Abstract
The Revolution of 1848 marked the emergence of Germany’s first political parties. This event originally seemed to establish a simple two-party arrangement with the emergence of a liberal opposition from the bourgeoisie to challenge the conservative ruling social groups. However, controversy in the late 1860’s over the mode of unification led to a splintering of the liberal opposition, with the National Liberals becoming the advocates of monarchism, militarism and a strong national policy and the Progressive Liberals emerging as the real carriers of the German liberal tradition. Under the Empire, the political horizons soon broadened with the emergence of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and a specifically Catholic party, the German Center Party (DZP). These five parties represented the leading political forces in pre-World War I Germany. They were joined by a large number of small ethnic, regional, anti-Semitic, nationalist, and radical parties. The multiplicity of parties during this period is illustrated by the fact that as early as 1896 the German parliament (Reichstag) contained fifteen parties, no one of them with as much as one quarter of the seats.
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References
Lewis Edinger, Kurt Schumacher: A Study in Personality and Political Behavior (Stanford: University Press, 1965), p. 122.
The bolting group, called the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), was dissolved in 1920, with its right wing returning to the SPD and its left wing joining the newly formed Communist Party (KPD).
Charles Frye, “The Third Reich and the Second Republic: National Socialism’s Impact Upon German Democracy,” Western Political Quarterly, XXI (December, 1968), pp. 668–80. See also David Schoenbaum, Hitler’s Social Revolution (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967); and Rolf Dahrendorf, Society and Democracy in Germany (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967), pp. 381–96.
Charles Frye, “Parties and Pressure Groups in Weimar and Bonn,” World Politics, XVII (July, 1965), p. 654.
In Bavaria, the local party organization adopted a slightly different designation-the Christian Social Union (CSU). In 1950, when the local associations merged at the national level, the Bavarian affiliate, reflecting that state’s traditional separatism in politics, refused to give up its separate identity. Thus, formally, the party is designated as the CDU/CSU, although informally it is referred to as the CDU. For brevity’s sake, the CDU and CSU will be referred to in this paper as the CDU. For a discussion of the relationship between the CDU and CSU, see Gerhard Loewenberg, Parliament in the German Political System (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966), pp. 159–61.
During the early years of the Occupation, this party was known by several names: FDP in the British zone and Bavaria; the Democratic People’s Party (DVP) in the French zone and Wuerttemberg-Baden; the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Berlin and Hesse; and the Bremen Democratic People’s Party (BDV) in Bremen.
As will become evident, the concentration of electoral strength among the CDU, SPD and FDP (the KPD was banned in 1956) has persisted throughout the life of the Federal Republic. Undoubtedly, the initial policies of the Allies which enabled these three parties to mobilize the electorate and gain an early advantage contributed significantly to their success. Gerhard Loewenberg provides an excellent discussion of the many ways in which the Allied policies worked to the advantage of these three parties, and he convincingly demonstrates that these policies played a role in the stabilization of the West German party system. See “The Remaking of the German Party System: Political and Socio-economic Factors,” Polity, I (Fall, 1968), pp. 88–113.
For a summary and discussion of the election statistics in each zone, see Giraja K. Mookerjee, “A Study of German Political Parties — II,” India Quarterly (July-September, 1953), pp. 255–57.
For the dates of these elections in the various Laender, see Appendix I.
The overall average vote of each party was as follows: CDU — 34.8 per cent; SPD — 37.5 per cent; FDP — 12.3 per cent; and KPD — 8.7 per cent. For a break-down and a discussion of these initial state elections, see Erwin Faul (ed.), Wahlen und Waehler in Westdeutschland (Villingen: Ring Verlag, 1960), pp. 324–63.
For the actual composition of the Parliamentary Council, see Peter H. Merkl, The Origins of the West German Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 59.
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (amended as of November 15, 1968; New York: German Information Center), p. 11.
Uwe Kitzinger, German Electoral Politics: A Study of the 1957 Campaign (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), p. 18.
The results of all Bundestag elections can be found in Appendix II.
Since the smaller parties will be discussed in detail in Chapters IV and V, they will not be discussed in this section.
See Daniel McHargue, “The Voting Machinery,” in German Democracy at Work, ed. by James K. Pollock (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1955), pp. 103–116.
Little actual data will be presented in this study on the “economic miracle” and the quick acceptance of West Germany as a full partner into the Western Alliance since these developments have been extensively documented elsewhere. Yet it should be noted that both events were important in the stabilization of the party system. The emergence of an affluent society, characterized not only by generally high living standards, but also by a waning of class, status, and doctrinal cleavages undermined the support of many of the small parties. The division of Germany and the Federal Republic’s rapid integration into the Western bloc had a similar effect on minor-party support because it almost totally eliminated, at least during the 1950’s, foreign policy as an important campaign issue. Because of Communist intransigence, it appeared to most voters that no realistic foreign policy alternatives existed. For a discussion of foreign policy and the depoliticalization of the political parties, see Otto Kirchheimer, “Germany: The Vanishing Opposition,” in Political Opposition in Western Democracies, ed. by Robert Dahl (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), pp. 247–50.
Arnold Heidenheimer, The Governments of Germany (3rd ed.; New York: Thomas Crowell, 1971), p. 82.
Kitzinger, p. 19. For the English translation of the law, see Louise W. Holborn, G. M. Carter and John Herz (eds.), German Constitutional Documents Since 1871 (New York: Praeger, 1970), pp. 78–81.
The electoral law for the 1961 election was unchanged in its essential features from that adopted in 1956.
For the English translation of the Bad Godesberg Basic Program, see Holborn, Carter and Herz, pp. 54–61.
The SPD increased its percentage of the vote in all Land elections between 1961–1965. See Lowell W. Culver, “Land Elections in West German Politics,” Western Political Quarterly, XIX (June, 1966), pp. 319–20.
For a discussion of the coalition negotiations and why the FDP was unsuccessful, see Peter H. Merkl, “Equilibrium, Structure of Interests, and Leadership: Adenauer’s Survival as Chancellor,” American Political Science Review, LVI (September, 1962), 634–50.
In their analysis of the vote, Michael Steed and Nermin Abaden point out that most of the difference between the FDP’s vote in 1961 and 1965 reflected factors temporarily present at the 1961 election; in other words, most of the 1961 gains by the FDP reflected a vote for the retirement of Adenauer. See “Four Elections in 1965,” Government and Opposition, I (May, 1966), p. 313.
Ibid., pp. 315–18.
George Romoser and Charles Foster, “Safety First: The West German Election,” Parliamentary Affairs, XIX (Winter, 1965–66), p. 32.
Lewis J. Edinger, “Political Change in Germany: The Federal Republic After the 1969 Election,” Comparative Politics, II (July, 1970), p. 562.
For a discussion of this change and its results, see R. E. M. Irving, “The German Liberals: Changing Image of the Free Democratic Party,” Parliamentary Affairs, XXIII (Winter, 1969–70), pp. 46–54; and Werner Kaltefleiter, “The Impact of the Election of 1969 and the Formation of the New Government on the German Party System,” Comparative Politics, II (July, 1970), pp. 600–03.
Hans D. Klingemann and Franz U. Pappi, “The 1969 Bundestag Election in the Federal Republic: An Analysis of Voting Behavior,” Comparative Politics, II (July, 1970), pp. 523–30.
These seven are Baden-Wuerttemberg (9.8%), Bavaria (7.4%), Bremen (8.8%), Hesse (7.9%), Lower Saxony (7.0%), Rhineland-Palatinate (6.9%), and Schleswig-Holstein (5.8%). The success of the NPD in these Laender will be examined in Chapter V.
The only minor party to have representation in a Landtag in 1974 is the South Schleswig Voters’ League (SSW), the Danish minority party in Schleswig-Holstein. This is due to a special electoral provision which exempts the SSW from having to win 5 per cent of the vote in order to qualify for Landtag representation. The SSW won only 1.3 per cent of the vote and one seat in the 1971 Schleswig-Holstein election.
Culver, p. 319. See also Geoffrey Pridham, “A ‘Nationalization’ Process? Federal Politics and State Elections in West Germany,” Government and Opposition, VIII (Autumn, 1973), pp. 455–72.
The convergence of the parties’ aims and methods should not be mistaken for the “end of ideology” in the Federal Republic. As Peter G. J. Pulzer points out, “the urban-based egalitarian reformism of the SPD and FDP and the rural-provincial hierarchic traditionalism of the CDU represent recognizable and distinctive syndromes of attitude and style.” Ideology is lacking primarily in the sense that electors are asked to vote “in the light of the parties’ probable governmental performance in the foreseeable future, rather than in the light of an eternally valid Weltanschauung” See “The German Party System in the 60’s,” Political Studies, XIX (March, 1971), p. 17.
Morris Janowitz, “Social Stratification and Mobility in West Germany,” American Journal of Sociology, LXIV (July, 1958), p. 24. See also Klingemann and Pappi, pp. 533–36.
Lewis Edinger, Germany (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1968), p. 286.
These differences will be examined in more detail in Chapter VI.
Because of this situation and also because of the limited growth potential of the FDP, the West German party system has been called a “two and a half” or a “two and a quarter” party system. See for example, Jean Blondel, “Party Systems and Patterns of Government in Western Democracies,” Canadian Journal of Political Science, I (June, 1968), p. 183; Irving, pp. 46–47; and Gerad Braunthal, “The Free Democratic Party in West German Politics,” Western Political Quarterly, XIII (June, 1960), p. 332.
There exist studies in which theoretical frameworks designed to examine the American party situation have been applied to the West German situation. Forest L. Grieves, for example, takes a “two-dimensional scheme” (designed by Joseph Schlesinger some years ago to measure the level of inter-party competition in America) and uses it to study inter-party competition in West Germany. Schlesinger’s scheme was designed primarily for a two-party system, but Grieves did not find this to be a major problem. The German case is quite manageable, says Grieves, because the West German party system, especially since the 1953 election, has been dominated by two parties — the CDU and SPD. See “Inter-party Competition in the Federal Republic of Germany: 1945–1965. A Methodological Inquiry,” Western Political Quarterly, XX (December, 1967), pp. 810–11.
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© 1974 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague. Netherlands
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Fisher, S.L. (1974). The Evolution of the German Party System. In: The Minor Parties of the Federal Republic of Germany. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2079-4_3
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