Word: spd
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...droop-mustached Grass is carrying on his highly personalized crusade on behalf of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He is not a member of the party, but nonetheless feels closely linked to it because of leftist leanings and his personal friendship with SPD Leader Willy Brandt. On the stump, Grass has also been spreading a nonpartisan gospel of his own. Germans, he maintains, must shake off their ingrained submission to authority and tradition and participate more actively in government affairs. "People leave too much to the parties," he says. "What we need in this country is a more active citizenship...
Heinrich Albertz was mayor of Berlin for somewhat less than a year. He is, by all reports, an affable man: a pastor fond of saying that "besides the Bible a rail-road schedule is the only book that doesn't lie." When, last month, his own Social Democratic Party (SPD) forced him to resign, he became the first victim of a political struggle which may reshape German politics...
...certain that this new but still moderate Ostpolitik will in itself revive Berlin. What is more likely is that the city's Social Democratic Party (SPD), once one of the most progressive and daring political forces in Germany, will take action on its own. If that happened, and there are signs that it will, party politics, and the very definition of party could be changed in Germany...
...result of this homogenization, made all the more complete by Brandt's strong personality and the publicity he was then receiving, was a de-politicization of the SPD. An oligarchy ruled the party; personal ambitions were given more attention than issues. The SPD became one more example of the German adage that an electoral party can tolerate no factions...
This much, however, is clear today. The once-placid SPD will be torn by internecine warfare for some time; Berlin's economic problems will not be solved soon. But there is some chance that Germany's most fundamental political questions will be treated with far more dispatch and directness than the foundering Grand Coalition in Bonn can now provide. For the debate within Berlin could produce skilled and forthright Parliamentary leaders hardened by the travails of intra-party maneuvering. More important, it is certain that this development will stimulate the Federal Republic's now-sterile political debate. All Germany will...