Germany after the Autumn Crisis
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200204 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Germany
After
the
Autumn
Crisis
Robert
Spencer*
So
rapid
was
the
pace
and
so
extensive
the
scale
of
the
changes
which
have occurred
in
the
German
Federal
Republic in
the
past
few
months
that
to
the contemporary
observer
they
suggest
that
future
historians,
writing with
a
better
perspective,
will
select
them
as
marking
a
turning
point
in
its
history
The
return
of
the
Social
Democrats
to
the
ranks
of
the
Federal
government,
thirty-six
years
after
Hermann
MUller's
"great
coalition"
tottered
to
its
fall
under
the
impact
of
the
Great
Depression,
is in
itself
a
landmark.
But
beyond
this
novelty
in
the
composition
of
the
government
in
Bonn,
more
fundamental
changes
appear
to have
been
involved,
and
it
seems
clear
that
nothing
can
ever
be
quite
the
same
as
it
was
during
the
seventeen
years
of
almost
unques-
tioned
dominance
by
the
Christian
Democratic
Union.
In
retro-
spect
the
"Erhard
Era"
appears to
have
been
merely
a prolonga-
tion
of
the
"Adenauer
Era"
under
weaker
leadership
rather
than
something fundamentally
new
But
with the
end
of
his
unhappy
three-year
chancellorship
on
November
30,
1966,
that
era
came
to a
close.
The
Federal
Republic
has
now
embarked
on
a
new
phase
of
its
history
whose
dimensions
will
only
gradually
become
apparent.
To
say
this
is
not
to
subscribe
to
the
view
occasionally
heard
at
the
time,
that
in
the
autumn
of
1966
Bonn
faced
not
a
government
crisis
(Regterungskrtse)
but
a
state
crisis
(Staats-
krtse)
1
This
view
derived
from
the
West
German's
unfamiliarity
with
change
in political
alignment
on
the
government
benches
in
Bonn
after
nearly
two decades
of
a
stability
which
amounted
almost
to
immobility
The
democratic
order
itself
was
never
in
danger-
and
indeed,
having
shown
in
1963
that
it
could
weather
a
change
of
chancellors,
Bonn
democracy
in
1966
showed
that
it
could
cope
with
a
major,
if
incomplete,
realignment
of
the
cabin-
et's
political
composition.
Department
of
History
University
of
Toronto.
1
Carl
J.
Fnedrich,
"Keine
Krise
der Demokratie,
Dte
Welt,
January
21,
1967.
GERMANY AFTER
THE
AUTUMN
CRISIS
211
I
The
autumn
crisis
resulted
from
a
variety
of
political
and
economic
pressures;
and
some
light
is
thrown
on
the
nature
of
the
changes
involved
and
the
prospects
for the
new
coalition
government
by
an
examination
of
its
origins
and
causes.
2
The
crisis
blew
up
rather
suddenly
although
its
origins extend
far
back.
The
storm
signals
had
by
no
means
gone
unnoted,
but
few
forecast
the
pace
and
scale
of developments.
Many
observers
have
found
the
origins
of
the
crisis
in
the
decay
in
government
authority
in
Bonn;
one
at
least has
roundly
declared
that
"the
creator
of
the
'Great
Coalition'
is
Ludwig
Erhard.
' '3
By
the
autumn
of 1966
lack
of
government or
undergovernment,
in
the
sense
of
a
failure
to
realize
the
potential
of
resources
or
oppor
tunity
had
become
a
diagnosible
disease.
But
the
decline
in
Bonn's
authority
can
be
dated
as
far
back
as
1959,
when
Aden-
auer
badly damaged
his
image
by
an
ill-conceived
and
abortive
attempt
to
prolong
his
hold on
political
power
by
announcing
his
intention
to
wield
it
from
the
office
of
the
presidency
An
even
more
decisive
factor
was
the
construction
of
the
Wall
on
August
13,
1961.
In
retrospect
this
looms
as
large
on
the
political
scene
in
Bonn as
on
the
Berlin
landscape.
The
construction
of
the
Wall
undermined
Adenauer's
electoral position
and
deprived
the
C.D.U./C.S.U.
(the
Christian
Democratic
Union
and
its
Bavarian
sister
party
the
Christian
Social
Union)
of
its
abso-
lute
majority
in
the
Bundestag"
at
the
same
time
it
demonstrated
the
failure
of
the
Adenauer
recipe
of
achieving
reunification
through
building
a
position
of
strength
in
association
with
the
West
by
confronting
Germans
with
concrete
evidence
of
the
deepening division
of
their
country
and
by demonstrating
the
disinterest
of
the
Western
powers
on
which
Adenauer
had
urged
them
to
rely
When
Adenauer
finally
resigned
in
1963,
his
repu-
tation,
and inevitably
also
Bonn's,
further
diminished by
the
Der
Spiegel
scandal
of
the
preceding
year
he
was
succeeded
by
the
man
whose
capacities to
rule
he
doubted and
whom
he
had
unsuccessfully
sought to
keep
from
the
chancellorship
(and
against
whom
he
was
to
wage
an
unscrupulous
campaign
when
in
office)
Desire
for
a
change
was
widespread
in
the
autumn
of
1963;
but
despite
the
"new
style" chancellorship,
little
in
fact
2
For
an
earlier
account,
see
F
R.
Allemann,
"The
Changing
Scene
in
Germany,
World
Today,
February
1967,
pp.
49-62.
3
Gerhard
E.
Grundler,
"Die
Grosse
Koalition-Eine
Zwangshandlung,
Frankfurter
Hefte,
22.
Jahrgang,
Heft
1,
January
1967,
p.
5.
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