The German Federal Republic In The 60s

The German Federal Republic in the 60s

In the Federal Republic of Germany, after the term of World War II, under the context of the Cold War, in 1949, Germany is divided into two: a western part or the so -called German Federal Republic (RFA) and another partEastern or German Democratic Republic (RDA).

By 1961, the RDA decides to build the well -known "Berlin Wall", with intentions to curb the flow of people who decided to leave the eastern zone to migrate to the western zone. With the passage of time, this wall was the cause of many deaths, since, when their crossing was prohibited, many people decided to do so in the same way, because Western Berlin had "the stability insured" having been part of multiple treatiesWith various countries, including United States. Following the same line of events that favored the RFA, the Minister of Economy, Ludwig Erhard, who was a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), became a federal chancellor after Adenauer’s resignation, who was an important part of the “miracleGerman economy ”that began from the 60s.

Some time later the RFA was governed by a coalition between the political parties Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), causing the economy to grow exponentially until approximately 1966, where the boom stagnated slightly. During this government, the free market was attempted with an increase in state participation within economic processes.

Almost throughout this period the only option was to be anti -communist, as demonstrated by the Hallstein doctrine, which consisted that the RFA did not recognize countries that recognized communist Germany. Everything was about being anti -communist, or you were forced to stay out of political life.

With the passing of time, the anti -communist domain was losing intensity and by 1967 the antiauthoritarian wave was already a majority. During the second half of the decade, around 1968, a wave of student movements and protests are present against the prevailing system. It is with these movements that it begins to give a change in the political culture and in German society in general. Movements arise in favor of an anti -authoritarian education, and others, such as feminism, which have an impact on today.

The student revolts were inspired by the German Socialist Federation of Students (SDS), which was attached to the SPD until 1961, then cut relationships due to the increase in the leftist trends of the SDS. The reasons for this evolution towards a political color had no greater relationship with the social interests of the students, rather they had to do with political problems in general. Already in 1970 the SDS was dissolved. In 1969, the SPD party jumps to power after the election of the federal chancellor, Willy Brandt, who installs a social-liberal government, within which reforms were made both in education and in the social sphere.

At the end of the 1960s, when the tension of the Cold War.