stamp on a broad pragmatic party that could
attract progressive liberals, trade unionists, farmers
and conservatives.
Adenauer had lived through the agony of the
last years of Weimar, when the splintering of
parties had been one factor in bringing Hitler to
power in 1933. He had no high opinion of the
democratic instincts of his fellow Germans. Their
tendency to form religious, political and interest
groups, which zealously pursued their aims
without regard to the destructive effects on the
polity as a whole, had left Adenauer with the con-
viction that strong leadership was necessary. He
knew his people, their strengths and weaknesses,
and so was determined that the CDU/CSU
should draw its support from a broad cross-
section of conservatives and liberals and of all
classes and religions. This would isolate the irrec-
oncilables, even if they breached the 5 per cent
electoral barrier.
To the left of the CDU, but opposed to social-
ism, stood the Free Democratic (Liberal) Party
(the FDP), whose programmes were a different
mix of compromises to those of the CDU: they
agreed with the SPD in wishing to exclude cleri-
cal influence but concurred with the CDU in sup-
porting an ethical or social-market economy.
Other parties gaining more than 5 per cent have
come and generally gone. Despite many internal
divisions, the Green Party, emphasising the
dangers of relentless industrial exploitation of the
environment, especially from nuclear power
plants, and advocating a more anarchic, grass-
roots democracy, have survived longer than many
political commentators prophesied when they
were first formed in 1980, becoming partners of
SPD governments in the late 1990s and early
twenty-first century.
The first elections for the Bundestag in August
1949 confounded the expectation of pollsters and
others that amid general hardship the Social
Democrats would win and that Kurt Schumacher
would form the first government as chancellor.
Schumacher had fought a strident campaign, den-
igrating the policies of the CDU and the big
bosses, and asserting Germany’s right to self-506 THE RECOVERY OF WESTERN EUROPE IN THE 1950s AND 1960s
Adenauer campaigning in Bamberg for West Germany’s general election. His well-dressed listeners are
grateful for the stability and prosperity they credit him with bringing. © Erich Lessing/Magnum Photos