brand of Bavarian führer mentality, theinnocuously named Economic Recon-struction Association, led by Alfred Lo ritz , over half a million. Over a millionvotes were also cast for" independentcandidates," most of them far to theright. Thus three to four million voteswent to the extreme right- about one-sixth of the total. It will be repre-sented by fifty- three deputies in theBundestag about one- eighth of thetotal. If the system of representationhad not been weighted against localparties and independent candidates,they might have had twice as manydeputies.
Yet there was a sigh of relief that theextreme right turned out to be nostronger than it did. The nervousnessis partly attributable to the elusivenessof the danger. If one neo- Fascist partyexisted, the danger would be concreteand localized. Now it seems to be every-where: among the refugees, the youth,the war veterans, the former Nazis , thegroups and circles and associations thatpop up daily( and not least inside theso- called democratic parties).
In Lower Saxony , not far from theRussian Zone, there is a town calledWolfsburg . It is unique for three rea-sons: It is the home of the Volkswagen ,or People's Car; it has more men thanwomen; and flagrant neo- Fascists havewon the last three local elections.
Wolfsburg is a one- factory town ;ninety per cent of the population of23,000 depend on the auto factory,which expects to produce 40,000 carsin 1949. The majority of the workersare refugees from the east. They livepacked together in grim- looking bar-racks set down in the middle of a dustywasteland. No one knows who ownsthe factory now; it was started by theNazi Strength Through Joy organiza-tion, and taken over by the four- powerControl Council, which no longer ex-ists for all practical purposes.Wolfsburg first became notorious inNovember, 1948. In a local election,the unknown and unnoticed German Rightist Party received 16,500 votes,against the Social Democrats ' 5,500.The leaders were obscure young menwith army backgrounds. Five monthslater the party was banned in the dis-trict by the British Military Governor,and a new election was ordered. Theslightly less extreme German Partystepped in and won. Then the German
Rightist Party was reinstated for themost recent election, and again cameout on top. It has now moved its head-quarters to Hannover for bigger game.
How much of Germany is repre-sented by Wolfsburg? Potentially all ofGermany - given the same refugeeproblem, living conditions, and socialunbalance. Wolfsburg indicates that, inthis country, Fascism still has a muchbetter chance than Communism .
One of the commonest observationsheard in Germany is that what thecountry needs is a conservative party.The thought is that Germany has hadradical reactionaries, not disciplinedconservatives. It may have had, for atime in the 1920's, a reasonable fac-simile of a democratic government, butit never had a democratic opposition.And without a democratic opposition,a democratic government can onlymake a single slip.
By refusing to license parties of theextreme right, except on a local scaleand not always then, the Military Gov-ernment understandably but unavoid-ably introduced a deformity in the po-litical system. In a sense, the story ofthe past two years has been the effort toget around this obstacle, either bytransforming the Christian Democratic and Free Democratic Parties intorightist parties, or by forming new andmore extreme ones. Now the bars havebeen lifted, and anyone can form a
A Shot in the Arm
party or start a newspaper without alicense. For the first time, then, the realface of German conservatism mayagain become visible.
With the big vote and relativelysmall extremist representation, theBonn régime got off to a better startthan everyone expected. But it wouldbe inexcusable to imagine that it ismuch more than a start. At best, on itsown showing, the régime is a provision-al one for half of Germany , with rigidlyrestricted authority. Within this nar-row framework, it has to struggleagainst immense odds.
There is still the multiplicity of par-ties and the desperate search for astable majority. The parties themselvesare still new and untested. There isroom for a good deal of shake- up, notnecessarily for the better. There arethe nine million uprooted refugees, themillions of" former" Nazis , the omin-ous silence of the younger generation,the reviving prestige of the militarycaste. Houses need to be built, unem-ployment cut down, markets found.The psychological and political effectof the last year of amazing economicrecovery was greatly underrated. It waspositive enough to win an edge on allthe negative factors. It was feared thatBonn would never even get a chance.Bonn has been given a chance, justthat.-THEODORE DRAPER
The Rentenmark of 1923 produced a miracle in ending one of the world'sdizziest inflations; and the Deutsche Mark , the new legal currency put intouse on June 20, 1948, may also work wonders in healing the scars of modernGermany 's second vanquished economy- this time only three years afterthe war's end. A general lifting of price, allocation, and rationing regula-tions accompanied the issuing of the new currency. Figures on the Bizone'sindustrial output show a steady rise:
( 1936-100)
iron&
Total coal steel chmcls.42
22218
23368
June, 1947DecemberJune. 1948DecemberJune, 1949
41
61
44
72
26 43
51
80
32
53
79
85
89 5588
76
60
88
a" free economy," but to a certainextent the worker, too, shared in theeconomic improvement. The aver-age Ruhr miner's gross monthlyearnings rose from 203 marks inJune, 1947, to 267 two years later.Unemployment, however, increasedfrom 5.2 to 9.3 per cent in thisperiod, but that was due mainly tothe influx of refugees from the east.
The Reporter, October 11, 1949
8