1.2.2 Refugees From the GDR

• By 1961, more than 2 million out of a population of 18.5 million at the inception of the GDR had migrated
• The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 under the codename Operation Rose to end immigration from the GDR
• The end of Adenauer's term in office

  1. Political mistakes
  2. The Der Spiegel Affair
  3. The Bad Godesberg Party Congress
• Adenauer's failure to visit Berlin immediately after the wall was put up made him less popular
• The CDU vote fell from 50% in 1957 to 46% in 1961
• The 1962 Der Spiegel Affair saw the arrests of magazine editors that had criticised the army's ability to defend the country. Many feared the government was becoming too authoritarian
• At the Bad Godesberg Party Congress in 1959, the SPD reconsidered many of its policies. Most notably, it supported more European economic intergration and changed its extreme stance towards capitalism