Page 124 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC/ SOCIAL UNION 97

Accordingly, the Social Market Economy was not an alternative to the
Gemeinwirtschaft of the Ahlener Programm but rather an advancement on it:
on the basis of the Christian-humanistic values of solidarity and equality in
a mutually supportive society, henceforth a liberal meritocracy and an
economic democracy were pursued. The realisation and success of
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these, however, were considered to be contingent on the confidence and
active participation of all tiers of the society. Only if the Social Market
Economy were borne by the political will of the entire citizenry, would it
be possible to construct an economy that was both free and
simultaneously social. Thus the election campaign for the federal
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elections on 14 August 1949 was not only about canvassing in order to
ensure the continuance of the CDU/CSU as constitutive government, but
also about promoting the Social Market Economy in order to realise a new
economic and social system.
To this end, and to coordinate propaganda throughout West Germany,
a special central propaganda committee was established, similar to the
SPD campaign organisation, and alongside it also a number of
subcommittees, such as the Wahlrechtsausschuss (electoral law committee),
or the so-called Arithmetiker Ausschuss (Arithmetic Committee), entrusted
with providing demographic statistics and compiling data on previous
state and local elections were created. This election campaign committee,
to which belonged – alongside Dörpinghaus, Etzel, Albers and Scharnberg
– the editor of the Kölnische Rundschau, Reinhold Heinen, and
representatives from the various regional organisations and the Economic
and the Parliamentary Council, was assigned the task to ‘initiate the
measures which prove necessary in light of the election for the
coordination of the party interests, including the inter-connected
organisation, propaganda, and press duties.’ On 5 March 1949, this
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central committee which planned the party’s overall campaign strategy and
scheduled nationwide speakers was complemented by a press and
propaganda committee which supplied posters, leaflets, brochures, and
other campaign material to regional and district party organisations,
including the Bavarian CSU, for which it often simply replaced ‘CDU’
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with ‘CSU’ on the display.
Perhaps the most important source of information provided by the
central party leadership was its internal party handout Union im Wahlkampf
(Union Party in Election Campaign) with a circulation of up to 25,000.
These papers detailed election information and speaker notes for the party
organisers at the regional and district level. Central to this national
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campaign, driven mainly by Konrad Adenauer and the CDU of the British
zone, were Ludwig Erhard and his economic policy. In transforming
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that policy into effective propaganda, Adenauer urged the press and