Freedom instead of socialism

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Freedom not Socialism was the most important election slogan of the CDU for the 1976 Bundestag elections . The CSU used the slogan freedom or socialism .

Used in the 1976 federal election campaign

The campaign motto is often attributed to Alfred Dregger . The turn was directed, among other things, against the New Ostpolitik initiated by Willy Brandt by the SPD / FDP government coalition under the Schmidt I cabinet . Freedom should symbolize the democratic-political system of the "Bonn Republic" including its integration into the West , while socialism should refer to the real socialist political system of the GDRrefer. It was combined (like the other slogans of the Union in the 1976 federal election campaign) with a prefixed “For love for Germany”. The slogan was featured on several CDU election campaign posters, including a controversial picture of a Swedish model with boxing gloves.

While Helmut Kohl and Kurt Biedenkopf did not want to leave issues such as “justice, solidarity, freedom” to the SPD, the right wing of the Union feared a “social democratization” of the party. After Hans Filbinger's election victory in the state election campaign of Baden-Württemberg in April 1976 and a similar campaign by Franz Josef Strauss , the motto was presented to the public on May 24, 1976 after internal party controversies at the CDU election convention in Hanover. Kohl saw this as a direct answer to the SPD's assertion that democracy can only be achieved in socialism. Helmut Schmidt replied: “In reality, a man like Kurt Schumacher sat in a concentration camp for freedom and socialism.” Willy Brandt replied: “The right-wing either-or propagandists will not make it, freedom against social democracy to play off. And even the idol worshipers on the communist side will not be able to deceive the citizens. Your alleged socialism brand GDR has as much to do with freedom as the ox has to do with playing the piano. ”On the evening of the election, Federal Interior Minister Werner Maihofer (FDP) summed up :“ The achievement has been chosen, the rubbish of freedom instead of socialism has not worked. ”

The 1976 Bundestag election ended with an increase in the vote of the Union to 48.6 percent, which, however, could not form a government without a coalition partner. To what extent this slogan contributed to this cannot be determined. It was also controversial among the population and was rejected by 65% ​​of those questioned after opinion polls at the beginning of the election campaign in spring 1976. However, it had an effect in the interests of the Union parties by directing the attention of the population to a topic in which the Union was given significantly higher authority by the voters than the government. A sign of this effect was the approval of the goal of “preventing communist influences from penetrating Europe”, which increased from 51% to 59% during the election campaign. 46 to 15% of the voters saw this question as a higher competence of the Union compared to the SPD.

Further use

Modified, the slogan was already used in Klaus Staeck's artist initiative “Freedom instead of Strauss” for the 1980 federal election campaign .

The original motto was taken up several times in later elections. The DSU campaigned for the first free Volkskammer election in 1990 . The FDP used it in the Hessian state election in 2008 .

The AfD also used this slogan in the election campaign for the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in 2019.

With the book Freedom Instead of Capitalism , published in 2011, the politician of the Left Sahra Wagenknecht alludes to the catchphrase.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Jörg Schmidt: Die deutsche Freiheit: History of a collective semantic special consciousness , 2010, ISBN 3-941743-05-8 , page 338, online
  2. ^ Portrait of Alfred Dregger: "Freedom instead of socialism" , RP-online from June 30, 2002, accessed on April 8, 2017
  3. ^ Died: Alfred Dregger , Der Spiegel 28/2002, accessed on April 8, 2017
  4. ^ History of the CDU: Election programs and slogans Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, accessed on April 8, 2017
  5. ^ Posters on the history of the Bundestag elections , Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, accessed on April 8, 2017
  6. ↑ Daniela Forkmann, Saskia judges (ed.): Failed candidate for chancellor , Springer Verlag 2007, p.191; online in google book search
  7. ↑ May 24, 2006 - 30 years ago: CDU election campaign motto "Freedom instead of socialism" , WDR.de of May 24, 2006, accessed on April 7, 2017
  8. ↑ "Hopefully that will last four years" , DER SPIEGEL 41/1976, accessed on April 7, 2017
  9. ↑ Nikolaus Jackob : Election campaigns in Germany: case studies on campaign communication 1912-2005, 2007 ISBN 3-531-15161-4 , pages 201-202, online
  10. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 7/1980: Artists contra Strauss p. 212
  11. ^ Ulrich H. Brümmer: Party system and elections in Saxony: Continuity and change from 1990 to 2005 with special consideration of the state elections, 2006, ISBN 3-531-14835-4 , page 66, online
  12. ↑ AfD election campaign in the East: When Wessis speak of a "DDR2.0" and demand a "Wende2.0". In: Belltower.News. Retrieved on August 22, 2020 (German).
  13. ↑ Erhard Crome: Justice, Freedom and Burdens - The new book by Sahra Wagenknecht ; New Germany from May 20, 2011