MONOGRAPHS IN GERMAN HISTORY VOLUME 18 MONOGRAPHS Selling the Economic Miracle Economic the Selling IN GERMAN HISTORY Selling The Economic Miracle VOLUME 18 Economic Reconstruction and Politics in West Germany, 1949-1957 Mark E. Spicka The origins and nature of the “economic miracle” in Germany in the 1950s continue to attract great interest from historians, economists, and political scientists. Examining election campaign propaganda and various public relations campaigns during this period, the author explores ways that conservative political and economic groups sought to construct and Selling the sell a political meaning of the Social Market Economy and the Economic Miracle, which contributed to conservative electoral success, constructed a Economic new understanding of economics by West German society, and provided legitimacy for the new Federal Republic Germany. In particular, the Miracle author focuses on the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union’s (CDU/CSU) approach to electoral politics, which represented the creation of a more “Americanized” political culture reflected in the Economic Reconstruction borrowing of many techniques in electioneering from the United States, and Politics in West such as public opinion polling and advertising techniques. Germany, 1949-1957 Mark E. Spicka is Associate Professor of History at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 2000 and was a Fulbright Scholar in Germany in 1996/1997. He has published a number of articles that have appeared in German Politics and Society, German Studies Review, and The Historian. Spicka E. Mark Cover Image: “Erhard keeps his promises: Prosperity for all through the social market economy” 1957 Bundestag election poster by Die Waage, Plakatsammlung, BA Koblenz. History/Postwar/German Studies ISBN 1-84545-223-2 Berghahn Books NEW Y ORK . OXF O R D www.berghahnbooks.com 9 7 8 1 8 4 5 4 5 2 2 3 0 Mark E. Spicka This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. Selling the Economic Miracle This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. Monographs in German History Volume 1 Volume 11 Osthandel and Ostpolitik: German Recasting West German Elites: Higher Civil Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe Servants, Business Leaders, and Physicians from Bismarck to Adenauer in Hesse between Nazism and Democracy, Mark Spaulding 1945–1955 Volume 2 Michael R. Hayse A Question of Priorities: Democratic Reform Volume 12 and Economic Recovery in Postwar Germany The Creation of the Modern German Army: Rebecca Boehling General Walther Reinhardt and the Weimar Volume 3 Republic, 1914–1930 From Recovery to Catastrophe: Municipal William Mulligan Stabilization and Political Crisis in Volume 13 Weimar Germany The Crisis of the German Left: The PDS, Ben Lieberman Stalinism and the Global Economy Volume 4 Peter Thompson Nazism in Central Germany: The Volume 14 Brownshirts in ‘Red’ Saxony “Conservative Revolutionaries”: Protestant Christian W. Szejnmann and Catholic Churches in Germany After Volume 5 Radical Political Change in the 1990s Citizens and Aliens: Foreigners and Barbara Thériault the Law in Britain and the German States, Volume 15 1789–1870 Modernizing Bavaria: The Politics of Franz Andreas Fahrmeir Josef Strauss and the CSU, 1949–1969 Volume 6 Mark Milosch Poems in Steel: National Socialism and the Volume 16 Politics of Inventing from Weimar to Bonn Sex, Thugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll. Teenage Rebels Kees Gispen in Cold-War East Germany Volume 7 Mark Fenemore “Aryanisation” in Hamburg Volume 17 Frank Bajohr Demonstrating Reconciliation: State and Volume 8 Society in West German Foreign Policy The Politics of Education: Teachers and toward Israel, 1952–1965 School Reform in Weimar Germany Hannfried von Hindenberg Marjorie Lamberti Volume 18 Volume 9 Selling the Economic Miracle: Economic The Ambivalent Alliance: Konrad Adenauer, Reconstruction and Politics in West the CDU/CSU, and the West, 1949–1966 Germany, 1949–1957 Ronald J. Granieri Mark E. Spicka Volume 10 The Price of Exclusion: Ethnicity, National Identity, and the Decline of German Liberalism, 1898–1933 E. Kurlander This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. SELLING THE ECONOMIC MIRACLE Economic Reconstruction and Politics in West Germany 1949–1957 Mark E. Spicka Berghahn Books New York • Oxford This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. First published in 2007 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2007, 2018 Mark E. Spicka Open access ebook edition published in 2018 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spicka, Mark E. Selling the economic miracle : reconstruction and politics in West Germany, 1949-1957 / Mark E. Spicka. p. cm. -- (Monographs in German history ; . 17) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-84545-223-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Germany (West)--Economic policy--1945-1990. 2. Germany (West)--Economic condi- tions--1945-1990. 3. Germany (West)--Social policy--History--20th century. 4. Germany (West)--Politics and government--1945-1990. 5. Free enterprise--Germany (West)--Histo- ry--20th century. I. Title. HC286.5.S7223 2007 330.943'0875--dc22 2006100353 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-84545-223-0 hardback ISBN: 978-1-78920-640-1 open access ebook An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries work- ing with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at knowledgeunlatched.org. This work is published subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Non- commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license. The terms of the license can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. For uses beyond those covered in the license contact Berghahn Books. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. To Susan, Margaret, and Natalie This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi List of Acronyms xv Introduction 1 1. Origins of the Social Market Economy and the Currency Reform of 1948 26 2. Market or Planned? The 1949 Bundestag Election 49 3. The Korean Crisis, the Social Market Economy, and Public Opinion 94 4. Public Relations for the Social Market Economy: Die Waage 108 5. Creating a CDU/CSU Public Relations Machine: The 1953 Bundestag Election 143 6. The Triumph of the Economic Miracle: The CDU/CSU and the 1957 Bundestag Election 205 7. Conclusion 256 Bibliography 262 Index 277 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration 2.1: At the crossroads of the economy 67 Illustration 2.2: This is what our economic policy provides you 68 Illustration 2.3: The savior: CDU 70 Illustration 2.4: The success of the CDU 75 Illustration 2.5: It should get even better! 76 Illustration 2.6: The success of the CDU 78 Illustration 2.7: The success of the CDU 79 Illustration 2.8: With Professor Erhard into the abyss! 85 Illustration 4.1: How quickly people forget (a) 129 Illustration 4.2: How quickly people forget (b) 131 Illustration 4.3: Ask the women 133 Illustration 4.4: The German “miracle” 134 Illustration 4.5: The main thing is that we talk together! 137 Illustration 5.1: Snapshots out of a German diary (a) 167 Illustration 5.2: Snapshots out of a German diary (b) 168 Illustration 5.3: All of roads of Marxism lead to Moscow 172 Illustration 5.4: The CDU has said for years: 174 Illustration 5.5: Conversations on the left 176 Illustration 5.6: Prosperity from one’s own efforts 180 Illustration 5.7: Would we earn more if . 182 Illustration 5.8: The people have the last word 184 Illustration 5.9: We women have forgotten nothing, and furthermore have learned a thing or two 186 Illustration 6.1: Men around Adenauer: Professor Ludwig Erhard 218 Illustration 6.2: Men beside Adenauer: Professor Ludwig Erhard 221 Illustration 6.3: Posters from the 1957 Bundestag election campaign* 223 Illustration 6.4: The clothing closet attests: It’s going better for all of us! 225 Illustration 6.5: The paycheck attests: It’s going better for all of us! 226 Illustration 6.6: The shopping bag attests: It’s going better for all of us! 227 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.