"Parties and Elections in Germany" is a comprehensive reference guide to the federal and state elections and federal and state governments in Germany since 1918, the elections to the European Parliament and to all significant present and past political parties. Listed are more than 290 parties. The guide includes basic data of these parties (founding years, political orientations, affiliations to European political parties, European Parliament groups and political internationals) and a chronological summary of their history (predecessors, name changes, mergers and splits).

`The demise of the Cold War requires that we look back to the moment and place of its birth in order to reassess those institutions most affected by it. Politics After Hitler is a significant contribution to this scholarly reappraisal and is must reading for students of German history.' - James F. Tent, The University of Alabama at Birmingham This book concerns the efforts of Britain, France and the United States to reshape German party politics immediately after the Second World War. Based on extensive archival research in the four countries involved, it concludes that interference by the occupiers made a stable and moderate party system in the Federal Republic of Germany much more likely than has been previously assumed. This interference was propelled not by concrete Allied plans for a German political revival, but by fears of reaction, revolution, nationalism and political fragmentation.

Berlin lies more than 100 miles behind the Iron Curtain within the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany. It is not, however, part of that zone. It is a separate political entity for which the four major allies of the war against Nazi tyranny are jointly responsible. Its special status stems from the fact that it was the capital not only of Hitler's Third Reich but of the German nation formed in the latter half of the 19th century. In essence, the four major allies agreed to hold Berlin, as the traditional capital, in trust for a democratic and united Germany. United States, Department of State Berlin-I96I (1961) The division of Germany, and with it the bifurcation of its one-time capital - Berlin - has produced one of the foremost political contro versies of the mid-twentieth century. There has long been a "German problem," and volumes have been written concerning the history and culture of the country, the Nazi era and World War II, the Allied occupation, and recent political and economic developments in Ger many. Yet, the "Berlin problem" - as part of the broader German question - is historically of the current era.

Minor parties in the United States have been studied both individually and collectively. On the basis of these studies, social scientists have set forth certain generalizations concerning the types of American minor parties, their characteristics, their functions, and the obstacles they face in the American party system. However, in their comparative analysis of political parties, political scientists have generally limited themselves to comments about the major parties. This study examines in detail all the minor parties which have participated in the national elections of the Federal Republic of Germany since its inception in 1949 in light of the descriptive and explanatory generalizations which have been formulated about minor parties in the United States. The purpose of such an analysis is threefold. First, it provides materials on the West German minor parties which will be readily accessible for cross-national research. Second, through comparisons with the West German experience, the generalizations pro duced to explain American minor parties are made more suitable for comparative analysis. Third, and most important, it seeks to demonstrate that some minor parties play an important role in a party system and that, therefore, minor parties should not be ignored in the comparative analysis of political parties. I am deeply indebted to Professors William B. Gwyn and James D. Cochrane for their help on this project. This work could not have been completed without Professor Gwyn's guidance and prodding.