West Germany with "Ghost Deputies"

I am thinking about how the Republic of China - Taiwan - kept deputies from mainland China in its parliament for decades, even though no elections were possible in their districts. These "aging deputies" from before 1949 simply remained in office until they died, though normal elections were held for seats in Taiwan-based districts. IIRC sometime in the 1980s or 1990s the remaining aging deputies were retired, and their parliament was redistricted based solely on population in Taiwan.

WI West Germany had done something similar: created seats in the Bundestag to represent East Germany - as a way of asserting that Germany was still one country in their eyes - and either kept those seats empty as a symbol or found some workaround in lieu of elections?

Obviously, it couldn't be exactly like Taiwan since whatever Reichstag deputies from before 1945 still existed were Nazis and those from the East were probably still physically in the East. Since they wouldn't be actual pre-1945 deputies hanging onto their seats for life, I propose calling them "ghost deputies" rather than using the Taiwanese term "aging deputies".
 
This seems like a very interesting concept, would you begin this with the 1949 elections or at a later time? How many seat would be created and left “ghost filled” for the East? Look forward to seeing this expand out!
 
I'd say the problem is that Taiwan and Communist China both held to the idea that they legally held the other but that the other was under illegal occupation by pretenders. And that is a very provocative thing, ripe to cause conflict. So far as I know, and I could be wrong because of the memory hole, neither German state claimed a One Germany policy where the other was an illegal government. Germany was already a flash point, and that would only dangerously raise the tension.
 
It seems to me this idea would be a propaganda gift to the Warsaw Pact. "Look! The West Germans are Aggressive Warmongers! Why they've already picked out the puppet governors for East Germany!"
 
I am thinking about how the Republic of China - Taiwan - kept deputies from mainland China in its parliament for decades, even though no elections were possible in their districts. These "aging deputies" from before 1949 simply remained in office until they died, though normal elections were held for seats in Taiwan-based districts.
IIRC not elections were held at all.
IIRC sometime in the 1980s or 1990s the remaining aging deputies were retired, and their parliament was redistricted based solely on population in Taiwan.

WI West Germany had done something similar: created seats in the Bundestag to represent East Germany - as a way of asserting that Germany was still one country in their eyes - and either kept those seats empty as a symbol or found some workaround in lieu of elections?
The "ghost deputies" had actually been elected.

To get something comparable, there would have to be an all-German election in 1949 or so. Then after that, German Communists would assume control in the Soviet zone. Germany would have to continue the tenure of the Bundestag elected in 1949, including the deputies from the Soviet zone.
 
One issue would also be that West Germany for most of its existence still claimed the interwar borders, so it'd also create a situation in which they'd have "ghost deputies" for the lands annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union... Which may damage relations with Poland by a lot, even in a post-Cold War situation...
 
"ghost deputies" for the lands annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union... Which may damage relations with Poland by a lot, even in a post-Cold War situation.
West Germany recognized post-WW2 Polish and Soviet border according 1970 Treaties of Warsaw and of Moscow and treaty of Moscow is de-facto recognition of GDR
 
West Germany recognized post-WW2 Polish and Soviet border according 1970 Treaties of Warsaw and of Moscow and treaty of Moscow is de-facto recognition of GDR
I mean yes but if you consider that 1) if you presume a usage of ghost deputies from 1949 to 1970, that would probably butterfly away the feasiblity of signing the Treaties of Warsaw due to the pressure from said ghost deputies and 2) up until literally German reunification there were significant political factions in Germany, especially in the CDU, which were advocating for revisiting the status of the terrritories annexed by Poland and the USSR/Russia. E.g. the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the CDU's political foundation, states that the CDU in 1978 campaigned on negotating on a European level the borders of Germany as of 1937.
 
It seems to me this idea would be a propaganda gift to the Warsaw Pact. "Look! The West Germans are Aggressive Warmongers! Why they've already picked out the puppet governors for East Germany!"
And "The Russkies may be bad, but they protect us from the Bundesrevanchists who want to steal our Wrocław, Gdańsk and probably Poznań too"
 
I mean yes but if you consider that 1) if you presume a usage of ghost deputies from 1949 to 1970, that would probably butterfly away the feasiblity of signing the Treaties of Warsaw due to the pressure from said ghost deputies and 2) up until literally German reunification there were significant political factions in Germany, especially in the CDU, which were advocating for revisiting the status of the terrritories annexed by Poland and the USSR/Russia. E.g. the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the CDU's political foundation, states that the CDU in 1978 campaigned on negotating on a European level the borders of Germany as of 1937.
Good Lord, I thought that sort of revanchism was a lot more Fringe in Cold War West Germany. I know a lot of people from the Left argued the CDU to be little better than Nazis in disguise, esp. in the Sixties (and I am aware of how it sometimes could end) but I did not think there was so vast a rift.
 
Good Lord, I thought that sort of revanchism was a lot more Fringe in Cold War West Germany. I know a lot of people from the Left argued the CDU to be little better than Nazis in disguise, esp. in the Sixties (and I am aware of how it sometimes could end) but I did not think there was so vast a rift.
A key reason why this was the case was the importance of the Heimatvertriebene, who of course back then were first and second generation expellees, especially ones with an agrarian background, who had to leave behind their farms when they either fled by choice or were expelled (often by force) from those areas. Considering the strong associations of farmers with the CDU in contrast with the more worker-oriented SPD, whose voter base wasn't as dependent on their location to maintain a middle class lifestyle, it makes sense, especially given the weird phrasing of those areas being formally under "Polish administration" instead of being annexed outright.

Then again it is noteworthy to mention that even the Social Democrats in the 60s were hesitant to accept the Oder-Neisse Border. At a 1963 meeting Willy Brandt, then merely mayor of West-Berlin, stated that:
"German Ostpolitik cannot be done behind the backs of the expellees. Whoever regards the Oder-Neisse-Line as a border which is accepted by our people betrays the Poles."

["Deutsche Ostpolitik darf nie hinter dem Rücken der Vertriebenen gemacht werden. Wer die Oder-Neiße-Linie als Grenze betrachtet, die von unserem Volk akzeptiert ist, belügt die Polen."]
 
A key reason why this was the case was the importance of the Heimatvertriebene, who of course back then were first and second generation expellees, especially ones with an agrarian background, who had to leave behind their farms when they either fled by choice or were expelled (often by force) from those areas. Considering the strong associations of farmers with the CDU in contrast with the more worker-oriented SPD, whose voter base wasn't as dependent on their location to maintain a middle class lifestyle, it makes sense, especially given the weird phrasing of those areas being formally under "Polish administration" instead of being annexed outright.

Then again it is noteworthy to mention that even the Social Democrats in the 60s were hesitant to accept the Oder-Neisse Border. At a 1963 meeting Willy Brandt, then merely mayor of West-Berlin, stated that:
"German Ostpolitik cannot be done behind the backs of the expellees. Whoever regards the Oder-Neisse-Line as a border which is accepted by our people betrays the Poles."

["Deutsche Ostpolitik darf nie hinter dem Rücken der Vertriebenen gemacht werden. Wer die Oder-Neiße-Linie als Grenze betrachtet, die von unserem Volk akzeptiert ist, belügt die Polen."]
Interesting. I was under the impression that Oder-Neisse was less controversial in West Germany.
 
you presume a usage of ghost deputies from 1949 to 1970, that would probably butterfly away the feasiblity of signing the Treaties of Warsaw due to the pressure from said ghost deputies
Empty places don't vote. Last legitimate elections in East Germany was in 1932 and eastern expellees can vote in their new place of living
 
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