Main parties competed for leadership over the expellee constituency for instrumental reasons.

Evidence

Instrumental considerations also accounted for the prominence of the expellee issue in West German party politics. During the Adenauer era, the main three parties considered themselves engaged in a “battle over leadership in the expellee sector,” to quote a prominent Social Democrat, both among one another and against their small expellee rival GB/BHE. — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 163

Categorization

• SHARE: Great material for someone working on West German political history or electoral-grievance machines.
• XREF: Shows the grievance group’s salience was partly manufactured by competing parties courting it as a constituency. — connects to: Mainstream parties co-opted BHE leaders with ministries and funding, then steered their aims — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 762; Once expellees integrated, their protests lost power to influence party loyalties — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 760; Unification ended German territorial claims despite the expellee constituency’s objections — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 205 (+2 more)

Related

• Mainstream parties countered the BHE threat by co-opting expellee demands (similarity 0.88)
• Expellee political power rested on refusing to commit to a major party (similarity 0.87)
• Mainstream parties co-opted BHE leaders with ministries and funding, then steered their aims (similarity 0.86)
• Expellee lobby influence waned only after their core grievances were institutionally resolved (similarity 0.83)
• Co-opting a grievance party into government stripped it of its protest function (similarity 0.81)
• Electoral competition over expellee voters locked parties into rigid Cold War stances. (similarity 0.81)
• Expellee organizations lost all influence once the territorial goal became moot (similarity 0.80)
• Expellee party support peaked around 1950 then decayed through the 1950s (similarity 0.80)
• Once expellees integrated, their protests lost power to influence party loyalties (similarity 0.80)
• Full political rights gave expellee migrants immediate electoral and party influence (similarity 0.80)
• Expellee politics collapsed once core social demands were met (similarity 0.80)
• Electoral calculations with expellee voters outweighed Ostpolitik openings for Adenauer. (similarity 0.80)
• Adenauer backed the expellee cause mainly to preempt social unrest. (similarity 0.79)
• Expellee leaders sought direct representation in Ostpolitik negotiations after unifying in 1958. (similarity 0.79)
• The BHE’s patronage-hunting reduced it to a right-wing splinter group (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Mainstream parties co-opted BHE leaders with ministries and funding, then steered their aims #responds-to (0.90) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 762
• Once expellees integrated, their protests lost power to influence party loyalties #expands (0.75) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 760