Page 96 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY 69

social democratic economic policy did not cease. Although the party
brochure for the election to the first Bundestag expressed a universal
commitment to a socialist planned economy, it could not conceal the
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general dissension among the Social Democrats. This party inconsistency
and programmatic deficiency which was due mainly to Kurt Schumacher,
who never put emphasis on the development of a specific theoretical
programme of economic policy but considered a pragmatic socialism as
expedient and essential, was possibly detrimental to the reputation of the
SPD and its success at elections. At the same time, the democrat and
former political editor of the social democratic daily Schwäbische Tagwacht in
Stuttgart recognised both the importance of integrating the public in the
political course of action and of the risk of deficient or inconsistent public
relations. Finally, not only the academic schools but also any political party
required the public in the formation and implementation of a democratic
economic model. Thus it is important to examine which social democratic
economic concepts were communicated to the general public and how
this was achieved.
Immediately after the end of World War II, Kurt Schumacher, fought
for the reconstruction of the SPD and a socialist democracy in Germany.
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In doing so, however, he mainly addressed a political audience, i.e. the
occupying forces, the political opposition or his own party. Rarely did his
campaign for an Economic Democracy and economic planning move
beyond the political sphere and the party media, such as the
Sozialdemokratischer Pressedienst (spd), Der Sozialdemokrat, Volks-Wirtschaft, the
Feuilleton, or the Neuer Vorwärts. Although the SPD press service, the
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Sozialdemokratischer Pressedienst, supplied numerous independent newspapers
with articles, social democratic economic conceptions were rather
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publicised by other Social Democrats, such as Otto Schäfer, Viktor
Agartz, Friedrich Stampfer, Alfons Montag, Paulus Skopp, Ulrich Grothe-
Mißmahl, Rudolf Zorn, Gerhard Weisser, Herbert Kriedemann or the
Secretary of the Trade Union for Banking and Insurances, Paul
Kronberger. Furthermore, an analysis of newspapers and publications of
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that time revealed that neither the social democratic economic
conceptions nor their communication to the public via newspapers were
coordinated.
However, the upcoming elections – in 1946, communal and local
elections took place in all Länder of the western occupation zones;
additionally, Landtag elections indicating the relative strength of the
various political parties on a national level were scheduled in Bavaria,
Hesse and Wuerttemberg-Baden – required both a coordinated public
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appearance and a coherent concept. Whereas all members of the SPD
were linked by the advocacy of Christian-humanistic values due to the past