Page 99 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy
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72 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY
other research, the purpose here is to analyse the public stance of the
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Volkspartei and the communication of its conception of economic policy.
After the Administration for Economics under the direction of
Johannes Semler started operation at the end of July 1947, the power
struggle and conflict of competence between the two major political
parties continued in parliamentary committees and in public, and, for the
time being, the bizonal administration did not reach a modus vivendi to
confront the then prevalent economic difficulties. In anticipating negative
headlines and public hostility, the members of the Social Democrat
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parliamentary group in the Economic Council recalled that they had
committed themselves to constructive opposition and so collaborated in
the legislation for the reorganisation of economic planning and rationing.
Already in August of that year, the Bizonal Executive Committee
dominated by a Social Democratic majority called on the Administration
for Economics to complete the drafting of new regulations on rationing.
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Thereupon, the administrative agency submitted the draft for the
Warenverkehrsgesetz (Draft Law for the Movement of Goods in the Bizone)
to the Economic Council on 28 August 1947. This document revealed the
conceptual differences regarding the future economic order: whereas the
CDU and the CSU were interested in limiting the law as an emergency law
to be restricted to essential goods and valid only until 31 December 1949,
the SPD aimed to broaden the scope and attached importance to the
wording ‘planning and control’ in the text of the law in order to form the
foundation for an enduring economic policy aligned with planning and
control. Eventually, however, after heated debates in the quasi-
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parliament, the law was not only renamed Gesetz über Notmassnahmen auf
dem Gebiet der Wirtschaft, der Ernährung und des Verkehrs or simply
Bewirtschaftungsnotgesetz (Rationing Emergency Law) but was also passed by
a close vote on the back of CDU/CSU and FDP support (24 votes to 18)
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in the Economic Council on 30 October 1947. Having refused to
endorse the overall law because of an explicit or demonstrative opposition,
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the Social Democrats thereupon approved the executive orders, which
determined the actual application and interpretation of the law by the
Administration of Economics, on the basis of their commitment to
constructive opposition and their opinion that government control of the
economy was inevitable at the time.
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In order to emphasise the polar dichotomy between the Social
Democrats and the more capitalist-oriented parties in the public debate,
several party members, such as Emil Groß and Friedrich Caspary, both
cautioned against underestimations of the conservative parties’ potential
with regard to elections, and urged the party executive to confront the
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political opponent with a practical and concrete economic programme.