The Cold War and How Germany Prospered after WW2
By Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc
After its defeat in the Second World War, Germany embarked on a rebuilding process that was both contentious and difficult. The Nuremberg Trials provided both the social and political mechanism to punish the perpetrators of Nazi atrocities in the Holocaust. But post-War reconstruction in Europe, through the Marshall Plan, was immediately overshadowed by the Cold War between two superpowers. The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were former allies who differed in political ideology, but were united by a common enemy in Adolf Hitler. The Russians controlled East Germany while the United States administered West Germany. The embargo and food blockade imposed by Joseph Stalin meant that basic goods were to be airlifted by the Americans into West Germany. The Berlin Wall served as the symbol of the chasm between communism and Western democracy. In 1951, the Korean War broke out when the forces from the North led by Kim IL Sung attacked the South. The United States supported the democratic South while Russia and China provided the North with reinforcement. The Korean War ended in a stalemate and a fragile peace is maintained through the 38th Parallel.
Germany emerged as a prosperous country in the decades that followed even after so much devastation. At the helm of its unprecedented growth were Christian democrats led by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The Christian Democratic Union embraced three important principles – human dignity, subsidiary and the free market economy. First, human dignity as a basic tenet in politics is rooted in the belief that the human being has an inviolable value. Nazi Germany simply demeaned and dehumanized human beings it considered as inferior. The underlying moral principle behind human dignity is the equality of all human beings. The state, as a matter of principle, is to respect the value of each individual. Second, the idea of subsidiary is anchored in the basic capacity of persons to make decisions. This means that one is responsible for whatever action is taken. It is in this respect that society flourishes in terms of the empowerment of people in creating opportunities for themselves. Third, of the above-mentioned, the free-market economy is the most contentious. It is founded in the idea of allowing competition in the market. Monopoly takes away from the economic system the capacity of small drivers of growth to develop. In order to make the economy function well, it must allow the market to work on its own without state intervention. State policies must not restrict the choices people make.
