Page 98 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY 71

Additionally, the Social Democrats occupied eight ministries of
economics. Hence, the CDU/CSU demanded the post of the Director of
the Administration for Economics in the Economic Council. After an
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increasing political conflict culminating in a crucial and historical
confrontation between the two parliamentary groups regarding the key
position in the administration of the bizonal economic area, the SPD
virtually abandoned its claim for cooperation under social democratic
leadership and decided to form the opposition as Erwin Schoettle declared
on 24 July 1947:

The Social Democrat parliamentary group will not refuse to
cooperate in [the Economic Council]. Yet our cooperation will be of
a different character [...]. It will not have the form of an unrestrained
opposition. It will have the form of a practical, constructive
opposition against measures we consider to be harmful to the
German people.
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This decision can be ascribed to Kurt Schumacher, who considered
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the Economic Council and its Administration for Economics in Frankfurt
to be merely provisional institutions and not decisive political
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instruments in the implementation and communication of economic ideas
and policies. While some Social Democrats, such as Georg Berger, shared
Schumacher’s opinion that it was therefore not important whether Viktor
Agartz or Johannes Semler (CSU) became Director of the Administration
for Economics, the disappointment among many members of the SPD
was noticeable; after all, the Administration for Economics and its
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Director were given both an increasing room for manoeuvre regarding the
implementation of economic policies and, importantly, a media
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apparatus with its own publications facilitating the communication of
these policies. While the German legislature and its administration
remained subject to Allied supervision, several Social Democrats, such as
the economic experts Gerhard Weisser and Rudolf Zorn, realised that
important opportunities existed to develop and implement their own
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economic and socio-political ideas. Nevertheless, when Johannes Semler
assumed his office, Kurt Schumacher merely pledged an intransigent
opposition to capitalist interests in the Economic Council and a
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determined advocacy of the needy in the wider public without further
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contemplating the enhanced political opportunities to implement and
communicate social democratic economic ideas. While the stance of the
SPD and its parliamentary group in the following parliamentary debates
on the formulation and implementation of an economic model for post-
war West Germany has been extensively examined and documented in