Page 166 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

1949 – CONTENTMENT AND CONFIDENCE 139

reflecting those considering their personal situation worse than before
June 1948 were: 30.3 per cent, 17.5 per cent, 24.9 per cent and 4.8 per
cent. By July 1949, 48 per cent in the American occupation zone (57 per
4
cent in West Berlin, and 61 per cent in Bremen) felt that their economic
situation was better than it had been just a year earlier. Those who felt
they were worse off (17 per cent in the American zone and West Berlin,
14 per cent in Bremen) did not form any cohesive or well-defined group.
5
These survey results reflected the improving economic conditions in
spring 1949 and revealed a public sentiment which could be characterised
by relative material contentment and confidence.
Despite its evidently successful economic and financial policy, the
Economic Council remained relatively unpopular mainly due to tenacious
unemployment and widely felt social disparities. To many employees and
6
employers, the Social Market Economy was of doubtful success and
anything but social, since Erhard’s promises seemed to becoming true
only for a minority; an impression which was also not altered by an image
7
campaign initiated mainly by the Economic Council and the CDU. The
8
unpopularity of the Economic Council and the lack of confidence in
government and political parties, however, were also due to a perceived
9
lack of transparency in political decision-taking and a low policy
responsiveness to public concerns. Then again indeed, the public’s
10
receptiveness to political arguments was low in the immediate post-war
years and politics seemed far detached from everyday life; daily concerns,
11
such as housing (22.9 per cent), missing family members (21.34 per cent)
and unemployment (13.2 per cent), took clear priority over tax reform (7.3
per cent) and land reform (2.5 per cent). Even the issue of socialisation,
hotly debated in the Economic Council, was of minor importance to the
general public; foreign and cultural affairs were not mentioned at all.
12
Nonetheless, the populace felt widely mis- or even wholly uninformed by
their government. For instance, only 40 per cent of the respondents in the
American occupation zone knew that German authorities had adopted the
so-called ‘Lastenausgleichsgesetz’ for the equalisation of war losses and
burdens among the people. Large numbers of Germans were not even
aware that a Basic Law had been framed for a West German Federal
Republic. In western Germany, only 18 per cent of those who did know
that it had been enacted knew something about it.
13
Hence the majority of the Germans showed a low level of interest in
14
politics and at least initially wished to keep themselves to themselves.
For instance, while the DGB continued to protest for higher wages, the
rights of labour, a federal financial administration, and the exclusively
federal jurisdiction on economic and social policy, fewer and fewer
15
German cherished hopes for improvements by public protests. In fact, the