German Election Funds
ALLEMANN, F. R.
GERMAN ELECTION FUNDS By F. R. Allemann Adenauer's party has more than all others combined By F. R. Allemann Bonn According to Article 21 of West Germany's Basic Law, political parties "must...
...The DP owes its current prosperity chiefly to the experienced politicians with strong business backing who joined its ranks after deserting the Free Democrats early in 1956 when the latter pulled out of the Adenauer Government...
...What about the rest...
...They are still viewed with suspicion, but their passionate defense of free enterprise and propaganda against socialism have been rewarded with some 3 million marks...
...and the collections made at election rallies make up less than a tenth of it...
...This difference is noticeable—to cite one small example—even at the party congresses...
...The CDU and Free Democratic party (FDP), on the other hand, employ the paid services of students—or even, as at the CDU's Stuttgart congress, attractive dress models...
...but also the personnel required to maintain the campaign from headquarters in Bonn down to the local election districts...
...Even the Refugee party (BHE), whose election prospects are dim at best, has received nearly 1.5 million marks from business benefactors...
...With its more than 600,000 dues-paying members (compared with the 250,000 of Adenauer's Christian Democratic Union), who are assessed according to income, the SPD boasts a solid organizational foundation, which makes it largely independent of outside aid...
...Serious concern has been expressed about this whole system...
...GERMAN ELECTION FUNDS By F. R. Allemann Adenauer's party has more than all others combined By F. R. Allemann Bonn According to Article 21 of West Germany's Basic Law, political parties "must publicly account for the source of their funds...
...The big industrial associations are clearly supporting the DP in order to strengthen the right wing of the Government coalition...
...This probably explains why the BHE, which two years ago joined the opposition to Adenauer, has recently been steering more of a pro-Government course...
...The parties that benefit from this largess have devised an effective means of encouraging continued generosity : Under the recent tax reform, contributions to "civic" causes (which specifically includes political parties) are exempt from both income and corporation taxes...
...But the unions, for example, own large printing plants...
...When one adds these various sums of money, one arrives at a total of 40 million marks pumped into the treasuries of the "bourgeois" parties by industrial firms and associations...
...Thus, contributions have been even heavier this year than in 1953...
...The BHE is the only party that can compete with the Social Democrats in tight organization, its 200,000 members compare favorably with the CDU's 250,000, and it receives political aid from the powerful "Association of German Expellees," which is nominally nonpartisan but inevitably works closely with the BHE...
...Should this move succeed, which seems somewhat dubious, the munificent West German captains of industry will have to pay up their back taxes...
...The Government parties are forced to pay for similar services...
...For several months after their withdrawal from the Government, the Free Democrats were cut off from all industry funds...
...The German party (DP), Adenauer's small but faithful coalition partner, has received 6-7 million as its share of the kitty—a huge amount for a party which in 1953 received less than 900,000 votes...
...Their financing is the most obscure of all the German parties...
...The FDP has, moreover, created its own circle of patrons in small and medium industry (especially in the Ruhr...
...The monetary value of such services cannot be estimated...
...They are almost completely dependent on wealthy backers, mobilized by the public - relations groups maintained by various big-business associations...
...But the 50 million marks cited above is itself a huge sum...
...To be sure, it receives no direct contributions from the labor unions, which are pledged to non-partisanship by their constitutions...
...In a complaint to the Constitutional Court, it has challenged the constitutionality of the tax-deduction provision...
...A judicial decision will be rendered after the elections...
...without pay...
...The SPD ushers are ordinary party members, ranging from blue-uniformed "falcons" of the Socialist Workers' Youth to gray-haired party veterans...
...Yet, the SPD, too, has various circuitous ways of helping to finance its campaign...
...The Socialist-led Hessian State Government, encouraged by a recent decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, has launched an effort to deprive the SPD's political foes of this powerful weapon...
...It is scarcely an exaggeration to set I lie total cost of the current Bundestag election campaign at a minimum of 50 million marks ($12.5 million)—probably more when one considers not only the immediate expenses for posters, leaflets, films, automobiles, meetings halls, etc...
...W ho really supplies the funds, and how much is available to the various parties...
...For these reasons, the SPD not only can afford to be remarkably frank at party congresses about the sources, extent and use of its funds: it can also count on achieving more, mark for mark, than its opponents with their vastly greater resources...
...One should also include the various indirect services available to the parties, e.g., the well-endowed Government publicity apparatus, which in effect makes propaganda for the Adenauer forces, and the efforts of certain ostensibly nonparty groups, such as the apparently affluent "Working Association of Democratic Circles," a vote-getting instrument for the coalition...
...This concern has, indeed, found expression in the provisions of the Constitution, which declares the financial behavior of political parties to be a public matter...
...For the parties which back Chancellor Konrad Adenauer are not in the least interested in transforming this legal requirement into reality...
...The problem is least complicated in the case of the Social Democratic party (SPD1...
...Another source of aid is loans on easy terms by union-controlled finance companies...
...When the latter print Social Democratic campaign material at very favorable prices, with long-term payments, it is just as effective as a cash contribution...
...However, Paragraph 3 of this article states simply: "Further details are regulated by Federal laws...
...Another source of strength is the volunteer party election workers, who distribute leaflets, paste up stickers, guard meetings, etc...
...The Government parties, particularly the Christian Democrats, have far greater funds, though the assertion that industrial and financial interests have placed 100 million marks at their disposal is surely an exaggeration...
...As a result of all this, the SPD will have an election fund estimated at 5 million marks...
...These laws have not yet made their appearance, nor are they likely to so long as the present Government coalition remains in power...
...Financing methods and sources— direct and indirect—differ from one party to another...
...According to well-informed sources, Adenauer's CDU has some 30 million marks available for the campaign— more than all the other parties together...
...Thus far, however, this has remained no more than a pious wish, blatantly ignored by the forces that dominate political life in West Germany...
Vol. 40 • August 1957 • No. 34
