Editing Ludwig Erhard (section)

== Chancellor ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F018250-0008, Kanada, Staatsbesuch Bundeskanzler Erhard.jpg|thumb|Ludwig Erhard in [[Ottawa, Ontario]], Canada, 1964]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F020548-0018, Bonn, Bundeskanzler Erhard mit Charles de Gaulle.jpg|thumb|[[Charles de Gaulle]] and Ludwig Erhard, 1965]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P111323, USA-Besuch Ludwig Erhard, Lyndon B. Johnson.jpg|thumb|[[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]] and Erhard, December 1963]]
[[File:Ludwig Erhard & Levi Eshkol.jpg|thumb|Ludwig Erhard and Israeli Prime Minister [[Levi Eshkol]], 1967]]
After the resignation of Adenauer in 1963, Erhard was elected [[Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic)|chancellor]] with 279 against 180 votes in the Bundestag on 16 October. In 1965, he was re-elected. From 1966 to 1967, he also headed the Christian Democratic Union as ''de facto'' chairman, despite the fact that he was never a member of that party (which made his election to the chairmanship irregular and void ''de jure''), as he never formally filed a membership application despite pressure from Chancellor Adenauer. The reasons for Erhard's reluctance are unknown, but it is probable that they stemmed from Erhard's general scepticism about party politics. However, Erhard was regarded and treated as a long-time CDU member and as the party chairman by almost everyone in Germany at the time, including the vast majority of the CDU itself. The fact that he was not a member was known only to a very small circle of party leaders, and it did not become known to the public until 2007, when the silence was finally broken by Erhard's close advisor Horst Wünsche.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/cdu-altkanzler-ludwig-erhard-war-nie-cdu-mitglied-587764.html|title = Ludwig Erhard war nie CDU-Mitglied| date=25 April 2007 }}</ref>

Domestically, a number of progressive reforms were carried out during Erhard's time as chancellor. In the field of social security, Housing Benefit was introduced in 1965.<ref>The Federal Republic of Germany: The End of an era edited by Eva Kolinsky</ref>

=== Foreign policy and international trips ===
{{Main|List of international trips made by Ludwig Erhard}}
Erhard considered using money to bring about the reunification of Germany, which would have broken a diplomatic stalemate that had existed since the end of the Second World War regarding the status of West and East Germany. Despite Washington's reluctance, Erhard envisaged offering [[Nikita Khrushchev]], the leader in Moscow, massive economic aid in exchange for more political liberty in East Germany and eventually for reunification. Erhard believed that if West Germany were to offer a "loan" worth $25 billion US to the Soviet Union (which Erhard did not expect to be repaid), then the Soviet Union would permit German reunification.<ref name="Jan Friedmann and Axel Frohn">{{cite web |author=Jan Friedmann and Axel Frohn |title=A 'Half-Baked' Deal Former German Chancellor Considered Buying East Germany |publisher=Spiegel |date=4 October 2011 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,789811,00.html |access-date=5 October 2011}}</ref> Erhard did not have a specific, concrete plan in mind, however, believing that reality, and especially negotiations over such a major proposition, were too complex to be forecasted in advance with any accuracy, and as a result, he prepared to negotiate without any predetermined agenda.<ref name="BenediktSchoenborn2008ColdWarHistory" /> The acting American Secretary of State [[George Wildman Ball]] described Erhard's plan to essentially buy East Germany from the Soviet Union as "half-baked and unrealistic."<ref name="Jan Friedmann and Axel Frohn"/> Erhard's objective coincided with Khrushchev rethinking his relations with West Germany. The Soviet leader secretly encouraged Erhard to present a realistic proposal for a ''[[modus vivendi]]'' and officially accepted the Chancellor's invitation to visit Bonn. However, Khrushchev fell from power in October 1964, and nothing developed out of Erhard's envisioned idea for the reunification of Germany.<ref name="BenediktSchoenborn2008ColdWarHistory">{{citation |first1=Benedikt |last1=Schoenborn |title=Bargaining with the Bear: Chancellor Erhard's Bid to Buy German Reunification, 1963–64 |journal=Cold War History Journal |date=18 September 2008 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=23–53 |doi=10.1080/14682740701791318|s2cid=153597101 }}.</ref> Perhaps more importantly, the Soviet Union had received a vast series of loans from the international money markets by late 1964, and no longer felt the need for Erhard's money.<ref name="Jan Friedmann and Axel Frohn"/>

Support for the American role in the [[Vietnam War]] proved fatal for Erhard's coalition. Through his endorsement of the American goal of military victory in Vietnam, Erhard sought closer collaboration with Washington and less with Paris. Erhard's policy complicated Allied initiatives toward German unification, a dilemma that the United States placed on the back burner as it focused on Southeast Asia. Erhard failed to understand that American global interests—not Europe's needs—dictated policy in [[Washington, D.C.]], and he rejected Adenauer's policy of fostering good relations with both the United States and France in the pursuit of West German national interest. Faced with a dangerous budget deficit in the 1966–1967 [[recession]], Erhard fell from office in part because of concessions that he made during a visit to [[U.S. President]] Lyndon B. Johnson.

Erhard's fall suggested that progress on German unification required a broader approach and a more active foreign policy. Chancellor [[Willy Brandt]] in the late 1960s abandoned the [[Hallstein Doctrine]] of previous chancellors and employed a new ''[[Ostpolitik]]'', seeking improved relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and thereby laying the groundwork for détente and coexistence between East and West. In the 1980s Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]], however, reverted to Erhard's approach in collaborating with the [[Reagan administration]] in its hard-line anti-Soviet policy.<ref>{{citation |first=Eugenie M. |last=Blang |title=A Reappraisal of Germany's Vietnam Policy, 1963–1966: Ludwig Erhard's Response to America's War in Vietnam |journal=German Studies Review |year=2004 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=341–360 |jstor=1433086 |doi=10.2307/1433086}}.</ref>

Under Erhard's government the Federal Republic entered into diplomatic relations with [[Israel]] in 1965.