Page 40 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

CONCEPTION AND COMMUNICATION 13

states, as well as the later Federal Republic as a whole, introduced electoral
systems constituting compromises between majority vote and
proportional representation; the four remaining states and West Berlin
adopted the latter. The idea of these mixed electoral systems, which
23
aimed to combine the advantages inherent both in the majority vote
system and proportional representation, was to elect a certain percentage
of delegates directly by simple majority, and to take the votes cast for the
defeated parties, which would otherwise be lost, and combine them on a
higher level where they were used to allot the remaining seats to the
representative party tickets.
Although for many it seemed too early in the occupation for the voters
to have developed a real political interest which would draw them to the
polls, the first elections were called in Gemeinden (villages) with fewer than
20,000 inhabitants in Hesse on 20 and 27 January, and in Bavaria and
Wuerttemberg-Baden on 27 January 1946. The elections for Landkreise
24
(county councils) and councils in larger towns were held in April and the
elections for Stadtkreise (city councils) took place in May. In June,
25
elections were held for constituent assemblies and by December of that
year, the first Land constitutions were proclaimed in Bavaria and Hesse.
The first Landtag elections (state legislature elections) were held in
Wuerttemberg-Baden on 24 November and in Bavaria and Hesse on 1
December. As elections progressed, the Länderrat became increasingly
conscious of its lack of a popular base and thus asked for permission to
add an Advisory Parliamentary Council in September 1946. This advisory
panel, which was not approved until after the state elections, was
composed of 24 representatives from the elected state parliaments. Thus it
indirectly provided some measure of popular support for the work of the
Länderrat. The powers of the various state governments and legislatures
were still circumscribed, but the political evolution of the American
sovereign territory clearly showed the importance placed on government
by both constitution and legitimation by popular sovereignty.
Both the British and the French authorities had different priorities. In
contrast to the American, the British Military Government was slow to
recruit German politicians into their policy-making apparatuses, such as
26
the Zonenbeirat der Britischen Zone (Advisory Council of the British Zone), or
to proceed with elections. Municipal elections in the British occupation
zone were not held until September and October 1946; Landtag elections
took place even later in April 1947. Furthermore, unlike the American
federal approach, the British treated their whole zone as an administrative
unit and also favoured a central government for Germany. To this end,
they set up a Central Economic Office in October 1946. Quite in contrast
to the British conception of a centralised German administration, the