FDP elites privately judged Oder-Neisse demands theoretical by 1954 but feared saying so publicly.
Evidence
In the FDP, the conviction that many of the expellee organizations’ Ostpolitik demands were unrealistic had become widespread as early as 1954, although again in combination with the caveat that such beliefs had to be kept secret. One of the demands regarded as impracticable in FDP circles was the German claim to the Oder-Neisse areas, which a leading party figure downplayed as “theoretical” in subsequent internal deliberations. — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 149
Categorization
- XREF: Shows internal-professed divergence in the party system, matching the reader’s question about whether public conviction tracks private assessment. — connects to: The expellees rejected the Oder-Neisse border as provisional pending a formal peace conference — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 31