Page 117 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

90 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

Concerning the implementation and communication of any future
economic model, both parliamentary party groups attached great
importance to the Administration for Economics; after all, the
administration and its director were given both a media apparatus, with its
own publications, such as Wirtschaftsverwaltung, and an exposed position
due to the influence on economic policy. Thus, when the Executive
Directors – among them the key position of the Director of the
Administration for Economics – nominated for election by the Executive
Committee were due for approval by the Economic Council, it came to a
decisive confrontation between the two parliamentary groups on 22/24
July 1947. In view of the fact that the SPD had already obtained the post
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of Prime Minister in five out of eleven Länder parliaments and further
occupied eight ministries of economics, the CDU/CSU parliamentary
group claimed the position of the Director of the Administration for
Economics in the Economic Council. Having agreed on a candidate who
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was supposed to be one hundred per cent in line with the Ahlener
Programm, Adenauer called for closeness within the parliamentary group
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when it came to the final ballot. There, supported by the votes of the
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delegates of the DP and the FDP, the Union obtained the majority and
Johannes Semler (CSU), nominated by CSU party chairman Josef Müller,
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became Director of the Administration for Economics on 24 July 1947.
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With regard to regulatory policy, the newly elected chairman
represented the party platform adopted in Ahlen. Therefore, Semler not
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only received support from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group but also
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from Konrad Adenauer, who wished to reduce government control of the
economy, and so welcomed the director’s advocacy for entrepreneurial
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initiative. In his inaugural address to the first party convention of the
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CDU in the British zone of occupation in Recklinghausen on 14 August
1947, the party chairman affirmed this concept of an increasingly
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autonomous economy. In order to ensure the corresponding
implementation of his socio-economic agenda, Adenauer asked the
chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Friedrich Holzapfel, for
invitations to the caucuses, and there pleaded for cooperation between the
directors, parliamentary group and party. In fact, however, with the
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exception of Josef Müller, the party chairmen of the Union parties in the
individual zones of occupation – including Konrad Adenauer who instead
met with his informants and confidants Friedrich Holzapfel, the banker
Robert Pferdmenges and the delegate of the Economic Council Theodor
Blank, although the historian Rudolf Morsey assumed Adenauer’s frequent
presence in Frankfurt – seldom attended the meetings of the
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parliamentary party group in the Economic Council. Furthermore, the
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collaboration between parliamentary group and parties in 1947 was