Rise and fall of West Germany's first grand coalition

NARRATOR: For the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic the West German economy slumps. There is unemployment. Ludwig Erhard, the father of the much praised economic miracle, as chancellor, is helpless.

ERICH BÖHME: "What he missed was being able to make a decision and have people fall in line behind him, that was gone."

NARRATOR: In 1966 Christian Democrats and Social Democrats form the first Grand Coalition. The Chancellor is Kurt-Georg Kiesinger, with Willy Brandt as foreign minister. A cabinet of opposites: former communists like Herbert Wehner and ex-Nazis like the chancellor. Politics becomes polarized. It is the time of the student protests against the Vietnam War and against the Kiesinger government. They call themselves the extra-parliamentary opposition, because with a Grand Coalition in parliament there is no alternative. There are protests against plans for emergency rule.

ROGER WILLEMSEN: "I remember that the emergency rule legislation was seen as a mechanism with which the state wanted to exert totalitarian control. There was the violation of the right to privacy in general, which was fiercely defended at the time."

NARRATOR: During a state visit by the Shah of Iran in June 1967 the resistance escalates. The death of a student during the rioting in Berlin triggers a revolt. The conflict becomes increasingly bitter. During a CDU party convention in November, 1968 a young female demonstrator slaps the chancellor and accuses him of being a Nazi sympathizer.

MIRIAM MECKEL: "One could almost say that Beate Klarsfeld’s slap provided the big bang for the '68 movement, which had always demanded that the popular representatives in politics and in the legal professions should deal with the Nazi history."

NARRATOR: In spite of the polarities the Kiesinger cabinet works smoothly and efficiently. The chancellor is known as the walking committee for conciliation.

BÖHME: "He was an aesthete, he could quote from literature, he could cite examples from history, it was great."

NARRATOR: Scorned as Mutt and Jeff, the CSU financial minister Strauss and the SPD economics minister Schiller jointly lay the foundations for a new economic upswing. The chancellor believes he will be re-elected.

BÖHME: "He wanted another term. He really thought that he had won the election. It was very close, but the social liberal coalition won."

NARRATOR: The SPD and FDP form a government in 1969. Willy Brandt is chancellor. For the first time since the end of the war, the chancellor is a Social Democrat. The Christian Democrats are out of power. And the Bundestag again has a strong parliamentary opposition.