Editing History of Germany (section)

===West Germany (Bonn Republic)===
[[File:Flag of Germany (3-2 aspect ratio).svg|thumb|Flag of West Germany and unified Germany, 1949 – present]]
{{Main|West Germany}}

On 23 May 1949, the [[Trizone|three western occupation zones]] (American, British, and French) were combined into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany). The government was formed under Chancellor [[Konrad Adenauer]] and his conservative CDU/CSU coalition.<ref>The [[Christian Social Union of Bavaria|Christian Social Union]] or CSU is the Bavaria branch of the CDU. It has always operated in close collaboration with the CDU, and the CDU/CSU is usually treated as a single party in national affairs.</ref> The CDU/CSU was in power during most of the period since 1949. The capital was [[Bonn]] until it was moved to Berlin in 1990. In 1990, FRG absorbed [[East Germany]] and gained full sovereignty over Berlin. At all points West Germany was much larger and richer than East Germany, which became a dictatorship under the control of the Communist Party and was closely monitored by Moscow. Germany, especially Berlin, was a cockpit of the [[Cold War]], with NATO and the Warsaw Pact assembling major military forces in west and east. However, there was never any combat.<ref>Jürgen Weber, ''Germany, 1945–1990: A Parallel History'' (Budapest, Central European University Press, 2004)</ref>

====Economic miracle====
[[File:1000000th Beetle.jpg|thumb|The [[Volkswagen Beetle]] was an icon of West German reconstruction.]]
West Germany enjoyed prolonged economic growth beginning in the early 1950s (''[[Wirtschaftswunder]]'' or "Economic Miracle").<ref name="weber">{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Jurgen |title=Germany, 1945–1990 |publisher=Central European University Press |date=2004 |pages=37–60, 103–118, 167–188, 221–264}}</ref> Industrial production doubled from 1950 to 1957, and gross national product grew at a rate of 9 or 10% per year, providing the engine for economic growth of all of Western Europe. Labor unions supported the new policies with postponed wage increases, minimized strikes, support for technological modernization, and a policy of [[co-determination]] (''Mitbestimmung''), which involved a satisfactory grievance resolution system as well as requiring representation of workers on the boards of large corporations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fürstenberg |first=Friedrich |date=May 1977 |title=West German Experience with Industrial Democracy |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |volume=431 |pages=44–53 |doi=10.1177/000271627743100106 |jstor=1042033 |s2cid=154284862}}</ref> The recovery was accelerated by the [[Deutsche Mark#Currency reform of June 1948|currency reform of June 1948]], U.S. gifts of $1.4 billion as part of the [[Marshall Plan]], the breaking down of old trade barriers and traditional practices, and the opening of the global market.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1968 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2004 |editor-last=Junker |editor-first=Detlef |volume=1 |pages=291–309}}</ref> West Germany gained legitimacy and respect, as it shed the horrible reputation Germany had gained under the Nazis.

West Germany played a central role in the creation of European cooperation; it joined [[NATO]] in 1955 and was a founding member of the [[European Economic Community]] in 1958.

==== 1948 currency reform ====
[[File:C-54landingattemplehof.jpg|thumb|Berliners watching a transport bringing food and coal during the [[Berlin Blockade]] of 1948–1949]]

The most dramatic and successful policy event was the currency reform of 1948.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sauermann |first=Heinz |date=1950 |title=The Consequences of the Currency Reform in Western Germany |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_review-of-politics_1950-04_12_2/page/175 |journal=Review of Politics |volume=12 |pages=175–196 |doi=10.1017/s0034670500045009 |jstor=1405052 |s2cid=145428438 |number=2}}</ref> Since the 1930s, prices and wages had been controlled, but money had been plentiful. That meant that people had accumulated large paper assets, and that official prices and wages did not reflect reality, as the black market dominated the economy and more than half of all transactions were taking place unofficially. On 21 June 1948, the Western Allies withdrew the old currency and replaced it with the new [[Deutsche Mark]] at the rate of 1 new per 10 old. This wiped out 90% of government and private debt, as well as private savings. Prices were decontrolled, and labor unions agreed to accept a 15% wage increase, despite the 25% rise in prices. The result was that prices of German export products held steady, while profits and earnings from exports soared and were poured back into the economy. The currency reforms were simultaneous with the $1.4 billion in [[Marshall Plan]] money coming in from the United States, which was used primarily for investment.

In addition, the Marshall Plan forced German companies, as well as those in all of Western Europe, to modernize their business practices and take account of the international market. Marshall Plan funding helped overcome bottlenecks in the surging economy caused by remaining controls (which were removed in 1949), and Marshall Plan business reforms opened up a greatly expanded market for German exports. Overnight, consumer goods appeared in the stores, because they could be sold for realistic prices, emphasizing to Germans that their economy had turned a corner.<ref name="tipton"/>

The success of the currency reform angered the Soviets, who cut off all road, rail, and canal links between the western zones and [[West Berlin]]. This was the [[Berlin Blockade]], which lasted from 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949. In response, the U.S. and Britain launched an airlift of food and coal and distributed the new currency in West Berlin as well. The city thereby became economically integrated into West Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Giangreco |first1=D. M. |url=http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/BERLIN_A/INDEX.HTM |title=Airbridge to Berlin: The Berlin Crisis of 1948, Its Origins and Aftermath |last2=Griffin |first2=Robert E. |publisher=Presidio Press |date=1988 |access-date=10 February 2011 |archive-date=6 March 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020306213315/http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/BERLIN_A/INDEX.HTM |url-status=dead }}</ref> Until the mid-1960s, it served as "America's Berlin", symbolizing the United States' commitment to defending its freedom, which John F. Kennedy underscored during his visit in June 1963.<ref>[[Andreas Daum]], ''Kennedy in Berlin''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 1‒5, 125–163.</ref>

==== Adenauer ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078072-0004, Konrad Adenauer.jpg|thumb|upright|Adenauer in 1952; he forged close ties with France and the U.S. and opposed the Soviet Union and its satellite of East Germany.]]
[[Konrad Adenauer]] was the dominant leader in West Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Charles |title=Konrad Adenauer: The Father of the New Germany |date=2000}}</ref> He was the first chancellor (top official) of the FRG and until his death was the founder and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a coalition of conservatives, [[Ordoliberalism|ordoliberals]], and adherents of Protestant and [[Catholic social teaching]] that dominated West Germany politics for most of its history. During his chancellorship, the West Germany economy grew quickly, and West Germany established friendly relations with France, participated in the emerging [[European Union]], established the country's armed forces (the ''[[Bundeswehr]]''), and became a pillar of [[NATO]] as well as firm ally of the United States. Adenauer's government also commenced the long process of reconciliation with the Jews and [[Israel]] after the Holocaust.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hiscocks |first=Richard |title=The Adenauer era |date=1975 |page=290}}</ref>

==== Erhard ====
[[Ludwig Erhard]] was in charge of economic policy as economics director for the British and American occupation zones and was Adenauer's long-time economics minister. Erhard's decision to lift many price controls in 1948 (despite opposition from both the social democratic opposition and Allied authorities), plus his advocacy of free markets, helped set the Federal Republic on its strong growth from wartime devastation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Granieri |first=Ronald J. |date=2005 |title=Review |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-interdisciplinary-history_autumn-2005_36_2/page/262 |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History |volume=36 |pages=262–263 |doi=10.1162/0022195054741190 |s2cid=142774747 |number=2}}</ref> Norbert Walter, a former chief economist at [[Deutsche Bank]], argues that "Germany owes its rapid economic advance after World War II to the system of the Social Market Economy, established by Ludwig Erhard."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walter |first=Norbert |title=The Evolving German Economy: Unification, the Social Market, European and Global Integration |journal=SAIS Review |issue=15 (Special Issue 1995) |pages=55–81}}. Quote from p. 64</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mierzejewski |first=Alfred C. |title=Ludwig Erhard: a biography |date=2004}}</ref> Erhard was politically less successful when he served as the CDU Chancellor from 1963 until 1966. Erhard followed the concept of a [[social market economy]], and was in close touch with professional economists. Erhard viewed the market itself as social and supported only a minimum of welfare legislation. However, Erhard suffered a series of decisive defeats in his effort to create a free, competitive economy in 1957; he had to compromise on such key issues as the anti-cartel legislation. Thereafter, the West German economy evolved into a conventional west European welfare state.<ref>{{Citation |last=Mierzejewski |first=Alfred C. |title=1957: Ludwig Erhard's Annus Terribilis |work=Essays in Economic and Business History |volume=22 |pages=17–27 |date=2004 |issn=0896-226X}}</ref>

Meanwhile, in adopting the [[Godesberg Program]] in 1959, the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) largely abandoned Marxism ideas and embraced the concept of the [[market economy]] and the welfare state. Instead it now sought to move beyond its old working class base to appeal the full spectrum of potential voters, including the middle class and professionals. Labor unions [[Social corporatism|cooperated]] increasingly with industry, achieving labor representation on corporate boards and increases in wages and benefits.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Henry Ashby |url=https://archive.org/details/twogermaniessinc00turn |title=The two Germanies since 1945 |date=1987 |isbn=978-0-3000-4415-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/twogermaniessinc00turn/page/80 80]–82|publisher=Yale University Press }}</ref>

==== Grand coalition ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F033246-0022, Bonn, Bundestag, Rede Bundeskanzler Brandt.jpg|thumb|[[Willy Brandt]], German Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1971]]
In 1966, Erhard lost support and [[Kurt Kiesinger]] was elected as Chancellor by a new CDU/CSU-[[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] alliance combining the two largest parties. [[Social Democracy|Social democratic]] (SPD) leader [[Willy Brandt]] was Deputy Federal Chancellor and Foreign Minister. The 1966–1969 Grand Coalition reduced tensions with the Soviet bloc nations and establishing diplomatic relations with [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Romania]] and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].

==== Guest workers ====
{{Main|Gastarbeiter}}
With a booming economy short of unskilled workers, especially after the Berlin Wall cut off the steady flow of East Germans, the FRG negotiated migration agreements with Italy (1955), [[Francoist Spain|Spain]] (1960), Greece (1960), and Turkey (1961) that brought in hundreds of thousands of temporary guest workers, called ''[[Gastarbeiter]]''. In 1968, the FRG signed a guest worker agreement with Yugoslavia that employed additional guest workers. ''Gastarbeiter'' were young men who were paid full-scale wages and benefits, but were expected to return home in a few years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shonick |first=Kaja |date=Oct 2009 |title=Politics, Culture, and Economics: Reassessing the West German Guest Worker Agreement with Yugoslavia |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=719–736 |doi=10.1177/0022009409340648 |s2cid=145180949}}</ref>

The agreement with Turkey ended in 1973 but few workers returned because there were few good jobs in Turkey.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Castles |first=Stephen |date=1985 |title=The Guests Who Stayed – The Debate on "Foreigners Policy" in the German Federal Republic |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_international-migration-review_fall-1985_19_3/page/517 |journal=International Migration Review |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=517–534 |doi=10.2307/2545854 |jstor=2545854 |pmid=12341062}}</ref> By 2010 there were about 4 million people of Turkish descent in Germany. The generation born in Germany attended German schools, but had a poor command of either German or Turkish, and had either low-skilled jobs or were unemployed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ewing |first=Katherine Pratt |date=Spring–Summer 2003 |title=Living Islam in the Diaspora: Between Turkey and Germany |journal=South Atlantic Quarterly |volume=102 |issue=2/3 |pages=405–431 |doi=10.1215/00382876-102-2-3-405 |s2cid=162029927}}. In [[Project MUSE]]</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mandel |first=Ruth |title=Cosmopolitan Anxieties: Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany |publisher=Duke University Press |date=2008}}</ref>

==== Brandt and Ostpolitik ====
{{Main|Ostpolitik}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F031406-0017, Erfurt, Treffen Willy Brandt mit Willi Stoph.jpg|thumb|Brandt (left) and [[Willi Stoph]] in 1970, the first encounter of a Federal Chancellor with his East German counterpart]]
[[Willy Brandt]] was the leader of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] in 1964–1987 and West German Chancellor in 1969–1974. Under his leadership, the German government sought to reduce tensions with the [[Soviet Union]] and improve relations with the [[German Democratic Republic]], a policy known as the ''[[Ostpolitik]]''.<ref name=weber/> Relations between the two German states had been icy at best, with propaganda barrages in each direction. The heavy outflow of talent from East Germany prompted the building of the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1961, which worsened [[Cold War]] tensions and prevented East Germans from travel. Although anxious to relieve serious hardships for divided families and to reduce friction, Brandt's ''Ostpolitik'' was intent on holding to its concept of "two German states in one German nation".

''Ostpolitik'' was opposed by the conservative elements in Germany, but won Brandt an international reputation and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Ostpolitik, 1969–1974: European and Global Responses |date=2009 |editor-last=Fink |editor-first=Carole |editor-last2=Schaefer |editor-first2=Bernd}}</ref> In September 1973, both West and East Germany were admitted to the [[United Nations]]. The two countries exchanged permanent representatives in 1974, and, in 1987, East Germany's leader [[Erich Honecker]] paid an [[Erich Honecker's 1987 visit to West Germany|official state visit]] to West Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fulbrook |first=Mary |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgermany0000fulb_t6t0 |title=History of Germany, 1918–2000: the divided nation |date=2002 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgermany0000fulb_t6t0/page/170 170]}}</ref>

==== Economic crisis of 1970s ====
{{See also|Steel crisis}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F051012-0010, Bonn, Empfang Staatspräsident von Frankreich.jpg|thumb|left|[[Helmut Schmidt]], left, with French President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] (1977)]]
After 1973, Germany was hard hit by a worldwide economic crisis, soaring oil prices, and stubbornly high unemployment, which jumped from 300,000 in 1973 to 1.1 million in 1975. The [[Ruhr]] region was hardest hit, as its easy-to-reach coal mines petered out, and expensive German coal was no longer competitive. Likewise the Ruhr steel industry went into sharp decline, as its prices were undercut by lower-cost suppliers such as Japan. The welfare system provided a safety net for the large number of unemployed workers, and many factories reduced their labor force and began to concentrate on high-profit specialty items. After 1990 the Ruhr moved into service industries and high technology. Cleaning up the heavy air and water pollution became a major industry in its own right. Meanwhile, formerly rural Bavaria became a high-tech center of industry.<ref name=ardagh/>

A spy scandal forced Brandt to step down as Chancellor while remaining as party leader. He was replaced by [[Helmut Schmidt]] (b. 1918), of the SPD, who served as Chancellor in 1974–1982. Schmidt continued the ''Ostpolitik'' with less enthusiasm. He had a [[PhD]] in economics and was more interested in domestic issues, such as reducing [[inflation]]. The debt grew rapidly as he borrowed to cover the cost of the ever more expensive welfare state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sinn |first=Hans-Werner |url=https://archive.org/details/cangermanybesave00sinn |title=Can Germany be saved?: the malaise of the world's first welfare state |publisher=MIT Press |date=2007 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cangermanybesave00sinn/page/183 183]}}</ref> After 1979, foreign policy issues grew central as the Cold War turned hot again. The German peace movement mobilized hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to protest against American deployment in Europe of new [[medium-range ballistic missile]]s. Schmidt supported the deployment but was opposed by the left wing of the SPD and by Brandt.

The pro-business [[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|Free Democratic Party (FDP)]] had been in coalition with the SPD, but now it changed direction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cerny |first=Karl H. |title=Germany at the polls: the Bundestag elections of the 1980s |date=1990 |page=113}}</ref> Led by Finance Minister [[Otto Graf Lambsdorff]] the FDP adopted the market-oriented "Kiel Theses" in 1977; it rejected the Keynesian emphasis on consumer demand, and proposed to reduce social welfare spending, and try to introduce policies to stimulate production and facilitate jobs. Lambsdorff argued that the result would be economic growth, which would itself solve both the social problems and the financial problems. As a consequence, the FDP switched allegiance to the CDU and Schmidt lost his parliamentary majority in 1982. For the only time in West Germany's history, the government fell on a [[vote of no confidence]].<ref name=tipton/><ref>For a primary source see Helmut Schmidt, '' Men and Power: A Political Retrospective'' (1990)</ref>

====Kohl====
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F074398-0021, Bonn, Pressekonferenz Bundestagswahlkampf, Kohl.jpg|thumb|[[Helmut Kohl]] became first chancellor of a reunified Germany.]]
[[Helmut Kohl]] brought the conservatives back to power with a [[Cabinet Kohl I|CDU/CSU-FDP coalition]] in 1982, and served as Chancellor until 1998.<ref name="weber"/> He orchestrated reunification with the approval of all the Four Powers from World War II, who still had a voice in German affairs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pruys |first=Karl |title=Kohl: Genius of the Present: A Biography of Helmut Kohl |date=1996}}</ref> He lost in [[1998 German federal election|the left's biggest landslide victory in 1998]], and was succeeded by the SPD's [[Gerhard Schröder]].<ref>{{cite news |title=SCHROEDER DEFEATS KOHL IN HISTORIC GERMAN VOTE |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/28/schroeder-defeats-kohl-in-historic-german-vote/aef75701-81af-4620-a6ef-ccdd5358dbb7/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>