Düsseldorf guiding principles

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The Düsseldorf guiding principles of July 15, 1949 are the economic and social policy program of the CDU for the first federal election .

They mark the programmatic reorientation of the CDU towards the social market economy and thus competition with the concept of Christian socialism of the Ahlen program , which was favored above all by the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia and also as religious socialism in the tradition of a political wing of the Center Party in the Weimar Republic, to which Konrad Adenauer once belonged, albeit as a representative of a different wing. However, Adenauer had serious reservations about a "socialist" party program and used all his influence to correct the party guidelines from the Ahlen program.

In accordance with the “Ahlen Program”, however, free choice of job, co-determination of employees in companies and their participation in productive assets were also determined in the principles. There are also related elements such as centralized monetary oversight, social security and the role of collective bargaining.

The CDU's turn to the social market economy was largely the result of Ludwig Erhard , who was in close contact with the authors. Under the leadership of Franz Etzel , Hugo Scharnberg , Franz Böhm , Friedrich Holzapfel , Hanns Seidel , Johannes Albers , Bernhard Pfister, Günther Henle and Adolf Reifferscheidt were also involved in the program work.

The Düsseldorf guiding principles gave the expression “ social market economy ” its first meaning as a political term and was established as the self-designation of economic policy by Ludwig Erhard and the CDU.

Characteristic for this concept of the social market economy coined by the CDU was the connection of the principles of ordoliberalism with the religious ethics of the Christian social doctrine . In the idea of ​​a "Christian democracy" and in the Christian-social concept of the social market economy, normative values ​​became the yardstick for all political action instead of the self-interests of individuals or collectives. 

The program is based on three principles:

  1. Emphasis on economic self-determination and (in addition to political also) economic freedom.
  2. Awakening the performance principle through fair competition and marketable prices.
  3. It should not be possible for the state, individuals or associations to prevent the first two principles.

As an overarching goal of these principles, the preamble defines the social market economy as an order that “ provides the highest level of economic benefit and social justice for all”.

The principle of competition, which has become the primary criterion for order, should not only increase economic output, but also decentralize economic power in a way that supports political democracy.

"This economic policy, in a sensible combination of money and credit, trade and customs, tax, investment and social policy as well as other measures, leads to the fact that the economy serves the welfare and needs of the whole people in fulfillment of its ultimate goal. This coverage of needs must of course also include adequate care for the needy part of the population. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Otto Schlecht , mission statement or alibi? - On the role of the conception of the social market economy in practical economic policy, in Dieter Cassel (Hrsg.), 50 Jahre Soziale Marktwirtschaft, Stuttgart, 1998, page 38.
  2. ↑ Axel Lehmann, The Marshall Plan and the New Germany: The Consequences of American Occupation Policy in the Western Zones, Volume 335 of Internationale Hochschulschriften, Waxmann Verlag, 2000, page 268.
  3. ↑ a b c Bernhard Löffler, Social Market Economy and Administrative Practice: the Federal Ministry of Economics under Ludwig Erhard, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, page 468
  4. ↑ Rudolf Uertz, Christianity and Socialism in the Early CDU: Foundations and Effects of Christian-Social Ideas in the Union 1945-1949 , January 1981, De Gruyter, isbn = 978-3-486-70337-5, pp. 15-16
  5. ↑ Ralf Ptak : Social Market Economy and Neoliberalism: a German Sonderweg , in Christoph Butterwegge (Hrsg.): Neoliberalismus: Analyzes and Alternatives , VS Verlag, 2008, page 70
  6. ↑ Ernst Müller, Conceptual History in Transition? Volume 2004 of Archive for Conceptual History , Meiner Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3787316930 , page 136
  7. ^ The Düsseldorf guiding principles, history of the CDU, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. In: Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Retrieved March 30, 2016 .
  8. ^ Theodor Blank , From the Ahlener program to the Düsseldorf guiding principles - On the dogma history of the CDU. Festival ceremony for Franz Etzel. In: Alfred Müller-Armack (Hrsg.): Economic and financial policy under the sign of the social market economy. Seewald, Stuttgart 1967, page 42
  9. ↑ Hans Günter Hockerts , Social Policy Decisions in Post-War Germany: Allied u. German social security policy 1945 - 1957, Klett-Cotta Verlag, 1980, page 249

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