Page 108 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC/ SOCIAL UNION 81

inadequate pre-war liberal capitalism nor an equally antisocial doctrinaire
communism but only an economic and social model oriented entirely
toward common welfare would serve society, became manifest in so-called
‘Christian Socialism’. While in the first post-war years socialism became
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the socio-political slogan and socialist planning was at the centre of both
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the political and the public debate, the economic conception and the
programmatic definition of Christian Socialism remained subject to
interpretation and even criticism.
According to the so-called ‘Walberberger’ or ‘Kölner Kreis’ around the
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Dominicans P. Eberhard Welty and P. Laurentius Siemer, as well as the
trade unionists Johannes Albers, Karl Arnold and Michael Rott, Christian
Socialism was derived from Thomas Aquinas’ holistic anti-capitalist social
doctrine. Thus the economy’s foremost objective was the fulfilment of
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public demand via macroeconomic planning and control rather than the
free market and competition. While the socialisation of core industries was
pursued, private initiatives and personal responsibility remained
unaffected. These socio-ethical and economic principles finally formed an
integral part of the so-called ‘Kölner Leitsätze’ (Cologne Principles), which
were brought forward by the Christian Democrats in Cologne as a party
platform for an emerging national CDU in June 1945. Thus Christian
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Socialism was meant to be the socio-political and economic model for a
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new political party formed by the Catholic working class.
Similarly and simultaneously, the CDU in Berlin around Jakob Kaiser,
Andreas Hermes and Ernst Lemmer considered the pre-war social and
economic order characterised by the bourgeoisie and liberal capitalism as
obsolete and propagated a new socialist era of the working class. With
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their public appeal Deutsches Volk! in which they argued for a planned
economic and social reorganisation with private interests subservient to
collective responsibility, and advocated the nationalisation of core
industries while maintaining private property, they appealed for the
assembling of Christian, social and democratic forces in order to establish
the Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDUD) as the political
representation of all workers and employees.
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These corporate and socialist principles embodied in Christian Socialism
also formed the basis of the Christian Democratic founding circles in
Wuerttemberg-Hohenzollern, North Baden and Hesse. While here the
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radical Christian revolution was considered equally essential in order to
overcome capitalism and to establish a new Christian Socialist Democratic
order, in particular the Frankfurter Kreis with its editors of the Frankfurter
Hefte, Eugen Kogon and Walter Dirks, interpreted Christian Socialism
more individualistically and less oriented towards common welfare. Thus
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in their publications they argued for a liberal rather than state-controlled