UCSB Hist 133C
GERMAN HISTORY SINCE 1945
Oct. 27, 1998

Lecture 9: The 1960s-Old and New Politics

1. Administrative / Announcements / Preliminary
   • My office hours tomorrow 10-12, not 1-3
   • Next Tuesday and Wednesday: film "The Promise," rooms TBA
   • Ques. 2 on Thursday: women's activism (Reader #2,3,9); life in E. Berlin (Wall Jumper)
2. West German politics in the 1950s (under chancellor Konrad Adenauer, b. 1876)
   • Narrow victory over Schumacher (SPD) in 1949; absolute majority 1957.
   • "Making good again" (Wiedergutmachung) and "Equalizing Burdens" (Lastenausgleich)
   • A "new generation" and changing political culture
   • CDU "Ahlen" program 1947 vs. SPD "Godesberg" program 1959
     Ludwig Erhard (Econ. Minister 1949-63, Chancellor 63-66): "Wir sind wieder wer"
   • Successes and failures of the late 1950s and early 1960s
     • Foreign Policy
       • Moscow, Sept. 1955
       • European Parliament, 1957-58
       • Israel (Ben Gurion, 1960)
     • Nazi skeletons emerge from the closet; "Nestbeschmutzung"
       • Ulm task force trial, 1957
       • antisemitic "wave", Xmas 1959
       • Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, 1961
       • Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, 1964
     • Berlin Wall, August 1961
3. West German politics in the 1960s
   • Roots of opposition movements
     • KPD referendum against rearmament in 1953 (prohibition 1956)
     • "Kampf dem Atomtod," Mar. 1957 ("Göttingen 18," Apr. 1957)["7" in 1837]
       Easter Marches / Peace Movement
   • Spiegel Affair (Fulbrook, p. 197f)
     • Article "partially ready" about NATO "Fallex 62;" 26 Oct. 1962
     • Franz-Josef Strauss (1915-1988): "compelled Democrat." 1943: tenured Nazi indoctrinator
       special tasks (53-55), atomic (55-56), defense (56-62), finance (66-69), min.-pres. Bavaria (78-88)
   • Student movement
     • Grand Coalition (CDU+SPD, 1966) and "APO"
       Nationaldemokratische Partei NPD
       (Economic) "Stability Law," 1967
     • Shah of Iran, June 1967: Benno Ohnesorg, "Bild" newspaper, "Springer" press
     • Department store arson, 3 April 1968
     • Assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke, 11 April 1968
     • Emergency Laws, 30 May 1968 (Weimar constitution art. 48)
   • March 1969: Gustav Heinemann elected president (over "SA-Schröder")
     28 Sept: CDU 242, SPD 224, FDP 30 (Willy Brandt and Walter Scheel)
   • Foreign Policy
     • Hallstein doctrine (Sept. 1955)
     • Ostpolitik