Council for a Democratic Germany

The CDG commented on current events of the war and political developments. One example is the "Declaration of the Council for a Democratic Germany after the Allied invasion in Normandy on 6 June 1944". In different committees, detailed plans for the reconstruction of society after the war were discussed.

On the whole, it must be said that international developments did not conform to the CDG's declaration.

It called for:

1. A right of national self-determination, also for Germany
2. Cooperation between the Western powers and Russia, for which the intellectual groundwork had been prepared through the cooperation in the CDG between bourgeois and communist figures

The international developments that went against the CDG's plans were:

1. The Allied demand for German unconditional surrender meant that, for the foreseeable future, national self-determination would not apply to Germany
2. The increasing distance and hostility between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, which developed into the Cold War

Unresolvable differences between bourgeois and left-wing members over the Potsdam Agreement and its political and economic consequences signalled the end of the CDG in autumn 1945. It was never formally dissolved.

The section of the memorandum discussing health policy was largely written by Käte Frankenthal, Felix Boenheim, and Kurt Glaser^[1]

The 19 members of the founding committee were:

• Paul Tillich, Siegfried Aufhäuser (SPD)
• Horst W. Baerensprung (Social Democrat)
• Friedrich Baerwald (Centre Party)
• Felix Boenheim (Communist Party of Germany)
• Bertolt Brecht (writer)
• Hermann Budzislawski (Socialist)
• Frederik J. Forell (Confessing Church)
• Kurt Gläser (Revolutionäre Sozialisten Deutschlands)
• Albert Grzesinski (SPD)
• Karl Frank (Neu Beginnen)
• Paul Hertz (SPD)
• Hans Emil Hirschfeld (Social Democrat)
• Joseph Kaskell (Deutsche Blätter (a German exile newspaper))
• Julius Lips (left-wing Social Democrat)
• Alfons A. Nehring (linguist)
• Otto Pfeiffenberger (lawyer)
• Albert Schreiner (Communist Party of Germany)
• Jacob Walcher (Socialist Workers' Party of Germany)

Elisabeth Hauptmann functioned as "Executive secretary".

Thomas Mann had been involved in the plans for the CDG, but did not become a member. Although he agreed with large parts of the declaration, he felt its publication was too early. He also felt that the CDG should adopt a more critical approach to their home country, and to the crimes committed by Germans.