Editing Free Democratic Party (Germany) (section)

=== 1969–1982: social changes and crises ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2024}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1989-047-20, Walter Scheel.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Walter Scheel]] served as Foreign Minister, Vice Chancellor, Acting Chancellor and [[President of Germany]].]]

The [[1969 West German federal election]] led to the first [[Social–liberal coalition|social-liberal coalition]] between Social Democrats and Free Democrats in German post-war history. Even though the Christian Democrats won the election, the Free Democrats rejected a new centre-right alliance and opted for a centre-left coalition under the new Chancellor [[Willy Brandt]]. With FDP leader Walter Scheel as Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister, the liberals initiated a new controversial [[Ostpolitik]] effectively normalizing relations between capitalist-democratic West Germany and communist-led East Germany. Within the FDP, this policy was quite controversial, especially after the ''de facto'' recognition of the [[Oder-Neisse line]] by the 1970 [[Treaty of Warsaw (1970)|Treaty of Warsaw]].

In July 1970, right-wing members founded a "non-partisan" organization called the National-Liberal Action with the goal of breaking up the SPD/FDP coalition government. A little later, members of parliament Siegfried Zoglmann, [[Heinz Starke]] and former party leader [[Erich Mende]] left the party with Starke and Mende joining the CDU and Zoglmann founding a new splinter party called German Union ''(Deutsche Union)''. This led to the [[1972 West German federal election|1972 snap elections]] from which the SPD/FDP government emerged even stronger. In 1974, party leader Walter Scheel was the second Liberal to be elected Federal President after [[Theodor Heuss]]. He was succeeded by Interior Minister [[Hans-Dietrich Genscher]] as the new FDP leader and Foreign Minister who continued the centre-left coalition under new SPD Chancellor [[Helmut Schmidt]].

The party's centre-left strategy was supported by a new party manifesto, the 1971 Freiburg Theses (''Freiburger Thesen'') which set the party on a [[Progressivism|progressive]] and [[Social liberalism|social liberal]] course.<ref name="Merkl1989"/> Among other things, the party committed itself to "self-determination", "democratization of society", a "reform of capitalism" and a form of [[Eco-liberalism|ecoliberalism]] which prioritized "environmental protection over profit and personal gains".<ref>Karl-Hermann Flach, Werner Maihofer und Walter Scheel: Die Freiburger Thesen der Liberalen. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1972, ISBN 3-499-11545-X.</ref> However, in 1977, the progressive liberal Freiburg Theses were supplemented and partially revised by the more [[Economic liberalism|economically liberal]] Kiel Theses (''Kieler Thesen''), effectively setting the party back on a classical liberal course.

Even prior to the [[1980 West German federal election]], cooperation between Social Democrats and Free Democrats seemed to come to an end but the candidacy of CSU chairman [[Franz Josef Strauss]] for chancellor led both parties to once again renew their coalition government.