Book contents
- Trading Power
- Trading Power
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Unraveling of Adenauer’s Grand Strategy (1962–1963)
- 2 America’s Junior Partner (1963–1964)
- 3 Twenty Years After (1964–1965)
- 4 The Stability Imperative (1965–1966)
- 5 Gaullist Temptations (1966–1968)
- 6 The Magnetism of Prosperity (1967–1968)
- 7 A Decisive Election (1969)
- 8 The Zenith of Ostpolitik (1970)
- 9 The European Pendulum (1970–1972)
- 10 Hazards from the Global South (1970–1972)
- 11 The Embattled Chancellor (1971–1972)
- 12 The Center of Europe (1973)
- 13 The Crisis Management Team (1973–1974)
- 14 New Structures for the West (1974–1975)
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
7 - A Decisive Election (1969)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2022
- Trading Power
- Trading Power
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Unraveling of Adenauer’s Grand Strategy (1962–1963)
- 2 America’s Junior Partner (1963–1964)
- 3 Twenty Years After (1964–1965)
- 4 The Stability Imperative (1965–1966)
- 5 Gaullist Temptations (1966–1968)
- 6 The Magnetism of Prosperity (1967–1968)
- 7 A Decisive Election (1969)
- 8 The Zenith of Ostpolitik (1970)
- 9 The European Pendulum (1970–1972)
- 10 Hazards from the Global South (1970–1972)
- 11 The Embattled Chancellor (1971–1972)
- 12 The Center of Europe (1973)
- 13 The Crisis Management Team (1973–1974)
- 14 New Structures for the West (1974–1975)
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 7 depicts a severe cleft in German politics as the Grand Coalition headed toward Bundestag elections in September 1969. Chancellor Kiesinger tried to coax the USSR into softening its enmity toward West Germany, but his hard-line stances on Berlin and the NPT stalled progress. Egon Bahr, Willy Brandt’s controversial aide, urged the SPD to cast aside old ballast: Bonn should sign the NPT, stop isolating the GDR, and renounce territorial claims in Poland. Economy minister Karl Schiller, the SPD’s central figure in the 1969 campaign, insisted that the German mark should be revalued. Kiesinger’s CDU/CSU rejected all of these proposals, and the coalition cabinet proved incapable of decisive action for most of the year – causing economic havoc across Western Europe. The SPD–FDP coalition won the election only narrowly, but as Chancellor Willy Brandt acted decisively to revalue the mark and pledge German support for “deepening” and “widening” Europe at an EC summit in The Hague. On Ostpolitik, Brandt signed the NPT and authorized soundings with the USSR and Poland; but Bahr grew impatient and angled to open a back channel to the Kremlin.
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- Trading PowerWest Germany's Rise to Global Influence, 1963–1975, pp. 198 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022