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Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963

Divided Germany: The Federal Republic and the DDR 1949–1963 — Adenauer’s foreign policy, elections, rearmament and the DDR

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on Westbindung, reconciliation with France, the Hallstein Doctrine, the Berlin Wall and Spiegel crisis, the DDR’s system, 1953 uprising and control of society, the Bundestag elections, rearmament, NATO and the Treaty of Rome.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Process

What caused the East German uprising of June 1953, and how did it end?

Numbers

What were the main features of East German economic policy in the 1950s?

Key term

What was the Der Spiegel Crisis of 1962?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Summarise Adenauer's policy of Westbindung.

    Model answer

    He tied the Federal Republic firmly to the West through the Coal and Steel Community, rearmament, NATO membership in 1955 and the founding of the EEC in 1957, accepting delayed reunification as the price.

  2. 2

    How did Adenauer achieve reconciliation with France?

    Model answer

    He supported European integration alongside French leaders and built a personal partnership with de Gaulle, crowned by the Franco-German treaty of friendship in January 1963.

  3. 3

    Explain the Hallstein Doctrine and why the USSR was excepted from it.

    Model answer

    It was West Germany's refusal of diplomatic relations with any state that recognised the DDR; the USSR was excepted because Adenauer's Moscow visit of 1955 had opened relations and brought home the last prisoners of war.

  4. 4

    Why did the building of the Berlin Wall damage Adenauer politically?

    Model answer

    His slow and lukewarm response in August 1961 contrasted with Willy Brandt's visible presence in Berlin, and the CDU lost its absolute majority in the election that autumn.

  5. 5

    What was the Der Spiegel Crisis of 1962?

    Model answer

    After the magazine questioned West German defence readiness its offices were raided and journalists arrested; the illegal handling of the affair forced Strauss out and obliged Adenauer to promise to resign within a year.

  6. 6

    What was the state of West Germany when Adenauer handed over in 1963?

    Model answer

    It was prosperous, democratically stable and anchored in the western alliance though still divided from the east, and Erhard succeeded him as Chancellor.

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