Page 147 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

120 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

questions and in regions of high Catholic practice, such as Bavaria.
Traditional Catholic voters in western Germany would rarely vote Socialist
and almost never Communist. But, and this was the peculiarity of the
post-war era, even conservative Catholics often had no choice but to vote
Christian Democrat and Christian Socialist respectively, despite the
reformist bent of Christian Democratic politicians and policies, because
conventional right-wing parties were either under a shadow or else banned
outright. Even non-Catholic conservatives and the middle-class turned
increasingly to the Union (or to the Liberal Democrats due to the left
tendencies of the CDU, such as most noticeable in Hesse), as a bar to the
‘Marxist’ Left. Thus, the emergence of the parties to the right of Social
Democracy as the leading political force was variously regarded as a
rejection of extremism, leftism and radicalism in any form. Yet the
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adoption of the proportional electoral system or rather a combination of
the majority vote and proportional representation also helped to stabilise
support for the emerging parties in the three western zones.
Thus, in spite of the then predominant socialist Zeitgeist and the
perceived general preference for centralist governmental macroeconomic
planning, for an enhanced role for the state in social and economic affairs,
and, ultimately, for universal nationalisation advocated predominantly by
the SPD and KPD, both the CDU’s economically rather liberal Christian
Socialism arguing for limited socialisation restricted to core industries, and
the CSU’s so-called ‘soziale Wirtschaftsordnung’ (Social Economic Order)
actually rejecting collectivisation but recommending private initiatives and
free enterprise, became increasingly accepted in the political and public
debate in 1945/1946. Indeed, neither the Social Democrats nor the Union
put forward a particular economic model in the campaigns to the then
upcoming elections and, thus it is arguable whether the electorate voted
according to economic considerations and motives. Nonetheless, whereas
the political debate between planned and market economy did not expand
widely into the public sphere until 1948, there was already an intense
public debate on economic regulation and privatisation. In this debate,
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the majority of informed people eligible to vote in post-war West
Germany apparently instead relied on the conservative parties in order to
tackle the present and imminent difficulties, such as the food scarcity and
housing shortage, and to provide a new direction for a better future.