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GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY.   Term Paper ID:30722 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses changes in the two countries during the post-war years of 1945-1950.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses changes in the two countries during the post-war years of 1945-1950. Rebuilding. Division of Germany into West and East. Economic and financial assistance. The Cold War. Aim of Britain to restore the status quo of central Europe. New Labour government in Britain. Nationalization and the welfare state. Paper Introduction: BRITAIN AND GERMANY- 1945- 1950 “To the victor goes the spoils,” says the ancient cliché. The fact that this was said at the treaty of Versailles which ended World War I, and which spawned Hitler and the Nazi Party, made the victorious Allies determined not to make the same political and economic mistake twice in a lifetime. West Germany was now under the strict control and foresight of Konrad Adenauer, while Britain (no longer Great) had shunted aside its wartime leader, Winston Churchill, in favor of a Labour government that gave new meaning to the word “ineptitude”. What happened? And how, and why? Perhaps a hint of what was in store for the next several years was “a graffito (which) appeared on a Berlin wall on March, 1945: ‘Enjoy the war- the peace is going to be terrible!’” (Bark 1989 5). While there Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. To this question, therefore, are related all others (Bark 1989 9).The fact was that, "the aim of Germany's main adversary, Britain, was therestoration of the status quo in central Europe" (Bark 1989 15). To sum up these five post-war years in Germany and Britain: . The Labour government wanted to pull down the slums and move their occupants either to new council flats or out of the cities altogether....nearly half the population lived in private rented accommodations- often in dingy rooms or bed-sits with little privacy, comfort or warmth (Quinault 2 1 16).However, Labour put people to work, even as it nationalized the coal mines,the railways, the inland waterways, gas and electricity, the airways, theBank of England and the iron and steel industry. There is more evidence about the seemingly unfair conditions in avictorious Britain, compared to other nations in Europe. BRITAIN AND GERMANY- 1945- 195 "To the victor goes the spoils," says the ancient cliché. Germany began to rebuild, and position itself as a buffer between West and East as the Cold War began. Works CitedBark, D.L. . West Germany was now under the strict control and foresight ofKonrad Adenauer, while Britain (no longer Great) had shunted aside itswartime leader, Winston Churchill, in favor of a Labour government thatgave new meaning to the word "ineptitude". While there were now two Germanys, the West Germans remained andcontinued to grow in their unified nationalistic spirit, while Britainfaced a "collapse of British confidence which followed the diplomatic,military, economic, imperialistic and religious decay" (Hitchens 2 3)that followed the end of the war and continued well into the 195 s. However, the Allies maintained the right to vetoanything they did not approve of. . 1993, pp. In 195 , the United Kingdom accounted for a quarter of the worldtrade in manufacture- a higher proportion than before the Second World War-and far greater than today" (Quinault 2 1 16). Of course, this now obviously meant adivided Germany. "Britain 195 " History Today April, 2 1, v. Yet, it desired to keep its distance from a unified Europe across the channel . There is no doubt that, within the "new" postwar Europe,Adenauer was the strongest political figure, and "Der Alte" (The Old One) -- his nickname, became more or less the "founder" of a new democraticGermany, rebuilding itself economically and eventually taking its role inthe efforts to unite Europe into a United States of Europe. Asmentioned earlier, it began to nationalize industries, and now it went tohelp the union members who had voted Labour into power. When that happened, the potentialeconomic reemergence of German industry was literally eliminated, since theheavy industries that had supplied Germany with its war might were locatedin the East. So, while economically thenation seemed to pull itself out of the post-war doldrums, little attentionseemed to be paid to the private and individual comforts of its citizens.Even the Germans seemed to improve in their living conditions by 195 . Britain eliminated the majority of its overseas Commonwealth nations, concentrating inward. So, as the imperialist designs of postwar Britain crumbled, the focuswas internal. And, Clement Atlee won. But, perhapsthe most significant point of these new legislative acts was amisinterpretation of something Sir Hartley Shawcross, the Attorney-Generalwas supposed to have said: "'We are the masters now'. The transfer ofpower in India and Pakistan duly came in August, 1947: 45 million people,over two-thirds of the entire population of the Commonwealth, receivedtheir freedom (Morgan 199 29). Oddly enough,it was inaugurated by Atlee." (Blake 1985 3 7). Labour could hardly have won without a substantial access of 'middle class' voters, but they were soon disenchanted....Taxation remained very heavy....Those who did manage a visit to Europe found that in France and Italy life had almost been restored to pre-war normality (Blake 1985 316).Britain, one of the victors of the war, struggled with no rise in incomefor professionals and high taxation -- perhaps one reason so many had votedto hope Labour could remove those stains from their post-war lives. These millionsthat Britain was forced to contribute made its own economic home frontsuffer, and its own reconstruction and rebuilding, and new employment forreturning veterans suffered. Now, in 1946, that lawwas repealed. So, while therecontinued to be economic and political sparring among the Allies, once theBerlin blockade began, the U.S., Britain, and France realized "that theyhad to create a state in Western Germany. Konrad Adenauer, who had been a partof the Weimar Republic, and then mayor of Cologne until 1933, was chosen topreside over this convention. As Germany's economic strength began to rebound, andbombed buildings rebuilt, Britain's rubble remained well until 195 andeven beyond. So, while the Soviets plundered some$5 million worth of goods from its zone, Britain and the U.S. The factthat this was said at the treaty of Versailles which ended World War I, andwhich spawned Hitler and the Nazi Party, made the victorious Alliesdetermined not to make the same political and economic mistake twice in alifetime. Labour won again in the 195 elections, but by a far slimmer majority. and Gress, D.R.: From Shadow to Substance- 1945-1963 London UK: Basil Blackwell (1989)Blake, R. Following the euphoria of Victory in Europe, the meaning of victory changed for both the vanquished and the victors. Civil servants could now join or form unions. While Germans under Adenauer appreciated the economic andfinancial assistance, especially of the Americans, Britons tended to resentsuch help, mainly because America now positioned itself as the West's super-power and as the "savior" of Britain and France, true or not. O.: The People's Peace: British History 1945-1989 Oxford UK: Oxford University Press (199 )Quinault, R. The British occupation authorities did not like him....butthe Americans supported him" (Smyser 199 9 92). Britain's image of greatness relied increasingly on the subsidy or charity of the United States (Morgan 199 53).While the English seemed the first to realize the threat of the SovietUnion, they could not convince the Americans. (But) the peace that reigned in Europe was an undeclared conflict (Bark 1989 9).The reason was that the struggle now placed the Soviet Union against theUnited States, with Britain and France merely onlookers. Over 2 percent of the economy was taken into public ownership or was well on course for it. It was, insome sense, a reversal of fortune in the five years following the officialend of the war. The two Germanys -- totally different in both their economic outlookand the restrictions that continued to be imposed by the Allies- had no"Empire" to disband, of course. It was the political infighting among the victors that really causedsome disagreements. In fact,it was Adenauer who pushed for some sort of united Europe. It endured pressures that had led successively to military withdrawals in different parts of the world. Only through being 'good Europeans', he liked to say, couldthe citizens of the Federal Republic reveal themselves to be 'goodGermans'" (Large 1993 234). More thananything, this separated Labor and the Tories even more- the Toriesclaiming the "arrogance" of the Labour government. The Nazi ideology of "Today Europe,Tomorrow the World" collapsed with the death of Nazism and Hitler. Unlike Germany,where labor unions did not gain their strength until much later (there was,of course, other work to be done for Germany), Britain's labor unions werestill chafing about a 1927 law that forbade strikes. What happened? Martin's Press (1999) Andyet, by 195 as the Empire was being disbanded -- South Africa, India --nevertheless, by 195 , "Britain spent 6.6 percent of its GDP on defense:more than any major country except the Soviet Union" (Quinault 2 1 14).Perhaps it was all the defense spending that helped reduce the unemploymentfigures in the last years of the 4 s decade. They saw no prospect for German unity in the near future" (Smyser1999 89). They could not agree on the type of government, so there was theoption of letting the Germans decide- not the people, but those in chargeof the various German states. The combination of war damage and a scarcity of manpower and materials created a serious urban housing problem. 51 no.4 pp 14-21Smyser, W.R. West Germany, of course, relished its position ofa buffer between East and West, and the eventual German"wirtschafftswunder" (economic miracle) was a result of its strongbargaining position. By 1949, everything wassettled among Germans and the Allies and on May 23, 1949 "the Basic Lawentered into force, creating the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (FederalRepublic of Germany)" (Smyser 1999 95). 232-236Morgan, K. had tofurnish some $7 million to keep Germans from starving. However,the British Empire sank into a forlorn series of dissolutions. From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle over Germany New York: St. The territory and people of Germany were ruled by those who had won, the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France. It is also obvious that the 1949 establishment of what we refer to as"West Germany" now created the division of Germany into East and West."East Germany was culturally alien to Adenauer" (Large 1993 233). They offered documents which "rearrangedthe borders of several German Lander and advised the Germans in generalterms of the rights, especially in finance, defense, and foreign affairs"(Smyser 1999 9 ). What he actually saidis 'We are the masters of the moment'" (Blake 1985 318). There wasno idea early on on partitioning Germany. And yet, compared to othernations- even the defeated Germany resuming some sort of "normalcy" by theend of the decade of the Forties some basic commodities like butter, meat, tea and coal were still rationed, and although bread was now freely available, the de-rationing of sweets and chocolates in 1949 had to be abandoned because demand was too great (Quinault 2 1 14). Britain, despite being victorious, suffered continued rationing and housing shortages . "Thus, In defence matters,the logic....was for Britain to go it alone" (Morgan 199 53). Again, Britain and France had their ownpolitical and economic problems at home and were basically spectators tothe increasing Cold War. Britain had lost 7, pounds sterling during the war, a quarter of its entire national wealth. Adenauer pressed for a United Europe with eventual membership reserved for a newly democratic Germany. Konrad Adenauer, the strongest of these presidents,opposed these documents at first, and finally, along with others agreedthat beggars could not be choosers. Germany began to create its economic miracle which has lasted well into the 21st century.As Germany was restructuring its national morality, Britain was developinga new egalitarian and financial reform. . While the "new" West Germany had astrong leader, Konrad Adenauer, Britain had Clement Atlee and, then,Aneuran Bevan whose international impact was slight, with the exception ofBevan's pushing Britain into the Atomic Age (in the early '5 s). The hostility between the former Allies was, to a large extent, caused by their disagreements on how to handle the question of German's political future. If Adenauer was the one in Germany to fill the void, the newLabour government in Britain tended to create one. In the eighteen monthsthat followed Labour's victory in the election, Britain appeared to undergo a massive transformation unique in her history. Its major priority was not merely to put people to work, but to find political balance among a people who had been under a dictatorial st6ate for a generation. : The Decline of Power- 1915-1964 New York: Oxford University Press (1985)Hitchens, P.: The Abolition of Britain San Francisco: Encounter Books (2 )Large, D.C.: "Germany in Europe- 1945-92- A Historical Overview" Social Education Sept. Gone now are the ideas, as proposed by U.S.Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, that a defeated Germany beturned into an agricultural buffer between East and West. The Allies chose Carlo Schmid, a respected humanist philosopher tohead the drafting of the constitution. Many German political figuresagreed. If Adenauer became the new "rock" of Europe (forgetting the imperiousDeGaulle in France) what about the former rock, Britain's WinstonChurchill. Churchill was expectedto easily win the first post-war election, but all the polls showed Labourfar ahead. Labour now decided to make Britain a welfare state. Britain, dumping its wartime Tory government for Labour, began to form a welfare state, attempting to even out the class system. "There was plenty of mud slinging in the campaign. Germany, in 1945 and 1946 could not even produce enoughagricultural goods to feed its people. Even as Berlin wasdivided into sectors for each of the four victorious nations, when theSoviets blocked access by land to Berlin in 1948, it was the Americanairlift that "saved" the city. The first West German electionstook place on August 14, and by a single vote the Bundestag (the Germanlegislature) elected Adenauer as chancellor, a position he was to hold forfourteen years. "The victorious Allies did not find Adenaueraccommodating. A constitutional assembly was called for notlater September 1, 1948. Britain after 1945, under Labour and Tory governments alike, maintained an unrealistic and imperialist overseas posture......fierce opposition to Communism and colonial liberations movements from Cyprus to Malaysia (Morgan 199 8).Overseas, the most dramatic change had come with the appointment of LordMountbatten as viceroy of India in January 1947 with powers to negotiate arapid settlement with the leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League, soas to grant independence to the people of the subcontinent. "Adenauer sawBonn's firm integration in the European and Atlantic West as the surest andfastest route to political rehabilitation for Germany- or at least for itswestern half. Britainhad suffered not only the collapse of buildings during the German bombingraids during the war, but also now faced a difficult uphill battleeconomically. The framework for a welfare state was boldly set out, with the National Health Service Act, passed in May 1946, along with the National Insurance Act (Morgan 199 29).Yet, "environmental pollution was the price Britain paid for its industrialsuccess. And how, and why?Perhaps a hint of what was in store for the next several years was "agraffito (which) appeared on a Berlin wall on March, 1945: 'Enjoy the war-the peace is going to be terrible!'" (Bark 1989 5). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.