UCSB Hist 133C Prof. Marcuse
GERMAN HISTORY SINCE 1945 Oct. 20, 1998

Lecture 7: West German "Democracy " in the 1950s

1. Administrative / Announcements / Preliminary
   • Pick up journals (w/ q1) at end of class
   • Wed./Thu., Oct. 21/22: Classroom walkout: for diversity on campus.
     Reader #14 & 15 on foreigners in Germany, and German citizenship laws
   • Film "Fear Eats the Soul" by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1 hr. 34 mins.) will be shown twice:
     Tue Oct. 20, 7pm, HSSB 1173; Wed. HSSB 1174.
     "The Promise" tentatively rescheduled for 17/18 Nov.
2. Scopas Poggo's guest lecture: Legacies of genocide.
   • Questions of knowledge, intervention, political culture.
3. Political background, 1940s & 1950s
   • How did Germany go from a militaristic, genocidal outcast to a coveted ally and defender of democracy? Churchill Oct. 1942, March 1946; Byrnes Sept. 1946; Churchill Oct. 1948.
   • Economic differences: capitalism vs. socialism
     • July-Aug. 1945: Potsdam conference
     • "Bizonia" and "Trizonia"
     • March 1947: Truman doctrine
     • June 1947/April 1948: "European Recovery Program"
       1948-52: $13.2 billion for G.B.; $2.7 bil. for France; $1.5 bil. for Italy; $1.4 bil. for W. Germ.
     • Currency reform and Berlin Blockade (NO wall, only airlift!)
   • Politics and Political Culture
     • 1946 & 47 state-level elections: KPD 10%, SPD 35%, FDP 10%, CDU 38%, right-wing 7%
     • Aug. 1949 parliament delegat.: KPD 4%, SPD 33%, FDP 13%, CDU*37%, other 9%
     • Adenauer (CDU) vs. Schumacher (SPD) for chancellor: 202:200
     • Remilitarisation (see textbook pp. 168-88 for other events)
4. Political Culture and the Legal Status of Women: Agnes Zahn-Harnak, 1946
   • "oversupply" of women: war widows, unmarried mothers, divorcees, refugees
   • important activities: scavengers, fraternizers, negotiators w/ allies; psychological providers
   • Kolinsky article: practice more progressive than laws in 1950s, less progressive in 1970s
     • "equality of the sexes is guaranteed in principle" -> "men and women have equal rights"
   • Basic Law also promised "protection of the [patriarchal] family"-that was given priority
5. Comments on journals
   • Great entries: articles on Kohl's election in 1982, Berlin wall in 1989, E. Germ. propaganda archive
   • US Army film "Here is Germany:" never actually shown to soldiers.
     Argues NOT blood (that would have been Hitler's answer), but TRADITION and CULTURE
   • Berlin Morgenpost on "Wall-man Stanke" who wants to preserve a section of the Berlin Wall
     SHOULD the Germans be reminded of it?
     Does remembering the Wall differ from remembering the Holocaust?
   • Marcuse's orthography peeves
     his, hers, its are possessive pronouns // If it is (it's) a contraction, it has (it's) got an apostrophe
     causE-Effect are nouns, and you shouldn't try to affect (change) that rule
     UNLESS a change is implemented (effected) by an angry person (with affect=psych. term)