Grenzgänger / Transcending Boundaries - Aufsätze von Falk Pingel / Essays by Falk Pingel. E-BOOK

"Zeitgeschichtliche Analysen zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Bildung in Deutschland nach 1945 Western Alliance and theWelfare State – The German Response to Fascism? The Federal Republic of Germany 1949 – 1989* (p. 183-184)

The years 1979 and 1989, the 30th and the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany, saw a wealth of reflective publications, whose authors analysed the development of the Federal Republic since 1949, often posing the question »Is Bonn Weimar?« Two things are striking here – firstly, that the contemporary historians were not really certain of the future political stability of the West German State, and, secondly, that they did not compare the Federal Republic with National Socialism, or with West European democracies, but with the short history of the Weimar Republic.

These authors obviously think the second German parliamentary republic still has more in commonwith the first one (which broke down more than 50 years ago) than with its West European neighbour states of today with which the Federal Republic since its establishment has close political, economic and military ties. The reversion to Weimar has a special significance because Weimar does not just stand for the breakdown of democracy in Germany. In many respects it was also a model for the establishment of the Federal Republic, whose founding fathers, wanting to link it to democratic, but not to socialist traditions in Germany, could only look back to the Weimar Republic and the older democratic-revolutionary movement of 1848.

Continuity and Discontinuity in the Socio-economic System

In contrast to the situation in the Eastern Zone, i. e. the German Democratic Republic, neither the Western occupying powers nor the influential German ruling groups attempted a radical restructuring of the economic and social system in the Western Zones. This factor alone had the consequence that, after the elimination of persons who had backed Nazi politics in high-ranking posts, key positions in economy, politics and administration were filled with people who had fulfilled similar tasks during theWeimar period and who drew on their former experiences. Especially since those in key positions were, in the long run, not replaced to the same degree as in the GDR – particularly as far as education and, to a certain extent, the economy were concerned.

A number of individuals, who had been actively involved in the Nazi system, could not retain their jobs – they sometimes had to give up their jobs completely, or for a certain period of time, and to change over into different professions. This meant, to a certain degree that people who until then had not held top positions and were therefore publicly relatively unknown, could occupy key positions, which were now vacant. Thus – in contrast to the Eastern Zone, i. e. the GDR, and despite a [83] considerable amount of reshuffling in personnel, it was possible to ensure that experience in leadership was passed on."