The Alternative Liste Westberlin and the Evolution of the West German Left

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-54
Author(s):  
Keith Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
The Social ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
Integrative Effect

In October 1978, diverse members of the West Berlin Left founded the Alternative Liste für Demokratie und Umweltschutz (Alternative Ballot for Democracy and Environmental Protection, AL). This article examines the origins and evolution of the AL. Initially, the new political organization fundamentally opposed the parliamentary system. Within three years, however, the AL won a significant presence in the West Berlin Parliament, and in 1989, the party joined the Social Democrats in governing West Berlin. The AL’s parliamentary participation had a moderating, integrative effect on the party and its members. From the late 1970s through the end of the 1980s, a significant segment of the radical West German Left grew to accept parliamentary democracy, demonstrating the strength of the Federal Republic.

“Smash the Fascists…” German Communist Efforts to Counter the Nazis, 1930–31

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Weimar Republic ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Political Tactics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Working People ◽  
Civil Disorder ◽  
East German ◽  
The Right

For most historians in the West, the German Communist Party (KPD) belongs among the gravediggers of the Weimar Republic. Other culprits certainly abounded; still, the Communists are held to have made a major contribution to the fall of Weimar by preaching violence, promoting civil disorder and economic disruption, and deliberately trying to weaken the republic's chief supporters, the Social Democrats (SPD). With such policies, Western scholars have charged, the Communists in effect collaborated with the Nazis and their allies on the right to bring about the destruction of Germany's first parliamentary democracy. Furthermore, with a leadership corps that had been “Bolshevized,” then “Stalinized,” and that took all its orders from Moscow, the KPD by the final years of Weimar was incapable of modifying its policies, even when their disastrous consequences were plain for all to see. As might be expected, East German historians present a very different picture, arguing that the KPD was the sole Weimar party to have defended working-class interests, resisted militarism and imperialism, and fought to prevent the establishment of fascist rule. Since the Weimar Republic, in the Marxist view, was a class state operating to oppress German working people, there was little about it worth fighting for. While conceding that workers suffered even more under the Nazi dictatorship, East German writers deny that the KPD carries any responsibility for Hitler's triumph. On the contrary, they contend, the Communists alone recognized what National Socialism represented and sought to devise the political tactics that would block a Nazi takeover.

The ambiguous coalition in West Germany

1968 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Lehmbruch
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Central Government ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Parliamentary Government ◽  
The Social ◽  
Große Koalition ◽  
First Time

ON I DECEMBER 1966 THE BUNDESTAG ELECTED THE CHRISTIAN democrat leader Kurt Georg Kiesinger as head of a government formed by Christian democrats (CDU) and social democrats (SPD), by a majority of 340 (out of 496) members. The liberals (FDP), with 49 members, were pushed aside into opposition. For the first time since 1930 the social democrats entered a German central government, not as the result of an electoral victory but at the conclusion of an inner Crisis within the hitherto existing majority. The CDU whose prestige was badly damaged by this crisis continued to provide the chancellor. This helps to explain why some 60 members of the coalescing parties voted against the candidate. Public opinion oscillated between feelings of relief because of the end of a period of insecurity, and feelings of discomfort in view of an experiment which seemed unorthodox and hazardous. The disputes around the grosse Koalition (great coalition) thus revealed the ambiguity of conceptions of parliamentary government as they had developed since the establishment of the Federal Republic.

The Education of Western Europeans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Benezra Strote
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Young People ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter focuses on the Social Democrats and the compromises on values they felt forced to make—particularly the abandonment of their previous platforms of pacifism and internationalism—in order to resonate with West German voters in the climate of the Cold War. In the years after 1953, as the Western Allies turned over sovereign decision-making power over foreign relations to the Federal Republic's government, Germans showed signs of coming to agreement on precisely the issue of values and “ideals” for the German youth that had caused such crisis during Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The common ideal that bound them together was twofold: the value of “Europe” and the foreign policy of “binding to the West.” In the years leading up to 1953, Germans from across the Federal Republic's political spectrum participated in the creation of educational institutions designed to shape a generation of young people capable of overcoming centuries of conflict in a common “European” identity.

Minority Governments in Sweden

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-413
Author(s):  
Florence E. Janson
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
Single Group ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Lower House ◽  
The Social ◽  
Official Organ ◽  
Parliamentary Reform

The outstanding aspect of the Swedish parliamentary system in recent years has been a series of minority governments. Six ministries since 1920 have been able to muster only a minority support in the Riksdag. This inability of any party to obtain a majority may be attributed in part to the fact that six parties, four major and two minor, are represented. A brief review of party history may assist in understanding the present situation.The parliamentary reform of 1866 which abolished the four estates of the old Riksdag and established a two-chamber parliament substituted parties for classes. The organization of the two houses resulted in Conservative control of the first chamber and Agrarian (Lantmannapartiets) domination of the second. The practice of voting jointly on bills rejected by one house saved the situation from becoming a deadlock. In 1888 the issue of protection temporarily split the Agrarian party, but it reunited in 1895 on a moderate protectionist platform. This party represented the rural communities of the kingdom and was by nature conservative. As the cities grew in population, a party more representative of the middle class in the urban communities, the Liberals, gained strength. In 1903 the Liberals captured 102 seats in the second chamber; and, in opposition to the Conservatives, they organized their first ministry under Staaff in 1905. The increasing industrialization of Sweden resulted in the emergence of a fourth party, the Social Democrats, composed largely of the laboring classes. Hjalmar Branting, editor of the party's official organ, Socialdemokraten, was elected to the Riksdag in 1896; but for a number of years the Social Democrats controlled only a few seats. The franchise reforms of 1911 and 1921 resulted in great accessions of strength, and since 1919 this party has been the strongest single group in both houses. It now lacks only twelve of having a majority in the lower house, thirty-five of having a majority in both houses. Its adherents hope to close this gap at the elections of next autumn.

scholarly journals The Berlin Wall after Fifty Years: Introduction

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hope M. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
East Germany ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
The West ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
East And West ◽  
East West

Fifty years ago on 13 August 1961, the East Germans sealed the east-westborder in Berlin, beginning to build what would become known as theBerlin Wall. Located 110 miles/177 kilometers from the border with WestGermany and deep inside of East Germany, West Berlin had remained the“last loophole” for East Germans to escape from the communist GermanDemocratic Republic (GDR) to the western Federal Republic of Germany(FRG, West Germany). West Berlin was an island of capitalism and democracywithin the GDR, and it enticed increasing numbers of dissatisfied EastGermans to flee to the West. This was particularly the case after the borderbetween the GDR and FRG was closed in 1952, leaving Berlin as the onlyplace in Germany where people could move freely between east and west.By the summer of 1961, over 1,000 East Germans were fleeing westwardsevery day, threatening to bring down the GDR. To put a stop to this, EastGermany’s leaders, with backing from their Soviet ally, slammed shut this“escape hatch.”

The Rise of the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin

2021 ◽  
pp. 349-374
Author(s):  
Tina Frühauf
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
The West ◽  
Jewish Music ◽  
The Social ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
Small Pool ◽  
Cultural Mobility

The 1953 separation of the Jewish community of Berlin had no immediate consequences for the West Berlin cohort. The divorce neither impacted religious pluralism nor cultural diversity, and communal affairs continued with nearly no breaks. For the next decades, West Berlin would host the only Jewish community on German soil in which different denominations had their own spaces organized under one umbrella. What united them was a small pool of cantors that rotated (though the cantorial office faced challenges as well). The social and cultural life of the West Berlin community revolved around the community center at Fasanenstraße and the adult education center. Interfaith collaborations are noteworthy as vital site of cultural mobility in which Jewish music and its others was transferred, exchanged, or shared between various audiences and performers, Jewish or otherwise.

The West German Electoral Law of 1953

1955 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Election Law ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
The Social ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Electoral Law ◽  
New System

In the spring of 1953, with the approach of the regular parliamentary elections, the West German Bundestag began its deliberations on a new electoral law. The original law of 1949 had been enacted for the sole purpose of electing the first Parliament under the new Bonn Constitution. It was therefore necessary for the expiring Parliament to re-enact the old law, to modify it, or to supersede it with an entirely new system.It soon became apparent that there were wide differences of opinion among the various parties represented in the Bundestag. The Chancellor's party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), presented proposals to establish a single member district system, eliminating proportional representation. The Social Democrats (SPD) presented a draft which largely re-enacted the 1949 law. The official government proposal, which was something of a compromise, leaned very heavily in the direction of the so-called Mehrheitswahl but also had provisions permitting a combination of party lists and additional votes (Hilfsstimmen). It bore some similarity to the law which de Gasperi had pushed through the Italian Parliament shortly before this time, but without the same justification. The various proposals were discussed on first reading on March 5, 1953, and again on March 18. After the report by the Election Law Committee, amended proposals were again discussed on second and third reading on June 17 and 19 and passed on third reading June 25.

Nazistowski mord na Żydach w prasie polskich komunistów (1942–1944).

2006 ◽  
pp. 54-75
Author(s):  
Klaus Peter Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
Polish Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Right

Facing the decisive struggle between Nazism and Soviet communism for dominance in Europe, in 1942/43 Polish communists sojourning in the USSR espoused anti-German concepts of the political right. Their aim was an ethnic Polish ‘national communism’. Meanwhile, the Polish Workers’ Party in the occupied country advocated a maximum intensification of civilian resistance and partisan struggle. In this context, commentaries on the Nazi judeocide were an important element in their endeavors to influence the prevailing mood in the country: The underground communist press often pointed to the fate of the murdered Jews as a warning in order to make it clear to the Polish population where a deficient lack of resistance could lead. However, an agreed, unconditional Polish and Jewish armed resistance did not come about. At the same time, the communist press constantly expanded its demagogic confrontation with Polish “reactionaries” and accused them of shared responsibility for the Nazi murder of the Jews, while the Polish government (in London) was attacked for its failure. This antagonism was intensified in the fierce dispute between the Polish and Soviet governments after the rift which followed revelations about the Katyn massacre. Now the communist propaganda image of the enemy came to the fore in respect to the government and its representatives in occupied Poland. It viewed the government-in-exile as being allied with the “reactionaries,” indifferent to the murder of the Jews, and thus acting ultimately on behalf of Nazi German policy. The communists denounced the real and supposed antisemitism of their adversaries more and more bluntly. In view of their political isolation, they coupled them together, in an undifferentiated manner, extending from the right-wing radical ONR to the social democrats and the other parties represented in the underground parliament loyal to the London based Polish government. Thereby communist propaganda tried to discredit their opponents and to justify the need for a new start in a post-war Poland whose fate should be shaped by the revolutionary left. They were thus paving the way for the ultimate communist takeover

Party preferences and political participation: the emergence of the Turkish-origin German voter

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40
Author(s):  
Vera Eccarius-Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Green Party ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Turkish Origin ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Specific Interests

The article examines trends in voting preferences and voting behavior of Turkish-origin German voters. Despite only representing a small percentage of the total German electorate, Turkish-origin voters are gaining an opportunity to shape the future political landscape. While the Social Democrats have benefited most directly from the minority constituency so far, this author suggests that the Green Party is poised to attract the younger, better educated, and German-born segment of the Turkish-origin voters. All other dominant national parties have ignored this emerging voting bloc, and missed opportunities to appeal to Turkish-origin voters by disregarding community-specific interests. 

Our Most Troubling Madness

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Defeat ◽  
Social World ◽  
Epidemiological Evidence ◽  
The West ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Brain Alteration ◽  
Benign Course ◽  
Cultural Features ◽  
The Way

This book examines the way schizophrenia is shaped by its social context: how life is lived with this madness in different settings, and what it is about those settings that alters the course of the illness, its outcome, and even the structure of its symptoms. Until recently, schizophrenia was perhaps our best example—our poster child—for the “bio-bio-bio” model of psychiatric illness: genetic cause, brain alteration, pharmacologic treatment. We now have direct epidemiological evidence that people are more likely to fall ill with schizophrenia in some social settings than in others, and more likely to recover in some social settings than in others. Something about the social world gets under the skin. This book presents twelve case studies written by psychiatric anthropologists that help to illustrate some of the variability in the social experience of schizophrenia and that illustrate the main hypotheses about the different experience of schizophrenia in the west and outside the west--and in particular, why schizophrenia seems to have a more benign course and outcome in India. We argue that above all it is the experience of “social defeat” that increases the risk and burden of schizophrenia, and that opportunities for social defeat are more abundant in the modern west. There is a new role for anthropology in the science of schizophrenia. Psychiatric science has learned—epidemiologically, empirically, quantitatively—that our social world makes a difference. But the highly structured, specific-variable analytic methods of standard psychiatric science cannot tell us what it is about culture that has that impact. The careful observation enabled by rich ethnography allows us to see in more detail what kinds of social and cultural features may make a difference to a life lived with schizophrenia. And if we understand culture’s impact more deeply, we believe that we may improve the way we reach out to help those who struggle with our most troubling madness.

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