The making of German democracy

This is the first English language source reader that deals with post-war (West) Germany. Over 160 commented sources describe the political, social and economic developments that changed Germany from the abyss of Nazism into a prosperous ally of the West and into one of the driving forces of European integration.
The sources, which include official Allied and German documents, parliamentary debates, contemporary newspapers articles, diaries and a large number of previously unpublished archival materials, allow for the first time a source-based study of post-war Germany for non-German speakers.

The sources allow an assessment of the changes of Allied policy in the immediate post-war years which led to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany; explain the country’s role in the intensifying Cold War; and encourage a re-evaluation of the ‘economic miracle’ and whether the Federal Republic signified a ‘new start’ for Germany or a ‘restoration’ of the old social forces and patterns.

The chronological and thematic structure makes the book an ideal tool for anyone who wants to know how and why events in (West) Germany developed ‘After Hitler’. The book will be of great benefit to students of German post-war history from A-level to Masters degrees. It offers a unique opportunity for teachers and lecturers to go well beyond the traditional sources explaining German History and the Cold War.

Contents:-

List of plates
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Chronology
Part I Interregnum, 1945–49
1. The Allies in control, 1945–46
2. Growing division, 1946–49
Part II ‘The Allies’ Federal Chancellor’, 1949–55
3. Founding myth and ‘Economic Miracle’
4. Problems and challenges
5. Westintegration
6. Rearmament
Part III, ‘We are again somebody …’, Life and Politics in the 1950s
7. Visit to Moscow and the Hallstein Doctrine
8. European Integration: From Messina to the Elysee Treaty
9. Art and culture in the Miracle Years
10. Leisure and consumers
11. Gender and youth
12. The ‘Corporate’ State
Part IV Kanzlerdämmerung and the Nazi past
13. Adenauer, the GDR and the Berlin Wall
14. ‘Mein Gott, was soll aus Deutschland werden…’ The Presidency, the Spiegel
Affair and the Successor Question
15. The Nazi past
The Adenauer era: A summary
Selected reading
Index