This important study analyses the developoment of the CDU/CSU as a political force in West Germany from the Second World War to the late 1970s, with special reference to its role both in Government (1949-69) and Opposition (1969-76) and considers how it was instrumental in the formulation of governmental policies. The first part of the book looks at the development of the CDU/CSU. The second part focuses on its composition and structure and considers such aspects as its organisation, membership, auxiliary organisations and electoral appeal and campaigns. A separate chapter deals with the CSU’s relationship with the CDU, its leadership and its organisation.
This book offers a view of West German social structure and political culture from a multidisciplinary perspective. Focusing on the remarkable changes that have taken place in West Germany since World War II, it provides a basis for judging what direction a united Germany is likely to take.
The book traces the development of Germany from the Kaiser’s Reich in the 1870s to the reunited democratic state led by Helmut Kohl in the 1990s. The author begins by countering the popular view of Germany before 1914 as irredeemably reactionary, and after assessing Germany’s part in the First World War, he outlines the rise and fall of the Weimar Republic. The 12 years of Hitler’s destructive experiment are presented in a balanced way as part of the overall development of the country. Germany in defeat is then discussed, as is heer rebirth under Four Power occupation. The last chapters explore the two separate German states and the events leading up to the restoration of German unity.
The Green Movement in Germany is widely regarded as one of the most powerful expressions of popular opposition to government policies. A broad analysis of this powerful group is made in this book, showing that the origins of the movement relate to the general protests against industrialisation in the nineteenth century and also to more recent forms of protest. The author assesses the challenge posed by the Green Movement to established groups and organisations both in proposing alternative policies and in a long run of electoral successes. The Green Movement has evidently had a great impact on assumptions about defence, welfare and environmental policies. Data from major surveys on public attitudes and interviews with senior officials complete the picture of the practical and theoretical dimensions of the Green Movement.
This book is a pioneering contribution to the history of the founding of the West German political system after the Second World War. The political cooperation between Catholics and Protestants that resulted in the formation of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in occupied and early West Germany represented a significant change from a long history of hostility in confessional relations. Given that the CDU went on to dominate politics in West Germany well into the 1960s, Maria D. Mitchell argues that an understanding of what made this interconfessional party possible is crucial to an exploration of German history in the postwar period. She examines the political history of party formation as well as the religious beliefs and motivations that shaped the party's philosophy and positions. She provides an authoritative guide to the complex processes of maneuvering and negotiation that produced the CDU during 1945-46. The full range of political possibilities is discussed, including the suppressed alternatives to the Adenauer/Erhard axis that eventually defined the party's trajectory during the 1950s and the abortive Christian Socialism associated with Jacob Kaiser.
Christian Democratic actors and thinkers have been at the forefront of many of the twentieth century's key political battles - from the construction of the international human rights regime, through the process of European integration and the creation of postwar welfare regimes, to Latin American development policies during the Cold War. Yet their core ideas remain largely unknown, especially in the English-speaking world. Combining conceptual and historical approaches, Carlo Invernizzi Accetti traces the development of this ideology in the thought and writings of some of its key intellectual and political exponents, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In so doing he sheds light on a number of important contemporary issues, from the question of the appropriate place of religion in presumptively 'secular' liberal-democratic regimes, to the normative resources available for building a political response to the recent rise of far-right populism.
This is a history of 1968 written from a new perspective-that of center-right student activists in West Germany. Based on oral history interviews and new archival sources, it examines the ideas, experiences, and repertoires of center-right students in this age of protest. Writing these activists back into the history of 1968 and its afterlives -including student protest, cultural revolt, internationalism, debates about left-wing violence and the terror of the Red Army Faction, the memory wars of the 1980s and beyond - reveals that this was a broader, more versatile, and, ultimately, more consequential phenomenon than the traditionally narrower focus on a left-wing minority allows. Other '68ers demonstrates that we need a more nuanced history of the 1968 generation and of generational conflict during these years. Student activists comprised individuals from across the political spectrum, who often had very different ideas about what kind of a society they envisaged and how to address the shortcomings of West German democracy. 1968 was a moment of intense political conflict, but it also played out within the student body and nurtured contrasting identities. This book shows that the center-right involvement in 1968 had real consequences. Many of the protagonists of this book would go on to pursue high-profile political careers and leave their mark on West German political culturey. Other '68ers therefore sheds fresh light on how West Germany's center-right dealt with the crisis of hegemony and political identity it experienced in the wake of 1968, how it coped with generational change, how it transformed and modernized after losing power at the national level for the first time in 1969, and how it managed to re-emerge so successfully in the 1980s.
