Program positions of Social Democratic Party of Germany in regard of economic reconstruction in Germany after defeat of Nazism (1945 - 1949)

Abstract

Based on analysis of program documents and performances of the leading actors of Social Democratic Party of Germany, this article examines economic views and conceptions of social-democrats during the period of occupation between 1945 and 1949. The article analyzes the background of these economic concepts starting from the times of Nazi regime in Germany when SDP leaders were living in exile, and describes their evolution between 1945 and 1945 during the negotiations of three post-war Party Congresses. The article substantiates how two main approaches in regard of economic rehabilitation and further development of post-war Germany were formed by the leading politicians and economic experts of SDP: the first approach based on planning economy and total nationalization of enterprises, and the second one based on regulation of market economy and partial nationalization of enterprises. The article analyzes Social Democrats' participation in formation of a new representative constitutive body called Economic Council, which consisted of Germans exclusively and was created for final solving of current economic problems, as well as their work in this body. The attitude of SDP towards main economic measures of that times such as realization of Marshall Plan in Western Germany and the Monetary Reform of 1948 is described. The article indicates why the opinions of leading SDP politicians in regard of major economic measures were ambiguous, and explains that it happened because the composition of a newborn post-war SDP was heterogeneous, and because those measures were initiated and controlled by occupying states.