Page 97 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

70 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

experiences with National Socialism and the present economic situation in
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post-war Germany, there was no specific economic concept
communicated via election posters and pamphlets. The ideological
campaign for the communal and Landtag elections in 1946/47 merely
opposed capitalism as antagonist of democracy and presented the SPD
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as the party for the poor and helpless. In order to overcome the
economic and social misery in these years, the SPD advocated extensive
central planning and the nationalisation of large-scale core industry in line
with the example set by the British Labour Party in the United Kingdom.
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However, on its placards, the party seldom made a statement about a
concrete economic model, for instance the pun with its initials: Socialism,
Planned economy, Democracy.
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Precisely this insufficient and imprecise information about the social
democratic economic conception gave the political opposition an
opportunity to distort facts and terminology. For tactical political
considerations, the opposition reduced the campaign to the polarising
slogan ‘Controlled Economy versus Social Economy’. Thus the SPD was
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repeatedly forced to emphasise that its objective was a short-term planned
economy, not a long-term controlled economy. Kurt Schumacher tried
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to disengage from the dilemma by appealing to the socialists ‘to make
another effort to [...] turn a controlled economy into a planned economy,
[...] because, it is easy for the opposition to appeal to the stupidity of those
who cannot distinguish a prison from a free athletics club.’
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Consequently, the SPD not only resisted the demagogy to equate a
controlled with a planned economy but also attacked the political
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opposition by denouncing capitalism. However, it was difficult for the
Social Democrats to confront the political opponent campaigning with its
economic programme of a so-called ‘Gemeinwirtschaft’ (Social Economy)
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with its own concrete economic programme. Especially in times of
campaign where the complex political programmes were simplified and
popularised, the SPD lacked an effective slogan.
It would appear that the Social Democrats assumed that the majority of
the German people wished for collectivisation of core industries. In
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order to affirm this position and to gain political ground, the SPD tried to
integrate the will of the people by requesting a referendum on the
socialisation debate to be held in conjunction with the Landtag elections in
the British occupation zone on 20 April 1947. Although the SPD was
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confident about the outcome, the unionists within the CDU in North
Rhine-Westphalia headed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Karl Arnold,
dismissed the application and with this the public opinion poll. However,
achieving relatively good results in the Landtag elections, the SPD won
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the post of Prime Minister in five out of eleven Länder parliaments.