Conant Lauds German Advances, Cites Political, Economic Growth

Germany's concern for freedom and democracy has led to its phenomenal political and economic recovery in the last ten years, President Emeritus James B. Conant '14-said last night in the second of three Godkin Lectures.

In a speech entitled "Politics and Economics in the Federal Republic of Germany," the former Ambassador cited the positive advances Germany has made toward democracy in the post-war era.

The failure of the Weimar Republic, Conant declared, was due to a failure of economic and political factors. The inflation of the early twenties, the depression of the thirties, the failure of parliamentary government, and the concentration of power and responsibility in a President unable to meet the crisis led to the Republic's collapse.

Germany's Problems, Past and Present

Most of Conant's speech dealt with an analysis of Germany's political problems, past and present. Parliamentary government failed in the thirties, he said, because there were too many disputing parties. "A strong middle party," Conant observed, referring to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's Christian Democratic Union, "has arisen to make Germany's political power much different from the thirties."

Disregard for law and order by the Nazis, Conant declared, hastened the collapse of the Republic. Hitler's success was due to his "plain gangster tactics." He called the new German Constitution, drawn up by French, British, and American representatives, and ratified by the German Parliament in 1948, a positive step towards establishing a democratic government.

Conant will deliver the last of the Godkin Lectures tonight. He will speak on "Germany and Her Neighbors," and will attempt to give a critical appraisal of the nation's role with regard to NATC and the defense of Western Europe.