Former Nazi Party members held top posts in West Germany’s 1966 Grand Coalition.
Evidence
Kiesinger had been a member of the Nazi Party and a liaison officer between Ribbentrop’s ministry and the broadcasting companies of occupied countries which were used for Nazi propaganda. Willy Brandt, one of the initiators of the changes in the SPD that took place at its Godesberg conference, became Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor. As Habermas wrote in the Frankfurt student magazine diskus, `We have reason to fear the new government … What is known of its plans so far suggests not so much that the safety of democracy will be ensured during a state of emergency as that a state of emergency will be imposed on democracy.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2522
Categorization
- QUESTION: Kiesinger as a Nazi-era propagandist becoming Chancellor is a striking fact worth chasing further — how was this publicly received at the time?
- XREF: Resonates with critical-theory literature on the incomplete denazification of the Federal Republic. — connects to: Nazi party functionaries were kept perpetually superior to state ministers