The solution of bonding
Under the above circumstances, both owners and workers with their representatives had an interest in rebuilding the companies and creating an investment fund through wage restraint.
Thereby, of course, the workers had to become co-owners, but the solution suggested by the Free Democrats of gradually giving them ownership certificates such as stock in exchange for wage concessions was not a feasible alternative, since comonitoring of the investment had to start right away. How could the workers have accepted stock in worthless companies that could only gain in value through their commitment to create credit? The solution suggested by the (legally trained - all four had a doctorate) managers in 1947 was a stroke of genius. By building on the concept of the two-tier board, labour could be invited to assume an equal position on the supervisory board and management could proceed, as professionally as possible, under the joint supervision of labour and capital. In fact, the investment of the workers had been bonded. Indeed, only through the bonding process was it forthcoming. In this sense, codetermination can be assigned an important place in explaining the ‘economic miracle’ West Germany lived through in the 1950s and 1960s.2The stark consensus that marked the position of all parties in the parliamentary debate thereby finds its logical explanation. The situation required a new solution which was indeed hit upon, and there was no relevant alternative. This, however, may be said not to have been true afterwards. To that question, finally, we now turn.
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