Bizonal Economic Council

After the American Secretary of State George C. Marshall pushed for organisational improvements in the Anglo-American zone of occupation in post-war West Germany, the two Military Governors Lucius D. Clay and Sir Brian Robertson signed the ‘Agreement for Reorganisation of Bizonal Economic Agencies’ on 29 May 1947 resulting in the creation of the so-called Wirtschaftsrat (Economic Council), which became effective on 10 June 1947.

In principle, the Economic Council consisted of three organs concentrated in Frankfurt am Main: the Exekutivrat (Executive Committee) as a second chamber with representatives of the eight Länder in the Bizone, the Direktoren der Verwaltung (Executive Directors) as quasi-ministers presiding over the five already existing administrations, and, finally, the actual Wirtschaftsrat as first post-war parliament.

These were the renaming of the Executive Committee as Länderrat, the creation of a Verwaltungsrat (Administrative Council) formed by the Executive Directors and supervised by a chairman officially titled Oberdirektor, and, finally, the doubling of the delegates in the Economic Council, something which did not affect the proportion of political parties in this second economic parliament.

While the Economic Council was a decisive platform for the political debate and factual implementation of any emerging economic concept, the parliament’s resolutions and acts remained subject to the authorisation by the Allied Zwei-Zonen-Amt (Bipartite Board) in Berlin and were controlled by the so-called ‘Zweizonenkontrollamt’ (Bipartite Control Office) (BICO) in Frankfurt.

Due to the fact that the Economic Council was restricted in its legislative scope and also not a representative assembly elected by the plebiscite, the bizonal institution was often ill-regarded as quasi-parliament.