Cold War and Codetermination

Abstract

With the rise of the Cold War, and the outbreak of the Korean War, the Western Allies offered the young Federal Republic membership in a European Coal and Steel Community and a Western defense alliance. In so doing, they sparked an intense foreign-policy debate in the Federal Republic that cut across the political fronts in the struggle over worker participation in company decision making (codetermination). As a national profile analysis shows, the Westpolitik debate jeopardized the social bases of the Adenauer government, while freeing the way for alternative political alliances.