Political Developments

IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC, the 1950s form the core of what is frequently referred to as the Adenauer Era. Having become Federal Chancellor at the age of 73, Konrad Adenauer remained in office for fourteen years, a record only surpassed in the 1980s and 1990s by his self-styled protégé Helmut Kohl. It was a time of unsurpassed electoral success for Adenauer's party, the CDU, and its Bavarian sister party the CSU, most especially in the federal elections of 1957, when for the only time in the history of the Federal Republic, a party (or, to be exact, two allied parties) managed to achieve an absolute majority of votes cast.

The major reason for this success was undoubtedly the economic miracle — the rapid recovery of the economy of the Federal Republic from wartime devastation and postwar uncertainties. The 1950s also saw the establishment of those features with which the post-1945 German economy has been most frequently identified: the independence of the Bundesbank (Central Bank), a degree of co-determination at both plant and company level (though this fell far short of trade union aspirations, outside of key mining and steel industries), along with generous social welfare provisions, not least for pensioners.

Although these developments undoubtedly improved the material conditions of the vast majority of the population and facilitated the integration of the Heimatvertriebene (Germans expelled from former German territories in the east) and those who had chosen to leave the German Democratic Republic, they did provoke critical comment.