1960s-1980s HI290- History of Germany

Political Developments, : Adenauer forced to resign after the Spiegel Affair (see lecture 17), replaced by Ludwig Ehrhardt. 1965: Economic slowdown leads to the break-up of governing CDU- FDP coalition : Grand Coalition under Kurt Kiesinger (controls 95% of the Bundestag) 1967: Stabilisation Law 1968: Discussion of introducing Emergency Powers and a ‘first-past- the-post’ electoral system.

Anti-Authoritarianism ‘ Ohne Mich’ movement opposed military service and German military contribution to NATO. 1958: atomic artillery to be stationed in Federal Republic led to first small-scale public demonstrations. Material prosperity brought its own problems: growth in prosperity and youth culture, but also resistance to consumerism. Herbert Marcuse warned of late-industrial capitalism creating ‘one-dimensional man’, alienated by consumerism and the ‘latent authoritarianism’ of liberal state. Anti-war protesters, 1958

Education Reform Lecture at the University of Bonn, 1967 The Free University of Berlin, focus of much of the student protests of 1968.

Student Politics SDS poster: ‘Everyone’s talking about the weather. Not us.’ Rudi Dutschke, spokesman for the student movement, addressing students at the Free University of Berlin

The Ohensborg Shooting, 2 June 1967 Memorial to Benno Ohensborg, Deutsche Oper, Berlin

1968 Feb. 1968: International Vietnam Congress held in West Berlin – 20,000 protesters from around the world protest against the war. 3 days later 80,000 people participate in a state-sponsored counter-demonstration. Clashes between protesters and students leave 35 people injured. 11 April 1968: Attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke sparked 5 days of street fighting during which 400 injured and thousands arrested. Lack of support from trade unions – most German put off by rioting or had other priorities. The SDS increasingly riven by factions and lost direction without Dutschke.

Terrorism Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin in 1968 Wanted poster for the ‘Baader-Meinhof Gang’ Emblem of the Red Army Faction

The Rise of the Green Movement Growing recognition of the effects of industry etc. on the environment. Left-wing groups in favour of peace, human rights, etc. 1980: Various groups coalesce to form the Green Party 1983: The Greens win 5.6% of the vote in Bundestag elections and gain MPs for the first time. Pollution in the Ruhr valley (1985)

Willy Brandt ( ) 1913: Born in Lübeck (as Herbert Frahm) to a single mother and grew up in poverty. 1930: Joined the SPD. 1933: Fled the Nazis and worked as a left-wing journalist in Spain, Norway and Sweden. 1947: Returned to Germany, formally adopting his pen-name (Willy Brandt) as his legal name when he regained his German citizenship : SPD deputy in the Bundestag : Governing Mayor of (West) Berlin : Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister in the Grand Coalition : Chancellor of West Germany. 1971: Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (for services to improving East-West relations). 1974: Forced to resign when it was revealed that a member of his staff was an East German spy : President of the Socialist International. 1992: Died of colon cancer.

Ostpolitik 1961: American tolerance of the Berlin Wall effectively acknowledged the GDR : ‘Small steps’ towards normalisation. 1970: Moscow Treaty : Treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia guaranteeing frontiers and renouncing the use of force. 1973: The Basic Treaty (the two German states agree to recognise each other as sovereign states). Chancellor Willy Brandt kneels before the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial, 7 December 1970.

Developments in the GDR 1963: ‘New Economic System’ – more freedom for producers and consumers = better living standards : Improved growth – the GDR became the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc. Increased ownership of ‘white goods’ like fridges, washing machines and TVs in the 1960s and 70s – but economic and political liberalisation on skin deep. 1968: Public reaction to the Prague Spring reveals dissatisfaction with the regime. 1971: Under pressure from within the Party and from the Russians Ulbricht forced to resign.

Erich Honecker ( ) 1912: Born in the Saarland, the son of a miner. 1922: Joined the Communist Party’s youth organization : Studied in Moscow. 1935: Arrested by the Nazis and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his involvement in the Communist underground. 1945: Became head of the Communist youth movement. 1958: Elected full member of the Politburo. 1971: Ousted Ulbricht to become chairman of the National Defence Council. 1976: Became general secretary of the SED and chairman of the Council of State. 1989: Resigned as leader of the GDR. Fled to Moscow but extradited back to Germany by Boris Yeltsin. 1992: Tried for ordering killings of East Germans trying to cross into the West. 1993: Dying of cancer and allowed to go into exile in Chile, where he died a year later.

Economic Stagnation Short-lived boom in the 1970s could not disguise the structural problems with the GDRs planned economy. The GDR heavily dependent on loans from West Germany: by 1981 it owed over 10 billion dollars. Growth fell from 5.5% in 1984 to 2.1% in The East German economy one of the strongest in the Soviet Bloc, but still unable to provide the standard of living enjoyed in the West. Choice poor, quality low and prices high. Pollution from the East German industry also having a destructive effect on the environment. Source: Bushnell & Leonard, Germany Divided and Reunited (2009)

Environmental Disaster

Political Dissent 1976: Oskar Brüsewitz set fire to himself in protest at persecution of the Protestant Church. 1977: Rudolf Bahro published Die Alternative in West German – leads to his deportation to the West and a crack-down on intellectual dissidents. Growing dissatisfaction throughout the 1980s. Protestant Church facilitates political activism under the cover of prayer meetings. 1985: Gegenstimmen (Counter-voices) and Initiative Für Frieden und Menschenrechte (Initiative for Peace and Human Rights) founded : Perestroika and Glasnost in the USSR: while other Communist states (eg. Poland and Hungary) embraced Gorbachev’s reforms, the Honecker regime resisted any liberalisation.