The Development of Democracy in Western Germany Since the Second World War

Abstract

Nowadays we are often and quite rightly reminded of the price of liberty. But eternal vigilance is the price paid for maintaining liberty, not the cost of production. To build up and establish a tradition of political freedom demands more heroic qualities: inner conviction, selfless devotion, and a willingness to risk everything for the worth and dignity of the individual. The histories of Switzerland, Holland, Britain, and the United States record the cost of our inherited privileges.Germany has no tradition of political freedom. It is not that Germans have lacked heroism. They have played a great part in the struggle for religious liberty. They have been only too willing to die for their country's greatness. But the facts of geography and the course steered by their leading statesmen have diverted their attention from the advantages of political liberty.German liberals missed their last great chance as far back as 1848. The most remarkable and sinister of all Bismarck's feats was the way in which, by sheer force of achievement, he won over many of the leading German intellects to unrestrained nationalism. Readers of Treitschke's Deutsche Geschichte often find it difficult to believe that the historian was ever an ardent liberal. After the foundation of the German Empire of 1871, as Dr. Adenauer put it recently, “a nationalism founded upon might gradually replaced the ethical idea of national freedom.” The Imperial Constitution provided for a bicameral parliament and introduced manhood suffrage. But the Chancellor was nominated by the Emperor and was not responsible to parliament. Furthermore the Constitution was so devised that no laws could in practice be passed without the Chancellor's approval. In the words of Liebknecht, the German Socialist, the Reichstag turned out to be little more than a “fig-leaf’ to cover the nakedness of autocracy.