Germany Federal Republic of Country in central Europe

bounded north by the North and Baltic Seas and Denmark, east by Poland and the Czech Republic, south by Austria and Switzerland, and west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Government With reunification in 1990 the German government remained almost identical to that of former West Germany. It is based on the West German constitution (the Basic Law), drafted in 1948-49 by the Allied military governors and German provincial leaders in an effort to create a stable, parliamentary form of government, to diffuse authority, and to safeguard liberties. It borrowed from British, American, and neighbouring European constitutional models. It established, firstly, a federal system of government built around ten (16 since reunification) Lä nder (federal states), each with its own constitution, elected parliament, and government headed by a minister -president. The Länder have original powers in education, police, and local government, and are responsible for the administration of federal legislation through their own civil services. They have local taxation powers and are assigned shares of federal income tax and VAT revenues, being responsible for 50% of government spending. The constitution, secondly, created a new federal parliamentary democracy, built around a two- chamber legislature comprising a directly elected 672-member lower house, the Bundestag (federal assembly), and an indirectly elected 69-member upper house, the Bundesrat (federal council). Bundestag representatives are elected for four-year terms by universal suffrage under a system of ` personalized proportional representation´ in which electors have one vote for an ordinary constituency seat and one for a Land party list, enabling adjustments in seats gained by each party to be made on a proportional basis. Political parties must win at least 5% of the national vote to qualify for shares of `list seats´. Bundesrat members are nominated and sent in blocs by Länder governments, each state being assigned between three and five seats depending on population size. The Bundestag is the dominant parliamentary chamber, electing from the ranks of its majority party or coalition a chancellor (prime minister) and cabinet to form the executive government. Once appointed, the chancellor can only be removed by a `constructive vote of no confidence´ in which a majority votes positively in favour of an alternative leader. Legislation is effected through all- party committees. The Bundesrat has few powers to initiate legislation, but has considerable veto authority. All legislation relating to Länder responsibilities requires its approval, constitutional amendments need a two-thirds Bundesrat (and Bundestag) majority, while the Bundesrat can temporarily block bills or force amendments in joint Bundestag-Bundesrat `conciliation committees´. Bundestag members also join an equal number of representatives elected by Länder parliaments in a special Bundesversammlung (federal convention) every five years to elect a federal president as head of state. The president, however, has few powers and is primarily a titular figure. The 1949 constitution is a written document. Adherence to it is policed by an independent federal constitutional court based at Karlsruhe which is staffed by 16 judges, who serve terms of up to 12 years. All-party committees from the Bundestag and Bundesrat select eight each. The court functions as a guarantor of civil liberties and adjudicator in Federal-Land disputes. (Similar courts function at the Land level.) History For German history prior to 1949 see Germany: history 1919-49. For the earlier history of Germany see Germany: history to 1519, Germany: history 1519-1815, and Germany: history 1815-1919. Germany divided In 1949 Germany was divided by the Allied powers and the USSR, forming the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the eastern part of the country (formerly the Soviet zone of occupation), and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in the west (comprising the British, US, and French occupation zones under Allied military control following Germany's surrender at the end of World War II in 1945). For the next four and a half decades West and East Germany were divided by the policies of the Cold War, with West Germany becoming the strongest European NATO power, and East Germany a vital member of Comecon and the Warsaw Pact. During the era of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles were stationed on East German soil. The formation of the Federal Republic In post-war West Germany, a policy of demilitarization, decentralization, and democratization was instituted by the Allied control powers and a new, intentionally provisional, constitution framed, which included eventual German reunification. The Federal Republic (West Germany) came into existence on 23 May 1949, when the Basic Law, or constitution, was signed by members of the Parliamentary Council in the presence of the Allied military governors (thereafter called commissioners). West Berlin was blockaded by the Soviet Union 1948-49 (see Berlin blockade), but survived to form a constituent Land in the Federal Republic, after an airlift operation by the Allied powers. Adenauer comes to power in West Germany Politics during the Federal Republic's first decade were dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), led by the popular Konrad Adenauer . The first elections to the Bundestag, or lower house of the German Federal parliament, were held on 15 August 1949, the Christian Democrats emerging as the strongest party. Theodor Heuss was elected first president of the Republic, and Adenauer was elected first German Federal chancellor (16 September). The first government of the Republic was a right-wing coalition. In the declaration of policy of his government on 20 September Adenauer voiced the determination of his ministers to cooperate closely with the Western powers. In retaliation for the institution of the German Federal Republic, an East German state, the German Democratic Republic, was established under Soviet auspices in the eastern zone of Germany in October 1949. Economic recovery under Adenauer Chancellor Adenauer and his economics minister, Ludwig Erhard, established a successful approach to economic management, termed the ` social market economy´, which combined the encouragement of free- market forces with strategic state intervention on the grounds of social justice. This new approach, combined with aid under the Marshall Plan and the enterprise of the labour force (many of whom were refugees from the partitioned East), brought rapid growth and reconstruction during the 1950s and 1960s, an era termed the `miracle years´. In additional factor in Germany's economic performance was that it did not have the rearmament burden of the other leading Western countries. Western defence alliances During this period, West Germany was also reintegrated into the international community. Adenauer's government supported the Federal Republic's proposed participation in West European collective defence. This subject, raising the question of a recreated German army and possible conscription, caused considerable controversy in West Germany over the next few years, and in many other countries, especially France, where the prospect of a new German army was viewed with much popular misgiving, in the light of recent history. The German Social Democrats (SPD) were opposed to the Federal Republic tying itself militarily to the West, primarily because they claimed that this would prejudice any chance of German reunification with East Germany; and this fear was played upon by Soviet propaganda. However, Adenauer had the necessary majority to carry through his policy, with only minor modifications. In the elections of 1953 his party increased its majority. In 1952 it was agreed that on West Germany's formal joining of the proposed European Defence Community (EDC) the Allied occupation should end, although Allied troops would continue to be stationed in the Federal Republic for German and European defence purposes. The London and Paris agreements, which followed French rejection of the EDC in 1954, resulted in West Germany being invited to join NATO and officially restored to the Federal Republic full sovereignty. French distrust of the German rearmament that this involved was allayed by various safeguards. As a result, the Western European Union, of which the Republic was a member, came into being on 7 May 1955; and seven days later the Federal Republic formally joined NATO, becoming a loyal supporter of the USA. A small regular army was soon built up; but conscription was not started until 1956-57. In 1955 Adenauer visited Moscow. As a result, diplomatic relations were established between the USSR and West Germany and the USSR returned to Germany several thousand German prisoners still detained in the USSR. European integration West Germany was admitted to the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC; the predecessor of the OECD) in 1949; and became a full member of the Council of Europe in 1951. It was one of the founder members of the European Coal and Steel Community. When in 1955, against Adenauer's advice, the inhabitants of Saarland voted against `Europeanization´, and by implication, in favour of union with West Germany, relations between France and the Federal Republic were temporarily strained. Agreement was eventually reached, however, as a result of which Saarland was united to West Germany at midnight on 31 December 1956. West Germany was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, under which the European Economic Community (EEC) came into being on 1 January 1958. Germany has continued to play a dominant role in the EEC and its successors, the European Community (EC) and European Union (EU), and has been a constant advocate of closer European integration. After Charles de Gaulle's return to power in France in May 1958 relations between France and West Germany grew closer, due partly to a personal friendship between Adenauer and de Gaulle. In January 1963 a `treaty of reconciliation´ between the two countries was signed in Paris. When Adenauer retired from the chancellorship later in the year, however, the warmth of Franco-German relations began to diminish and differences between the two countries concerning the future course of such organizations as the EEC and NATO became more open. Government in East Germany The People's Council, elected in 1948, and consisting mainly of a communist-dominated Socialist Unity Party (SED), was converted into a People's Chamber (Volkskammer) on the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Germany (7 October 1949). After that all elections were on the pattern of a one -party list of candidates. East Germany dissolved its five Lä nder (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg- West Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony- Anhalt, and Thuringia) in 1952, and its Chamber of States, or upper house, in 1958, vesting local authority in 15 Bezirke, or administrative districts. Under the 1968 constitution the supreme legislative and executive body in the German Democratic Republic was the Volkskammer (people's chamber), whose 500 members (including 66 from East Berlin) were elected every five years by universal suffrage. The sovietization of East Germany On the inauguration of East Germany, Wilhelm Pieck became the president, Otto Grotewohl (former leader of the SDP in the East) became premier, and Walter Ulbricht deputy premier. From the beginning the real power resided with Ulbricht, who was first secretary of the SED Politburo. After Pieck's death in 1960 the presidency was abolished, and a council of state was elected by the Volkskammer. Its chairman, who was given dictatorial powers, was Ulbricht. His position was further strengthened after Grotewohl's death in 1964. The years immediately after 1949 saw the rapid establishment of a communist regime on the Soviet model, involving the nationalization of industry, the formation of agricultural collectives, and the creation of a one- party political system. East Germany made periodic suggestions for talks on German reunification, but its drafts invariably included clauses designed to perpetuate forcibly its own communist regime, and were rejected by the Western powers and by West Germany. Shortly after its inauguration, East Germany recognized the Oder- Neisse line as its permanent boundary with Poland, and acknowledged the expulsion of over 2 million Germans from the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia as ` permanent and just´. The 1953 revolt From its inception the poverty of East Germany contrasted markedly with the prosperity of West Germany, and the curbs on personal liberties added to a discontent that found expression in the thousands of refugees who poured into West Berlin, and thence to the Federal Republic, from the eastern sector. In June 1953 opposition to sovietization led, during food shortages, to severe rioting in East Berlin and in several other East German towns. In Berlin only the intervention of Soviet tanks restored order. The revolt was followed by repressive measures, and though the Democratic Republic was proclaimed a sovereign state in 1954 (recognized at first only by the communist powers), large Soviet forces continued to be stationed there until the collapse of the communist regime in 1989. The Berlin crisis of 1960-61 Friction between East and West Germany came to a head in 1960- 61, because of the continuing flow of refugees entering West Berlin from the east. This had caused the population of East Germany to decline sharply between 1949 and 1961 and was undoubtedly affecting its economy adversely. On 13 August 1961 East Germany closed the Berlin border, and subsequently built a heavily policed wall along it (see Berlin Wall). The flow of refugees was thus virtually stopped, though a limited number of sensational successful escapes continued to be made, together with many equally sensational and often fatal failures, which severely shocked public opinion in the West. From December 1963 an agreement was reached between the East and West Berlin authorities under which West Berliners could visit relatives in East Berlin and the Democratic Republic for limited periods at festive seasons, and some elderly citizens of East Germany were permitted to go and settle with their relatives in the West. Adenauer gives way to Erhard In 1959 Heuss was succeeded as West German president by Heinrich Lubke. After the elections of 1961 the Christian Democrats lost ground, and governed in a coalition with the Free Democrats (FDP). Though the economic boom continued, the CDU and its allies lost prestige on account of various government scandals, and an increasingly public rift between the ageing Chancellor Adenauer and his economics minister, Erhard, centring on the question of Adenauer's retirement. The emergence of a new and youthful SDP leader, Willy Brandt - who had vaulted to international prominence as mayor of West Berlin during the construction of the Berlin Wall - suggested a strong threat to future CDU dominance of West German politics. Erhard eventually succeeded Adenauer as chancellor in 1963 and resigned in 1966. Erhard had to face differences within his own party, and public controversy on such matters as to whether the law should be amended to allow for trials of war criminals to take place after May 1965 (when they would normally have qualified for the 20- year indemnity exemption). Additionally, relations with several Arab states were strained by West Germany's agreement to establish ambassadorial relations with Israel, to whom, by 1965, it had completed payment of large reparations for the Holocaust. A closer understanding with Britain was reflected in a highly successful state visit of Queen Elizabeth II to West Germany in 1965, and by a subsequent agreement between the two countries on a West German contribution towards the support costs of the British Army of the Rhine. In September 1965 Erhard led his party to victory in the federal general election. Brandt and Ostpolitik During the 1960s Willy Brandt played a major role in shifting the SPD away from its traditional Marxist affiliation towards a more moderate position. Support for the SPD steadily increased after this policy switch and the party joined the CDU in an uneasy `grand coalition´ (1966-69), with Brandt as the junior partner and foreign minister to CDU chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger. But by the later 1960s most younger people felt that the time had come to face realities and regularize West Germany's relations with its eastern neighbours. This mood found expression in Brandt's foreign policy of Ostpolitik (`eastern policy´), which sought reconciliation with Eastern Europe as a means of improving contacts between East and West Germany. The SDP, with Brandt as chancellor, gained power in 1969, with the support of the FDP under Walter Scheel (1919- ). Under Brandt's moderate socialist government, West Germany concluded treaties with Poland and the USSR (1970), treaties that normalized relations, recognized the de facto boundaries, and provided for limited cooperation in various fields. In 1972 a treaty was effected with East Germany, acknowledging East Germany's borders and separate existence and enabling both countries to enter the United Nations in 1973. In 1974 Brandt was forced to resign after the revelation that his personal assistant (Günther Guillaume) had been an East German spy, and was succeeded by Helmut Schmidt. Also in 1974, Gustav Heinemann (1899- 1976), president since 1969, was succeeded by Walter Scheel. Developments in East Germany in the 1960s and 1970s Apart from the unsuccessful uprisings of 1953, East Germany proved a notably quiescent member of the Eastern bloc. By the 1970s there was a considerable improvement in living standards and the availability of consumer goods. East Germany's policy of economic austerity had yielded good results, and by 1969 it had a higher per- capita GNP (gross national product) than Austria, Japan, and Italy, almost two-thirds that of West Germany, and it was the world's 10th industrial power. During the 1970s there was some relaxation in government rigidity, a more moderate political stance was adopted, and the Stalinist Walter Ulbricht was replaced as leader of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) by the pragmatic Erich Honecker. Economic and diplomatic relations with the West were extended. In 1972-73 the number of countries officially recognizing East Germany soared, and East Germany achieved international status as an independent state, although the West German constitution continued to declare that there was only one German nationality. Schmidt's centrist course As SPD chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Schmidt adhered to Ostpolitik and emerged as a leading advocate of European cooperation. In the 1976 general election Schmidt's SDP-FDP coalition won a narrow majority over the CDU-CSU alliance headed by Dr Helmut Kohl. The CSU is the more right-wing sister party of the CDU in Bavaria, and in the 1980 election the CDU-CSU alliance was headed by the CSU leader, the controversial Franz-Josef Strauss, but was once more comfortably defeated by the SPD-FDP coalition. Between 1980 and 1982, the left wing of the SPD and the liberal FDP were divided over military policy (in particular the proposed stationing of US nuclear missiles in West Germany) and economic policy. Chancellor Schmidt fought to maintain a moderate, centrist course but the FDP eventually withdrew from the federal coalition in 1982 and joined forces with the CDU, led by Helmut Kohl, to unseat the chancellor in a `positive vote of no confidence´. Helmut Schmidt immediately retired from politics and the SPD, led by Hans-Jochen Vögel, was heavily defeated in the Bundestag elections in 1983, losing votes on the left to the new environmentalist Green Party.