Sociopolitical democratization and economic recovery: The development of German self-government under U.S. military occupation: Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart, 1945-1949

From the earliest days of the U.S. occupation of Germany, most implementers of U.S. policy focused on economic recovery rather than on the stated U.S. goals of denazification and democratization. Fulfilling people's material needs and restoring order was a more sympathetic and clear-cut task for the Military Government detachments than the amorphous and complex one of rebuilding a foreign society on democratic foundations. Those in U.S. Military Government who felt that their goal of material recovery required first and foremost order, efficiency and an avoidance of politics found German allies who either shared these preferences or who had a political or economic stake in this prioritization. As witnessed by numerous local democratic initiatives in 1945, the interregnum between the end of the war and the heightening of East-West tensions was a propitious time for structural change. But instead of encouraging reforms, grassroots democratic initiatives were squelched, while order, efficiency and economic recovery were pursued. This tendency to inhibit German reform initiatives and to place order and efficiency above denazification and democratization restricted the scope of change in the governmental and societal infrastructure, including the civil service, the political party system, property ownership, etc.; The early local-level emphasis on material recovery meshed well with the top-level U.S. occupation policy changes that reflected growing Cold War tensions. The official U.S. occupation policies of denazification and democratization were replaced in practice with policies promoting anti-Communism and economic reconstruction along capitalist lines. Early local-level German developments under U.S. occupation thus served to further facilitate the precedence that economic recovery was later officially given over political and socio-economic democratization.; A case study approach has been chosen because the municipality was the first level of German administration to be occupied and to receive some semblance of self-government. Local politics in major cities and state capitals, such as Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart, were more likely to influence regional, zonal and national developments than those in smaller towns and rural counties. Whereas the existent literature has included only single town or rural community case studies, this three-city study allows for more reliable generalizations about the causes and effects of postwar western German political and socio-economic developments.