Konrad Adenauer

Supporter of Western Liberal democracy and Catholic conservatism

‘Chancellor Democracy’

• ‘Chancellor of the Allies’• Chancellor and Foreign Minister

Adenauer’s Policies

‘Reject the East, integrate with the West’• Joined the EEC- European Economic Community in

1957• Joined NATO- 1955• Bundeswehr – army created 1955• Ignore 1953 uprising • Refused to recognise the GDR as a separate state or to

have diplomatic relations with any powers that did recognise it.

• East Germany ‘the zone’ until the 1970s

The economic miracle

Former Economic director of Bizonia Dr Ludwig Erhard

‘social market economy’‘Prosperity for all’

Evidence of a successful Economy

• Growth of motorisation• Second half of the 1950s saw change, 63% have a

fridge, 42% have a TV• High levels of production: By 1950s more coal being

mined that in 1936• Important trading power: tools, machines, cars• Unemployment went down to one million by 1955.

Full employment 1960s• Shortage of workers 1960s led to foreign labour from

Italy and Turkey

Why?

• Good resources: coal and iron• West Germany not as damaged• Skilled workforce from GDR• $1.5 billion from Marshall Aid• Industrial peace• Consumer demand• Government spending was low: no reparations and

limited defence cost to begin with• Korean War 1950-1952• As the economy grew, wages grew

Social Policy

• Welfare State: unemployment benefit, pensions, sick pay, accident insurance

• Education reform limited• 6 million houses built 1961

Women

• Ethos was traditional• Women did not always get equal pay. 40% less on

average.• Social welfare geared towards preserving the family

rather than equality‘The expectations that a woman should marry, raise a

family and build her life around the private sphere remained in force’

Contrast to GDR where women were encouraged to work and have a family

“ Seldom in history has a defeated power recovered so quickly. The FRG had become a fully integrated part of a Western military defence system and its freedom was guaranteed, it was being accepted on an equal level with the other West European states’

Adenauer’s foreign policy

• European Coal and Steel Community 1951 with France and Italy. It meant that coal and steel production increased by 22% 1952-1957

• European Economic Community EEC 1957• French-German Treaty 1963: political co-

operation and lasting friendship

Relationship with the GDR

• ‘Soviet Occupation zone’• Not accepted as a state• FRG claimed to represent German interests• Hallstein Doctrine: refuse to have diplomatic

relations with any state that officially recognised the GDR (except Russia)