A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

1130 Ch. 27 • Rebuilding Divided Europe

Political Realignments

Backed by the Soviet Union and its secret police, Communist governments
took power in every Eastern European state in the post-war period. After first
declaring support for the constitution of parliamentary democracies, calling
for a union of “anti-fascist” political groups, and participating in elections, in
each case Communist parties gradually eliminated competing parties, begin­
ning with underground resistance organizations that had been created where
possible during the war. Arguably only a mass base of Communist support
existed in Yugoslavia. At the same time, Communist parties grew in strength
in several Western European states. Communists dominated the major
trade-union organizations in Italy and France; they entered post-war govern­
ments in Belgium and Denmark. Communist wartime resistance against
Nazi Germany helped swell the prestige of Communist parties, even as their
close identification with the Soviet Union began to engender suspicion
among political elites. France, Italy, and the German Federal Republic had
right-center governments in which Catholic parties played a major role.

Divided Germany

The Allies oversaw the development of the political institutions of what

became the German Federal Republic. Until 1951, all legislation passed by

the Federal Republic had to be approved by the Western Allies. They carried

out a process of de-Nazification, beginning with education, but did not

undertake any major social reforms. This meant that the powerful industrial

cartels remained in place, despite the Allies’ agreement to the contrary at

Potsdam. The devastation of the German economy seemed to necessitate

leaving what was left of Germany’s industrial base intact. The constitution of

the German Federal Republic stated that parties obtaining a minimum of 5

percent of the popular vote in an election could be represented in the Federal

Parliament (the Bundestag). This kept small parties, principally those of the

extreme right, out of the parliament. (During the Weimar Republic, many

small parties had contributed to political instability.) The Federal Constitu­

tional Court banned neo-Nazi parties, and the Communist Party was out­

lawed as well. The Allies insisted that the German president’s powers be

limited to avoid the unrestricted executive power that had existed in Hitler’s

Germany. The president was elected for a term of five years by a federal

assembly consisting of all members of the Bundestag and about the same

number of delegates from each state. The chancellor, appointed by the pres­

ident, became the effective head of state. The states of the Federal Republic

elected representatives to an upper house (Bundesrat). Because the upper

house could block legislation, this electoral process, too, strengthened the

decentralization of political power in West Germany.

Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), the Catholic mayor of Cologne, served

as chancellor of the German Federal Republic until 1963. His wartime