Page 36 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

CONCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION 9

introduced into regional, provincial and Länder or state administration as
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rapidly as might be justified by the successful application of these
principles in local self-government. However, German government at
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national level was to be limited to the establishment of certain essential
central administrative departments particularly in the fields of finance,
transport, communications, foreign trade and industry, headed by State
Secretaries under the immediate supervision of the Allied Control
Council. Although the Allies rejected the dismemberment of Germany
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and considered the four occupation zones as ‘a single economic unit’, the
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Council never succeeded in establishing these agencies for the
administration of Germany as a whole. Hence, decisions had to be
implemented separately and independently in each zone by its military
governor. As the United States, the United Kingdom, and France could
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not agree with the Soviet Union on the form and scope of a government
for all of Germany, and were unwilling to delay further the return of
responsibilities to the German people, the Allied effort to rule Germany
by unanimous agreement of the representatives of the four occupying
powers failed. However, while the Potsdam Agreement provided the
formal basis for the most significant development of the time, i.e. German
self-government, ironically, the disagreement among and intensified
tensions between the Allies acted as a powerful impetus in the formation
of old and new political parties and democratic institutions in post-war
West Germany.
When it came to the acknowledgment and licensing of the newly
(re)founded political parties, however, the approach and procedure in the
various zones of occupation varied notably, and once more it was difficult
for the occupying powers to arrive at rational and consistent policies.
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Whereas the Soviet military authorities permitted and promoted the
foundation of antifascist parties and unions, namely the KPD followed by
the SPD, the CDU, and the Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands
(LDPD), in their zone, which was formed by the Länder Brandenburg,
Mecklenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia plus the Berlin boroughs
of Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow, Weissensee, Friedrichshain,
Lichtenberg, Treptow and Köpenick, as early as June 1945, the occupying
authorities in the French zone were more restrictive, not allowing the
formation of political parties until the end of 1945. On 13 December
1945, a proclamation of the French Military Government granted political
parties in the Länder Baden, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and
Wuertemberg-Hohenzollern, as well as in the boroughs of Wedding and
Reinickendorf in Berlin, the right to register and campaign. In the
following, on 16 December 1945, the Badisch Christlich-Soziale Volkspartei
(BCSV) was formed but not approved until early February 1946; later, in