West German Federal Research Articles

West German Defence Cooperation and Secret Arms Exports to Pakistan in the 1960s

Based almost entirely on declassified government documents, this article seeks to provide, for the first time, a comprehensive evaluation of the Federal Republic of Germany’s (FRG) defence cooperation and the transfer of small arms, ammunition and missiles under a 1962 secret defence agreement as well as the saga of the clandestine transfer of aircraft and (unsuccessful) export of tanks to Pakistan in the 1960s. West Germany was well aware that the real motivation behind the Pakistani acquisition of arms and ammunition was to use them in a fratricidal conflict with India. An ‘influential’ Pakistani lobby, working assiduously in the West German Federal Foreign Office and West German Federal Ministry of Defence, was responsible for the sale of the F-86s. The FRG’s refusal of large-scale deliveries to Pakistan was largely because of apprehensions that an Indian recognition of the German Democratic Republic’s actions would have a cascading effect on developing countries.

The Origins of the BND: The Gehlen Organization: Process, Myth, and Legacy

This article deconstructs the founding myth of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (the West German Federal Intelligence Service, abbreviated BND), which has commonly been understood as the outgrowth of a primordial "Organization Gehlen." Classified materials from the BND reveal instead that in the months after the end of World War II, a heterogeneous intelligence service of hundreds of operatives developed under the leadership of Abwehr officer Hermann Baun. It was financed lavishly by the US Army, but did not generate many successes. Although Reinhard Gehlen had little influence at first, he outmaneuvered Baun due to his absolute conformity with the USA. The highly unstructured organization with its dysfunctional operations carried on under Gehlen's willy-nilly leadership. Through targeted myth formation, and despite countervailing political pressure, Gehlen managed to evade tight parliamentary scrutiny of the internal workings of the nascent BND. This helps to explain why Gehlen's organization took on persons with a sometimes highly incriminating Nazi past.

The “Most Liberal in nato”?

Abstract Homosexuality was a topic that all armed forces were compelled to address at some point – and still are. A comparison between armed forces from around the world helps to put the actions of one state in the context of a bigger picture. This is not only the approach of historians today, but, as this research surprisingly shows, was the approach of the (West) German Federal Ministry of Defence (FMoD) in the late 1960s and after. Using archival sources from the German FMoD, this article examines how the (West) German MoD was interested in and viewed the regulations of other countries’ armed forces when dealing with homosexual service members, and whether and how these insights influenced the actions of the Defence Ministry.1

Introduction: The Political Ambiguities of Pius XII

Abstract This collection of essays evaluates the relations between Eugenio Pacelli and Germany from the beginning of his career as a papal nuncio in Munich in 1917 until his pontificate during the wartime and post-war periods. The contributions to this volume do not provide a complete overview of this topic. Instead, they should be understood as case studies on certain aspects of Vatican-German history. At the core of this work are the complexities and ambiguities of papal politics between four political systems from the Kaiserreich to the West German Federal Republic. Ultimately, this volume thus touches upon very diverse subjects ranging from Pacelli’s ‚concordat diplomacy‘ in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich to his silence during the Holocaust and the German occupation of Italy, the anti-communism of the Cold War, and the Vatican’s path towards reform in the post-war period.

<i>Deutschland einig Vaterland?</i>

Thirty years on from the peaceful revolution in the former communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) Germany remains profoundly divided between the perspectives of Germans living in the eastern and the western parts of the country, which is becoming ever more obvious by the polarization of domestic politics. Hence, Germany today resembles a nation which is formally unified but deeply divided internally in cultural and political terms. This article examines the background to the growing cleavages between eastern and western regions, which have their roots in the mistakes that were made as part of the management of the domestic aspects of German reunification. From a historic-institutionalist perspective the merger of the pathways of the two German states has not taken place. Instead, unified Germany is characterized by the dominance of the institutional pathway of the former West German Federal Republic, which has substantially contributed to the self-perception of East Germans as dislocated, second-class citizens.

Gleicher Lohn für gleiche Arbeit im öffentlichen Dienst?

Abstract The individual pay level is an emotionally discussed subject. Some pay differentials evince significant characteristics which are analysed in scientific literature. There are three significant pay gaps of particular significance to Germany: the gender pay gap between women and men of more than 20 percent, the regional pay gap especially between West and East Germany caused by differences in productivity and the pay gap between the private and public sector. This article investigates a previously unobserved pay gap within the public sector. By analysing a data collection, specific pay differentials in municipal administrations are determined. These differentials exist despite identical labour output in administration services in German municipalities and are caused by specific regional and economic determinants. So, the municipalities of East German Federal States and financially weak West German Federal States evince a pay level of municipal employees below average. Generally, there is a significant pay gap between East and West German municipalities. In addition, this article analyses the structure of the identified pay differences by separating the municipal employees according to their specific pay and qualification categories. As a result, East German municipalities have a smaller number of staff in the higher grade of the civil service and their pay level is below average. This effect is compensated by a higher number of staff in the middle grade of the civil service. The pay level of municipal employees in the middle grade of the civil service does not indicate significant difference among German municipalities. There are similar results in municipalities of financially weak West German Federal States. Despite identical administration services in municipalities, the pay level and pay structure evince interjurisdictional differentials. The results suggest that equal pay for equal work is not even in public service.

German history in modern times: four lives of the nation

1. Master narratives and rival interpretations of modern German history Part I. German Central Europe before Modern Nationalism: 2. The pyramid of power in pre-modern Germany 3. Baroque and Enlightenment Germany, 1648-1789 4. Power states (Machtstaaten): the rise of the Prussian and Austrian military-bureaucratic monarchies 5. Aufklarung: the German Enlightenment and other spirits of the age Part II. German Identities between Liberalism, Nationalism, and Socialism, 1789-1914: 6. Revolution on the march: French challenge, German response, 1789-1815 7. 'Land of poets and thinkers': the transition from Enlightenment universalism to German national culture 8. Freedom and voice, 'blood and iron': the struggle over liberalism and nationalism, 1815-1914 9. Power to the people: German social democracy in the age of industrialization 10. Women, family, feminism, 1789-1914 11. Habsburg Austria: a multinational path in German history 12. Jews, Germans, German Jews, 1789-1914 Part III. Nation in Crisis: Defeat, Turmoil, Aggression, 1914-15: 13. The Prussian-German monarchy's sudden death: World War I and postwar revolution, 1914-20 14. Democracy's bitter fruits: society and politics, 1918-33 15. The rise of Hitlerism: middle-class discontent and populist utopia 16. The 'people's community' at Hitler's command: national and socialist Germany, 1933-45 17. Lebensraum: the war for empire in Eastern Europe 18. Banned from nation and earth: German Jews after 1914, Nazi 'Jewish policy', and the Holocaust Part IV. The Cold War Germanies and their Post-1989 Fusion: A Nation Reforged from Its Remnants?: 19. Return from the abyss: defeated Germany and the West German Federal Republic, 1949-89 20. 'Real existing socialism': Soviet-occupied Germany and the German Democratic Republic, 1949-90 21. Present-day Germany: the post-unification scene in West and East.

The role of external broadcasting in a closed political system: A case study of the German post-war states

This article investigates the role and impact of external broadcasting (radio and television) on a closed political system, through the example of the two post-war German states: the West German Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the East German German Democratic Republic (GDR). The aim is to debunk myths about the influence of external broadcasting on the events that led to German reunification in 1990. The study follows a historical approach and discusses what role external media played during the years of a divided Germany. The findings are based on several historical sources, research reports from the 1950s and 1960s and over 100 biographical interviews with former residents of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The article analyses the impact of external broadcasting on citizens and the political elite in times of crisis as well as during everyday life.

Die Gestapo nach 1945--Konflikte, Karrieren, Konstruktionen

The Gestapo is still the ultimate symbol of the totalitarian police state. Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Andrej Angrick have now published an anthology in which fifteen established authors examine the biographies of Gestapo members. In their introduction the editors thoroughly recapitulate the findings of the latest research, but also attend to the more general questions of how postwar societies dealt with the legacy of National Socialism and the political changes that have taken place between 1945 and today. This is followed by seventeen essays, arranged into three chapters, according to subject. Chapter 1 provides an overview of postwar careers. Those who—at least officially—accepted the new democracy and adapted to the new situation were usually able to integrate into German postwar society. Thousands of others fled the country. Using documents that have only recently been uncovered, Gerald Steinacher investigates the infamous ‘Rattenlinie’, the escape route through the Alps and Italy that was used by Nazi criminals to flee to South America, especially to Chile, where Martin Cüpper keeps track of Walther Rauff, to arrive at an understanding of how a mass murderer managed to spend his remaining years in exile despite a number of requests for extradition. Stephen Tyas describes how the British secret service spared a high ranking official of the Reich Main Security Office in order to obtain information on the Soviet Union. Stephan Linck looks into the postwar careers of police commissioners who graduated from the leadership school of the security police. Many of them filled high-ranking positions in the West German criminal investigation departments and Federal Criminal Police Office. Furthermore, high-ranking officials were often able to escape prosecution for having participated in deportations, as Bernhard Brunner demonstrates using the example of the commanding officers of the security police in occupied France. While many Nazi criminals made themselves comfortable in West Germany during the phase of the ‘economic miracle’, as Jacek Andrezej Młynarczyk points out, it took the German judiciary decades to prosecute the Nazi crimes. Although exceptional, there were also cases where the perpetrator himself felt guilt and remorse, as David M. Mintert illustrates.

Prisoners for Bananas? Buying GDR’s Political Prisoner’s Freedom and the ‘Honecker Banking Account’

Between 1963 and 1990, the West German Federal Government spent more than 3.44 bn Deutschmarks for goods delivered to a few East German firms in exchange for the release of GDR citizens imprisoned for political reasons. Eventually, those firms re-sold most of the goods on international commodity markets in order to cash in hard currency. Since 1974, the “earnings” from this kind of trafficking in human beings were deposited on a special banking account, which was opened by order and on behalf of East Germany’s party chief Erich Honecker. The article investigates the proportion of the various sources of the accounts deposits and the different purposes, the assets were spent on. The in-depth analysis proofs that more than three fifths of the deposits originated from buying GDR’s political prisoner’s freedom by West German authorities, enabling the accounts trustees at Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski’s “Department of Commercial Coordination” to earn additional interest. The text also shows that trustees had to give up on Honecker’s initial intentions to use the assets for the financing of imports of consumer goods to the benefits of GDR’s population. Over time, other purposes became pre-dominant: Financing imports of industrial goods and raw materials and - above all - securing East Germanys liquidity in serving its liabilities. Eventually, only 11 per cent of the assets were spent on imports of consumer goods.

Maintaining Neutrality between the Two German States: Finland and Divided Germany until 1973

After the end of the Second World War, when Finland sought to redefine its position vis-à-vis Germany, negotiations were dogged by the fact that Finland had been a close ally of Hitler's Germany in 1941–4 in the war against the USSR. In April 1948 Finland signed a Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (FCMA) with the USSR, in which the military articles were based on the need to counter a potential German attack on the Soviets via Finland's territory. Finland's international position was so difficult that it became the only country in the world that did not establish full diplomatic relations with either of the German states. It was also the only country in the world to pursue a policy of absolute neutrality vis-à-vis both Germanys. When the Finnish government offered to host the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in May 1969, its main preoccupation was the German question, and it succeeded in fending off Soviet pressure to recognise the GDR. In 1973, with West German Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik easing tensions with regard to the German question, Finland was able to establish full diplomatic relations with both German states simultaneously.

Ärztliche Standespolitik im Nationalsozialismus: Julius Hadrich und Karl Haedenkamp als Beispiele (review)

When the West German Federal Physicians' Chamber (Bundesärztekammer) constituted itself in Cologne after 1945, it carried with it significant baggage from the Nazi period. For instance, it owed its monopoly position in the country to the Nazi centralization of formerly disaggregated organizations from the Weimar Republic—a process completed by April 1936. One originally conservative Weimar physicians' functionary who crossed over to the Nazis early to assist them was Dr. Karl Haedenkamp (1889-1955), whose specialty soon became the removal of Jewish colleagues. After World War II, Haedenkamp was elected as the first leader of the Bundesärztekammer. He was succeeded by Erich Fromm, a physician formerly active in the Storm Troopers, and thereafter by Hans Joachim Sewering, who had been in the SS and responsible for the death of at least one child during euthanasia killings. During its early years the Bundesärztekammer was located on Cologne's Haedenkampstrasse—until, after protests, the name of the street was changed to that of a Holocaust victim. The enduring difficulty engendered by this change eerily manifested the reluctance with which West Germany's corporate physicians acknowledged their extraordinary responsibility in the rise of National Socialism, the erection of the Third Reich, and the Holocaust.1

Centralization and Decentralization in West German Federalism

Centralization and Decentralization in West German Federalism

Regional Economic Policy within the Framework of Cooperative Federalism

In the brief history of West German federalism the field of regional economic policy underwent an important change. In the beginning it had been a state function, but became more and more influenced by the federal government. This development was confirmed by a change of the Basic Law in 1969 when regional economic policy became one of the three ‘joint tasks' ( Gemeinschaftsaufgaben). Since then both the federation and the states have been included in the decisionmaking process. Meanwhile several problems of this specific form of federalism have been become evident. The most important items of criticism are a tendency towards centralization and uniformity, an increasing inflexibility in the face of new problems, and an almost inevitable tendency towards expanding the support areas.

Institutional Linkages and Policy Networks in the Federal System of West Germany

West German federalism can be understood as a system of interlocking, but distinct and autonomous, networks. Sectoralpolicy networks are integrated into overarching networks. The traditional pluri-centrism of state and societal institutions is contrasted with an integrated (but not centralized) economic policy network oriented toward national homogeneity. With the decline of Keynesian macroeconomic policy, however, regional policy networks are being upgraded. At the same time, the political party system and the politicization of administrative agencies have led to the development of an overarching network in which bargaining and accommodation have precedence over hierarchical centralization.

Institutional Linkages and Policy Networks in the Federal System of West Germany

West German federalism can be understood as a system of interlocking, but distinct and autonomous, “policy networks.” Sectoral policy networks are integrated into overarching networks. The traditional pluri-centrism of state and societal institutions is contrasted with an integrated (but not centralized) economic policy network oriented toward national homogeneity. With the decline of Keynesian macroeconomic policy, however, regional policy networks are being upgraded. At the same time, the political party system and the politicization of administrative agencies have led to the development of an overarching network in which bargaining and accommodation have precedence over hierarchical centralization.

The West German Federal Constitutional Court as Guardian of the Federal System

The West German Federal Constitutional Court has generally acted as a guardian of the German federal system. The Court has prevented attempts by the federation to encroach upon the modest autonomy left to the Lander. If a national solution for a problem seems indispensable, the Court favors techniques that compensate the Linder for a loss of autonomy by granting them certain participation rights. Guided by that principle, the Court's construction of the Basic Law has increased considerably the number of federal statutes that require the approval of the Bundesrat. Thus the Court emphasizes today the idea of partnership. However, in a 1986 decision, the Court made clear that a certain amount of federal leadership is needed to keep the system running. In this decision, the Court reminded the federation expressly of its responsibility for the whole.

The West German Federal Constitutional Court as Guardian of the Federal System

The West German Federal Constitutional Court as Guardian of the Federal System

Intergovernmental Relations in the 1980s

Intergovernmental relations in West German cooperative federalism have often been criticized as inefficient and inflexible. The abolition of joint policymaking and the promotion of decentralization have been recommended in order to reduce interdependencies between governments and to avoid overloading central policymaking. Such proposals have usually been put forward without considering the governmental complexity that impedes large-scale reforms. However, a detailed analysis of federalism, focusing on processes rather than structures and on different policies rather than aggregations, reveals that intergovernmental relations in the 1980s are not the same as those in the 1960s or early 1970s. The inherent dynamics of intergovernmental relations have produced many changes. These changes have contributed to the overall stability of West German federalism because they have reflected flexible adaptations of relations among federal, Land, and local governments to new socioeconomic, sociocultural, and ecological challenges. Hence, events of the 1980s provide an occasion for reassessing cooperative federalism.

The Greens and the West-German Federal Election of 1987: The New ‘Third Party’?

The Greens and the West-German Federal Election of 1987: The New ‘Third Party’?