Adenauer's Germany
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205400900101 |
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| Author | Edgar McInnis |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ADENAUER's
GERMANY
Some
Post-Election
Impressions
Edgar
Mclnnis*
HE
elections
of
last
September
inaugurated
a
new
and
highly
significant
stage
in
Germany's
post-war
advance.
A
visitor,
arriving
only
a
few
days
after
the
polling
date,
could
feel in
the
very atmosphere
the
surge of
self-confidence
that
sprang
from
the
outcome
of
the
voting
in
the
Federal
Republic.
Already
the
gathering
momentum
of
economic
recovery
had
set
Western
Germany
well
on
the
road
toward
regaining
national
power.
The
demonstration
of political
coherence
provided
by
the
elections
encouraged
an
added
feeling
of
strength
and an
increased
conviction
that
Germany
could
not
much
longer
be
denied
a
free
and
equal
place
in
the
company
of
the
western
democracies.
The
German
voter
took
his
stand
with
the
moderate
Right
and
he did
this
in
no
uncertain
terms.
The
rejection
of
totalit-
arian
appeals
from
both
the
Right
and
the
Left
was
encourag-
ingly
decisive.
The
failure
of
the
Communist
appeal came
as
no
surprise.
If
anything
was needed
to
complete
the
discredit
of
that
party
throughout
the
whole
of
Germany,
it
was
provided
by
the
Berlin
rising
of
June
17
and
its
ignominious
aftermath
for the
Gottwold
regime.
What
was
less
expected
in
the
light
of
pre-election
reports
was
the
negligible
showing
of
the
neo-
Nazi
groups.
The
activities
of
the
German
Reich
Party
under
Herr
Naumann
had
in
particular
been
viewed
with
alarm
by
journalists
as
well
as
by
Allied
authorities,
but
it
attracted
barely
one
per
cent.
of
the
votes,
and
the
revelation of
its
links
with leaders
of
the
Free
Democratic
Party
may
even
have
helped
to
alienate
voters
from
that
party
as
well.
The
Social
Democratic
Party
had
reason to
contemplate
the
results
in a somewhat
chastened
spirit.
As
compared
with
1949,
it
increased
its
vote by
one
million
and
its
number
of
seats
by
nineteen.
But
nearly
four
million
more
voters
went
to
the
polls,
and
the
total
number
of
seats
in
the
Bundestag
had
been
in-
creased
by
eighty-five,
so
that
the
proportion
of
votes
won
by
*President,
Canadian
Institute
of
International
Affairs;
Author
of
The
Unguarded
Frontier
and The
War,
1939-1945.
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