Page 116 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC/ SOCIAL UNION 89

spring 1947. In contrast to the Social Democrats solely advocating the
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nationalisation of basic industry in order to overcome the economic and
social misery of that time, the Christian Democrats possessed an actual
economic programme with an attractive slogan, i.e. ‘Gemeinwirtschaft’.
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Even though the concept remained vaguely defined, this advantaged the
CDU in times of campaign where the partially complex political
programmes were commonly simplified and popularised.
Although the Ahlener Programm as party platform and manifesto only
applied to the CDU in the British zone of occupation – the CDU in the
French zone of occupation did not know about it and the CSU refused to
accept it as party platform – essentially both the north-western CDU and
the Bavarian CSU at that time had reached a relatively homogeneous
programmatic conclusion, an economic system between liberalism and
socialism, i.e. the Ahlener Programm suggesting a Gemeinwirtschaft and the
Dreissig Punkte der Union advocating a Mittlerer Weg. In order to coordinate
both future campaigns and the programmatic developments of the two
political parties commonly referred to as the ‘Union’, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft
der Christlich-Demokratischen und Christlich-Sozialen Union Deutschlands (AG
CDU/CSU) (Working Committee of the CDU/CSU), with its General
Secretariat headed by Bruno Dörpinghaus (CDU) as liaison body and
information centre editing the bulletin Deutschland-Union-Dienst, was
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constituted in Königstein im Taunus on 5/6 February 1947. When the
first post-war parliament, i.e. the Wirtschaftsrat, became effective in June
1947, the cooperation between both Union parties led to the formation of
a common parliamentary group in the economic parliament, which
continued later in the Bundestag of the Federal Republic. In order to
overcome the fragmentation of confessional and middle-class parties, and
to offer a broad political spectrum as Volkspartei, however, the grouping
required a common programme of political action. In addition, it entailed
a whip that committed the two political parties to each other regarding
both the implementation and communication of a particular socio-
economic model. Although the grouping was not without controversy,
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the designated chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Friedrich
Holzapfel (CDU), expressed the parties’ commitment to the Ahlener
Programm at the constituent meeting of the Economic Council on 25 June
1947. Hence, when the 52 delegates elected by the Landtage of the eight
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Länder in the Bizone gathered in Frankfurt and the 20 representatives of
the CDU/CSU parliamentary group faced 20 delegates of the SPD, for
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the first time in post-war West Germany two opposed economic agendas,
i.e. the socialist state-run economy and the more market-oriented
Gemeinwirtschaft, competed in an official and decision-making political
body.