Throughout the U.S. occupation zone, German Bürger put on their Sunday best, went to church, and afterwards to the polls. It was their first free election in 13 years.
Contending for rural council seats in small communities (up to 20,000 inhabitants) were four major parties, a dozen minor ones, and a bevy of independent candidates. In Catholic Bavaria the slightly right-of-center Christian Democratic Union won a landslide victory. Typical campaign promise: "Do you want your barnyards, fields and cattle to remain your property? . . . Then vote C.D.U.!" Socialists were a bad second. Liberals and Communists also ran. Independents...
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