Page 158 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

1948 – ASPIRATION AND APPREHENSION 131

self-government without a formal constitutional amendment. The trade
unions feared, in particular, that the safeguards of federalism against the
administrative expansion of the centre might interfere with their plans for
‘economic democracy’; a system of economic chambers in which labour
and business organisations would share the control of the economy. For
this reason, they also complained about the rigidity of the strict division
between the powers of the federation and the Länder. A delegation of the
25
Council of Trade Unions of the western zones also requested several
amendments to the Basic Law, including the right to strike, a guarantee of
the status of works councils, a commitment to the socialisation of basic
industries, economic democracy, the federal financial administration, the
exclusive legislature jurisdiction of the federation on income, corporation
and property taxes, and its concurrent jurisdiction over all other taxes.
26
Besides numerous other interest groups, such as the Zentralverband der
Fliegergeschädigten representing the interests of air raid victims and arguing
for a moderate and acceptable economic and financial reorganisation,
27
however, there were also many petitions and proposals on the part of the
populace. Borne out of either the ambition to contribute to the success of
an economic and monetary reform or out of mere frustration or even
both, many an individual appealed to the economic parliament in
Frankfurt.
28
That such public attempts were heard – though how well considered is
difficult to establish – is exemplified in a response to a petition and an
accompanying memorandum by the merchant Hellmut Sommer in which
he requested to avoid imposition of policies without public referendum,
but argued for the involvement of the populace in the upcoming currency
reorganisation in order to gain credibility and confidence in the new
currency. Here, the ‘man in the street’ demanded democratic rights and
29
the voice of the people to be heard. These lines embody the will and
hopes of an individual to contribute to political decision-making. The
impact of this attempt to influence political decision takers is documented
in an internal statement by the AG CDU/CSU: ‘The [...] memorandum by
Mr Hellmut Sommer on the upcoming currency reform is the intelligent
and elaborate work of a German [...] merchant. [...] It was undoubtedly
interesting to get more precise proposals [...] by Mr Sommer’. The
30
CDU/CSU even considered applying the proposal to the preparation of
the financial reform, about which the general public had already begun
31
to speculate.
With rumours that the old money was shortly to go, there was frenzied
buying to get rid of potentially worthless currency. The pubs were filled
with people drinking away their reserves. By May prices had fallen but
were on rising again shortly afterwards as the new money did not come.