Page 99 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy
P. 99

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.
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