Vol. 20 · No. 1 · Issue 62 · Spring 2002 · pp. 49-67 (19)

Mark E. Spicka

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Abstract

This article will examine how during the 1950s the major parties increasingly utilized public-opinion polling and modern political advertising in order to understand and connect with potential voters more effectively. While one would not expect a conservative party led by a man in his seventies to accept these tools readily, the CDU and Konrad Adenauer led the way among West German parties in the adoption of both polling and advertising techniques. I will argue that, by applying these new techniques, the party was much more effective than the SPD in its ability to identify sociological groups of voters, to determine their collective political views, and to garner their votes by tailoring electoral appeals directed to them. This approach to campaigning created what I characterize here as a more Americanized political culture in West Germany in which party ideology became muted in favor of stressing the achievements of the party and its leadership.