Council for a Democratic Germany

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The Council for a Democratic Germany (Council for a Democratic Germany, CDG) was a German exile organization in the USA.

founding

The CDG was founded on May 2, 1944 in New York as a reaction to the establishment of the National Committee Free Germany (NKFD) in Moscow in July 1943. Some initiators brought with them experience from previous attempts at alliances such as the Lutetia Circle . The Council saw itself as a representation of the German people. Members were left socialists, social democrats, communists, bourgeois democrats, former members of the center, writers, artists, and scientists. This “Council of Exile” should act as a platform for political opinion-forming and influence. The chair was Paul Tillich , a Protestant theologian at Union Theological Seminary in New York . He gave the CDG its special political and theological character. As far as politics and culture are concerned, no other exile group had such a broad spectrum.

Appeal to found the “Council for a Democratic Germany”, New Yorker Staatszeitung und Herold , 1944

The balance between the various thought traditions within the CDG is seen as crucial for its success. One did not join him, but was appointed as a representative for one of these thought traditions.

job

The development of future models for social reconstruction after the war

The CDG commented on current events from the war and political developments. An example of this is the “Appeal of the Council for a Democratic Germany after the invasion of the Western Allies in Normandy on June 6, 1944”. In various committees, detailed concepts for social reconstruction after the war were discussed. “In a total of seven specialist committees, council members discussed questions relating to the structure of the union (head: Jacob Walcher ), administration, economic structure, the educational system, health care, press and news and the reconstruction of cultural life. Following on from the founding declaration of May 1944, the council worked out practical proposals for the democratic reorganization of Germany, with which it wanted to provide food for thought, concepts as well as decision-making and argumentation aids and to intervene in the ongoing discussions on planning for Germany in the USA. "

World political obstacles

Overall, it must be stated that the declaration of the CDG did not conform to the emerging global political developments.

The CDG declaration required:

  1. a right of peoples to self-determination, also for Germany,
  2. “Cooperation between the Western Powers and Russia”, intellectually pre-practiced in the CDG through the cooperation of bourgeois and communist forces.

The global political developments against the CDG concept:

  1. The allied policy of unconditional surrender was increasingly geared towards suspending Germany's right to self-determination for the time being.
  2. The looming East-West conflict with the harbingers of the Cold War.
End of the CDG

Differences between bourgeois and left-wing members about the Potsdam Agreement and its political and economic consequences for an undivided Germany that was originally demanded and defended jointly meant the end of the CDG in autumn 1945, after Frank, Hertz and Baerwald had resigned. The council was never formally dissolved.

Founding members

The nineteen members of the initiative committee were:

interested persons

  • Thomas Mann was involved in the planning of the CDG, but canceled his participation. Despite agreement with large parts of the declaration, he considered the publication to be premature. He missed the critical treatment of his own nation and the crimes committed by Germans.

literature

  • Claus-Dieter Krohn : The Council for a Democratic Germany. In: Ursula Langkau-Alex & Thomas M. Ruprecht (eds.): What should become of Germany? The Council for a Democratic Germany in New York 1944–1945. Articles and documents. Series: Sources and Studies on Social History, Volume 15, Campus, Frankfurt 1995, p. 47 f.
  • Petra Liebner: Paul Tillich and the Council for a Democratic Germany (1933 to 1945). Series: Europäische Hochschulschriften, Series 3, Volume 902. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2001.
  • Karl O. Paetel : On the problem of a German government in exile. (PDF; 5.0 MB) In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (VfZ) 3/1956, p. 286 f.
  • Volkmar Zühlsdorff: German Academy in Exile. The forgotten resistance. Ernst Martin, Berlin 1999, 2nd edition 2001.
  • Maximilian Scheer , archive and library, 28 running meters, 650 volumes. Manuscripts of epic and journalistic works; Documents on French and American exile, subject German and international history, numerous foreign-language titles, especially from the years of exile: fiction by American and French writers; Books from exile publishers; Magazines; Collection of primary literature: Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
  • Siegfried Mielke (Ed.) With the collaboration of Marion Goers, Stefan Heinz , Matthias Oden, Sebastian Bödecker: Unique - Lecturers, students and representatives of the German University of Politics (1920-1933) in the resistance against National Socialism. Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86732-032-0 , pp. 346-383.
  • Mario Keßler : Western emigrants. German communists between USA exile and GDR. , Böhlau Verlag Cologne, Göttingen, 2019, ISBN 978-3-412-50044-3 , pp. 144ff

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The very different versions of the call for founding, finally published on this date in German and in English, are presented in: Paul Tillich, Main works. Hauptwerke, Volume 3: Writings in social philosophy and ethics. Social-philosophical and ethical writings. Ed. Erdmann Sturm . de Gruyter, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3110115379 , p. 503ff. (= Chapter 17). The texts always come from Tillich, they can be read in google books and online. A German version of the beginning (= version C in the Sturm edition) is provided by the scan of the Staatszeitung in this lemma; only in the .jpg version (click!) in a readable resolution. A complete, easily accessible English version is provided by Exil in den USA , ed. Eike Middell , Reclam, Leipzig, 2nd exp. and verb. Ed. 1983, pp. 637–644 (= note 69), with the cpl. List of signatories; taken from: With the face to Germany. A documentary about the social democratic emigration ed. Friedrich Stampfer , Erich Matthias and Werner Link . Droste, Düsseldorf 1968, pp. 649f. - There is a detailed evaluation in the Middell volume, pp. 215-221, et al. a. a description of why Thomas Mann did not participate, as well as other pro and counter votes
  2. ↑ Paetel 1956 , p. 290
  3. ↑ Paetel 1956 , p. 291