The Welfare State in Postwar Germany – （福利国家在战后德国-）.pdf

Lutz Leisering, April 2000 The Welfare State in Postwar Germany – Institutions, Politics and Social Change [shortened version forthcoming as “Germany – Reform from Within”. In: Pete Alcock und Gary Craig (eds.), International Social Policy: Welfare Regimes in the Developed World, London: Palgrave, 2001] Overview What is ‘Germany’? Since the beginning of modern social policy in the late 19th century, Germany has undergone more and more drastic changes of political regime, including massive changes in territory, than most other countries. During four decades after World War II there were even two diametrically opposed regimes residing in Germany side by side. Imperial Germany, the Reich (1871-1918), was followed by the Weimar Republic, the first German democracy (1919-33), and National Socialism, the Third Reich (1933- 45). After a period of occupation, a democratic and capitalist West Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and a totalitarian and communist East Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), were founded in 1949. They were united in 1990. Clearly, the different historical periods have left their marks on social policy as on other areas of policy. Yet, despite the drastic changes there were considerable institutional continuities across political regimes. Unification in 1990 was a take-over of East Germany by the Western Federal Republic. On one day all legal and social institutions of the FRG were transferred to or rather imposed on the eastern part, including the basic institutional arrangements of social policy. Since its foundation as a national state in 1871 Germany has been a federal state consisting of (currently) 16 states (Länder). Federalism was abandoned only under National Socialist and communist rule. This diversity stems from the tradition of the years before 1871 when ‘Germany’ was split into numerous small states and