Page 43 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

16 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

Oberdirektor, and, finally, the doubling of the delegates in the Economic
Council, something which did not affect the proportion of political parties
in this second economic parliament. While the Economic Council was a
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decisive platform for the political debate and factual implementation of
any emerging economic concept, the parliament’s resolutions and acts
remained subject to the authorisation by the Allied Zwei-Zonen-Amt
(Bipartite Board) in Berlin and were controlled by the so-called
‘Zweizonenkontrollamt’ (Bipartite Control Office) (BICO) in Frankfurt.
Foreign trade and monetary transactions were carried out by the Allied
Joint Export-Import Agency (JEIA). Due to the fact that the Economic
Council was restricted in its legislative scope and also not a representative
assembly elected by the plebiscite, the bizonal institution was often ill-
regarded as quasi-parliament. Thus the formation of the Economic
Council did not meet with public enthusiasm, and people did not feel
themselves to be stepping into a new era. Nevertheless, this first German
parliament after World War II was a central prerequisite for Germany’s
political and economic reconstruction and marked an important step
towards German political and economic self-determination. Henceforth,
German political parties were given the opportunity actively to conduct an
economic policy and to affect the definition of an emerging economic
model for post-war West Germany.
Due to the focus of this study on the communication of politics, it is
essential to examine what options the interest groups and licensed political
parties had in addressing the public and in disseminating their ideas and
programmes in times of elections. Next to public speeches and those
transmitted by radio, party publications, i.e. papers that are either owned
by political parties, or are organisationally bound to or ideationally
attached to them, and newspapers were seen as a very effective way in

addressing the citizenry. In this process of political communication
between political elites and the public, the media played indeed a key role
because the content of most politically relevant information, as well as of
conversations about politics, is generally dependent on information
obtained from the media. As Walter Lippmann observed, most citizens do
not experience the world of public affairs firsthand and instead are
inherently dependent on the media for the ‘pictures in our heads of the
world outside’. Further, media coverage of politics often stimulates
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informal discussions that might otherwise not take place. In these ways,
the political information flow dynamic may be characterised as a process
by which information from the media reaches the public both directly and
through the filter of interpersonal discussion – often stimulated by so-
called ‘opinion leaders’. However, whereas the media serve merely to
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reinforce preexisting opinions, it is rather the interpersonal context, which