Political dissent and active challenge, 1949-89
- In the 1950s, the FRG was trying to establish itself
- Political dissent and active challenge were less important than the bigger issues of the time:
Rebuilding the government, working together in useful coalitions to avoid the problems
that the Weimar government had faced
Building a sense of identity while leaving room for reuni cation with East Germany
Rebuilding the economy and physically rebuilding the country
Establishing the FRG as a viable, moderate member of Europe; even the newly re-
established communist party stressed it wanted German Socialism, not a revolution
Demonstrations and marches in the 1950s
- The government did clamp down on certain political groups, using a clause in the Basic Law
that said that political parties could exist as long as they did not threaten the constitution or the
principles of democracy
- This clause was used to ban the right-wing Socialist Reich Party in 1952 because it was
expressing views that were reminiscent of those of the Nazi regime and therefore were a threat
to democracy
- The KPD, having been unable to win enough seats in the Bundestag to feel represented, began
to organise communist demonstrations in the cities
- In Munich in 1953, about 6,000 communists clashed with the police and the police used water
canons to disperse the marchers
Changes in the 1960s
By the 1960s the FRG had found its political feet in Europe and, by what was referred to
as an ‘economic miracle’, had an astonishingly strong economy as well. People were more
con dent and a younger generation, growing in numbers due to the post-war baby boom,
was getting caught up in the feeling of youth protest all through the West. This wave of
protest manifested itself in the FRG in several ways.
- Young people who objected to the ‘year zero’ principle that had helped Adenauer rebuild the
civil service and the army wanted to confront Germany’s Nazi past
- They especially objected to ex-Nazis in positions of political power
- They adopted the slogan ‘What did you do in the war, Daddy?’ in a knowing reversal of the
British recruitment poster in order to taunt the older generation
- There were protests against the FRG’s military — its involvement with the West through NATO
and the possibility that it might start to build and store economic weapons, or allow other NATO
countries to store nuclear weapons in the FRG
- Young people joined the rising discontent with the way the USA was conducting the war in
Vietnam
- For many young people, the USA became the face of money-grabbing, repressive capitalism
Challenges in the 1970s
- Government pressure on protest and dissent via the emergency laws and police control
reduced the amount of protests by many groups
- However, it had the e ect of making some groups feel more marginalised and so increased the
level of violence by resorting to terrorism
- The police developed hard-line policies to deal with them
- Terrorists were constantly on the move, and were in and out of prison — sometimes their
arrests provoked terrorist attacks
- There were regular gun battles with the police, sometimes several times a month
- One of the most long-lived terrorist groups was the Baader-Meinhof Gang, otherwise known as
the Red Army Faction
- By 1975, all of the RAF members were arrested and some were placed in solitary con nement
fi
ff fi fi
