20th+

Many people don't remember a Germany that wasn't run by Angela Merkel. Germans go to the polls again in late 2021, and Angela Merkel has already announced she won't run again. With no clear successor, a power vacuum is brewing in Berlin. The coming months will determine Merkel's legacy, and the future of Germany and Europe. So how did she get to where she is? How did she manage to stay in power for so long?

21-8-26 Angela Merkel scores higher approval ratings than any other world leader: In six countries surveyed, outgoing chancellor is most appreciated for handling of German economy

Angela Dorothea Merkel (née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German politician serving as the chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel is the first female chancellor of Germany. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world.

Merkel was born in Hamburg in then-West Germany, moving to East Germany as an infant when her father, a Lutheran clergyman, received a pastorate in Perleberg. She obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986 and worked as a research scientist until 1989. Merkel entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989, briefly serving as deputy spokesperson for the first democratically elected East German Government led by Lothar de Maizière. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. As the protégée of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel was appointed as Minister for Women and Youth in 1991, later becoming Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in 1994. After the CDU lost the 1998 federal election, Merkel was elected CDU General Secretary, before becoming the party's first female leader two years later in the aftermath of a donations scandal that toppled Wolfgang Schäuble.

She was the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005. Following the 2005 federal election, Merkel was appointed to succeed Gerhard Schröder as Chancellor of Germany, leading a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merkel is the first woman to be elected chancellor, and the first chancellor since German reunification to have been raised in the former East Germany. At the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, and Merkel was able to form a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). In the 2013 federal election, Merkel's CDU won a landslide victory with 41.5% of the vote and formed a second grand coalition with the SPD, after the FDP lost all of its representation in the Bundestag. At the 2017 federal election, Merkel led the CDU to become the largest party for the fourth time, and was sworn in for a joint-record fourth term as Chancellor on 14 March 2018.

In foreign policy, Merkel has emphasized international cooperation, both in the context of the European Union and NATO, and strengthening transatlantic economic relations. In 2007, Merkel served as President of the European Council and played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. Merkel played a crucial role in managing the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis. She negotiated a stimulus package in 2008 focusing on infrastructure spending and public investment to counteract the Great Recession. In domestic policy, Merkel's "Energiewende" program has focused on future energy development, seeking to phase out nuclear power in Germany, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase renewable energy sources. Reforms to the Bundeswehr which abolished conscription, health care reform, and more recently her government's response to the 2010s migrant crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany have been major issues during her chancellorship. She has served as senior G7 leader since 2014, and previously from 2011 to 2012. In 2014 she became the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the European Union. In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would stand down as Leader of the CDU at the party convention, and would not seek a fifth term as Chancellor in 2021.

➾ 2023 ..

EU 2023 ..

➾ 2022 ..

MEW - Ministry of Economic Warfare

.UK's WWII Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) The Big Blockade 1939 > .

The Minister of Economic Warfare was a British government position which existed during the Second World War. The minister was in charge of the Special Operations Executive and the Ministry of Economic Warfare.

The Ministry of Economic Warfare went through many changes as the war progressed, and the structure evolved as the Ministry's tasks and strategy altered. Many adjustments were made as a result of shifts in the relative importance of the Ministry, since the political fortunes of the Ministry followed the progress of the war. This chapter follows the MEW, from its beginning in September 1939, through to the end of the war, examining the changes in the ministerial structure and in its personnel along the way.

The first of the three Ministers of Economic Warfare was Ronald Cross, who was appointed on 3 September 1939, along with Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, who served as Director General. Cross was elected Unionist MP for Rossendale in 1931, a position he held until the end of the war. From 1935-37 he was a Government Whip. He served in many departments: appointed Lord of the Treasury in 1937; Vice-Chamberlain of FIM Household, a position he held from 1937-38; and Parliamentary Secretary at the Board of Trade, from 1938-39, when he was appointed to the MEW. Aside from two years as private secretary to Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, Leith-Ross spent much of his career in the Treasury. Despite having no formal education in economics or finance, he attained the position of Deputy Controller of Finance in the Treasury before he was appointed Chief Economic Adviser to the Government in March 1932. In this capacity he acted as the British Representative for international bodies. In 1938 he negotiated a revised German payments agreement to ensure service of guaranteed Austrian loans following the Anschluss. In September 1939 he was appointed to the MEW, and was intimately involved in the negotiations with allied and neutral governments. He enjoyed dealing with the post-war economic policy questions for the Ministry, and served as Chairman of the Inter-Allied Post War Requirements Committee from 1941-43, doing preparation work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In February 1942 he followed Cross' successor, Hugh Dalton, to the Board of Trade.2 As detailed in Chapter 1, the structure of the Ministry was arranged before the war, into seven departments: Plans, Foreign Relations, Prize, Intelligence, Legal, Establishment and Financial Pressure. (see Table 3) Each department was expected to deal with what was anticipated to be a key area in economic warfare. The Custodian of Enemy Property was set up in order to hold the assets of enemies affected by the Statutory List. In November 1939, provision for this was made under Section 2 (2) of the Trading with the Enemy Act which applied to enemy firms as well as to the businesses listed because of their enemy associations. With the outbreak of war and the expansion of government to meet requirements, the MEW was not able to find a permanent home immediately. It occupied a building at the London School of Economics from September 1939 until March 1940, when it relocated to Berkeley Square House for the duration of the war. 3 During the initial phase of the war a representative from the French Minis tére du Blocus had an office in the same building as the MEW to facilitate the co-operative effort. This Ministére worked with the MEW in developing the Allied economic warfare effort. The British government strategy of looking at single commodities rather than damaging the German economy as a whole led to one of the early modifications of the MEW bureaucracy - the establishment of separate sections to deal with individual key commodities. At the suggestion of Viscount Edward Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, Cross set up a special section to deal with the oil problem at the end of October 1939. The section was to be composed of several administrative officers from the MEW and a petroleum expert, along with suitable staff. It was to concentrate on centralising information and initiating plans for the blockading of oil, with pre-emptive purchases left to the Petroleum department. 4 Similar sections were planned to deal with oil seeds and food stuffs, non-ferrous metals, rubber, iron and manganese, and raw textile materials. In March 1940 nine committees were set up. Each looked at sources, what was needed and what the MEW could do in order to limit the supply.

The Ministry of Economic Warfare and Britain's conduct of economic warfare, 1939-1945 Cox, Nechama Janet Cohen https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/file... .

War Ministries WW2 ..

MHS - Ministry of Home Security

The Ministry of Home Security was a British government department established in 1939 to direct national civil defence (primarily tasked with organising air raid precautions) during the Second World War. The Ministry for Home Security was headed by Sir John Anderson the Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security. The Ministry's responsibilities covered all central and regional civil defence organisations (such as air raid wardens, rescue squads, fire services, and the Women’s Voluntary Service). It was also responsible for giving approval to local ARP schemes, and providing public shelters.

The Ministry (run under the auspices of the Home Office) produced hundreds of leaflets that were delivered to the population advising on how to deal with the impending air raids. It also managed propaganda poster campaigns to encourage, amongst other things, the carrying of gas masks and for volunteers to join civil defence groups like the Fire Guards.

In October 1940, Sir John Anderson was replaced by Herbert Morrison in a reshuffle precipitated by Chamberlain's resignation over ill-health. Anderson became Lord President of the Council and full member of the War Cabinet.

With the Allied victory in Europe the Ministry was disbanded in May 1945.
.......
John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, PC, PC (Ire), FRS (8 July 1882 – 4 January 1958) was a British civil servant and politician who is best known for his service in the Cabinet during the Second World War, for which he was nicknamed the "Home Front Prime Minister". He served as Home Secretary, Lord President of the Council and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Anderson shelters are named after him.

.......

Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, CH, PC (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British Labour politician who held a variety of senior positions in the Cabinet.

During the inter-war period, he was Minister of Transport during the 1929-31 Labour Government, then, after losing his seat in Parliament in 1931, became Leader of the London County Council in the 1930s. Returning to the Commons in 1935, he was defeated by Clement Attlee in the Labour leadership election that year, but later acted as Home Secretary in the wartime coalition.

In 1940, Morrison was appointed the first Minister of Supply by Winston Churchill, but shortly afterwards succeeded Sir John Anderson as Home Secretary. Morrison's London experience in local government was particularly useful during the Blitz, and the Morrison shelter was named after him. He made radio appeals for more fire guards in December 1940 ('Britain shall not burn').

Morrison had to take many potentially unpopular and controversial decisions by the nature of wartime circumstances. On 21 January 1941, he banned the Daily Worker for opposing war with Germany and supporting the Soviet Union. The ban lasted for a total of 18 months before it was rescinded.

The arrival of black American troops caused concern in the government, leading Morrison, the Home Secretary, to comment "I am fully conscious that a difficult social problem might be created if there were a substantial number of sex relations between white women and coloured troops and the procreation of half-caste children." That was in a memorandum for the cabinet in 1942. In 1942, Morrison was confronted with an appeal from the Central British Fund for German Jewry (now World Jewish Relief) to admit 350 Jewish children from Vichy France. Although Case Anton ensured the scheme's failure, Morrison had been reluctant to accept it beforehand, wanting to avoid provoking the ‘anti-foreign and anti-semitic feeling which was quite certainly latent in this country (and in some isolated cases not at all latent)’.

In 1943, he ran for the post of Treasurer of the Labour Party but lost a close contest to Arthur Greenwood.
......
During the Second World War Jacob Bronowski worked in operations research for the UK's Ministry of Home Security, where he developed mathematical approaches to bombing strategy for RAF Bomber Command.

War Ministries WW2 ..

MoF - Ministry of Food

Rationing In Britain - [US perspective] - IWM > .

Mrs. T. And Her Cabbage Patch (1941) (approved by Ministry of Food) - BFI > .

Coping on Rationing ..

https://www.cooksinfo.com/british-wartime-food/ .

Minister of Food

"The Minister of Food Control (1916–1921) and the Minister of Food (1939–1958) were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. In the Great War the Ministry sponsored a network of canteens known as National Kitchens. In the Second World War a major task of the Ministry was to oversee rationing in the United Kingdom arising out of World War II. The Minister was assisted by a Parliamentary Secretary.

The ministry's work was transferred in 1921 to the Board of Trade which had a small Food Department between the wars. This became its Food (Defence Plans) Department in 1937 and was then constituted as the Ministry of Food on the outbreak of war in 1939."

In April 1940 Lord Woolton, a prominent businessman, was appointed Minister of Food by Neville Chamberlain, one of a number of ministerial appointments from outside politics. Woolton retained this position until 1943. He supervised 50,000 employees and over a thousand local offices where people could obtain ration cards. His ministry had a virtual monopoly of all food sold in Britain, whether imported or local. His mission was to guarantee adequate nutrition for everyone. With food supplies cut sharply because of enemy action and the needs of the services, rationing was essential. Woolton and his advisors had one scheme in mind but economists convinced them to try point rationing. Everyone would have a certain number of points a month that they could allocate any way they wanted. They tried an experiment and it worked very well. Indeed, food rationing was a major success story in Britain's war.

In the dark days of late June 1940, with a German invasion threatened, Woolton reassured the public that emergency food stocks were in place that would last "for weeks and weeks" even if the shipping could not get through. He said "iron rations" were stored for use only in great emergency. Other rations were stored in the outskirts of cities liable to German bombing. When the Blitz began in late summer 1940 he was ready with more than 200 feeding stations in London and other cities under attack.

Woolton was faced with the task of overseeing rationing due to wartime shortages. He took the view that it was insufficient to merely impose restrictions but that a programme of advertising to support it was also required. He warned that meat and cheese, as well as bacon and eggs, were in very short supply and would remain that way. Calling for a simpler diet, he noted that there was plenty of bread, potatoes, vegetable oils, fats and milk.

By January 1941 the usual overseas food supply had fallen to half what it had been. However, by 1942 ample food supplies were arriving through Lend Lease from the U.S. and a similar Canadian programme. Lend Lease was a gift and there was no charge. Most food was now rationed. Worried about children, Lord Woolton made sure that by 1942 Britain was providing 650,000 children with free meals at schools; about 3,500,000 children received milk at school, in addition to priority supplies at home. The bad news was that his "national loaf" of mushy grey wholemeal bread replaced the ordinary white variety, to the distaste of most housewives. Children were sad to learn that supplies of sweets were reduced to save shipping space on sugar and chocolate.

Woolton kept food prices down; eggs and other items were subsidised. He promoted recipes that worked well with the rationing system, most famously the meatless "Woolton pie" which consisted of carrots, parsnips, potatoes and turnips in oatmeal, with a pastry or potato crust and served with brown gravy. Woolton's business skills made the Ministry of Food's difficult job a success and he earned a strong personal popularity despite the shortages."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_of_Food_(United_Kingdom)

4 September 1939 to 3 April 1940
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morrison,_1st_Viscount_Dunrossil

3 April 1940 11 to November 1943

In April 1940 [Woolton] was appointed as Minister of Food by Neville Chamberlain, one of a number of ministerial appointments from outside politics. Woolton retained this position until 1943. He supervised 50,000 employees and over a thousand local offices where people could obtain ration cards. His ministry had a virtual monopoly of all food sold in Britain, whether imported or local. His mission was to guarantee adequate nutrition for everyone. With food supplies cut sharply because of enemy action and the needs of the services, rationing was essential. Woolton and his advisors had one scheme in mind but economists convinced them to instead try point rationing. Everyone would have a certain number of points a month that they could allocate any way they wanted. The experimental approach to food rationing has been considered successful; indeed, food rationing was a major success story in Britain's war.

In late June 1940, with a German invasion threatened, Woolton reassured the public that emergency food stocks were in place that would last "for weeks and weeks" even if the shipping could not get through. He said "iron rations" were stored for use only in great emergency. Other rations were stored in the outskirts of cities liable to German bombing. When the Blitz began in late summer 1940 he was ready with more than 200 feeding stations in London and other cities under attack.

Woolton was faced with the task of overseeing rationing due to wartime shortages. He took the view that it was insufficient to merely impose restrictions but that a programme of advertising to support it was also required. He warned that meat and cheese, as well as bacon and eggs, were in very short supply and would remain that way. Calling for a simpler diet, he noted that there was plenty of bread, potatoes, vegetable oils, fats and milk.

By January 1941 the usual overseas food supply had fallen in half. However, by 1942 ample food supplies were arriving through Lend Lease from the U.S. and a similar Canadian programme. Lend Lease was a gift and there was no charge. Most food was now rationed. Worried about children, he made sure that by 1942 Britain was providing 650,000 children with free meals at schools; about 3,500,000 children received milk at school, in addition to priority supplies at home. The bad news was that his "national loaf" of wholemeal brown bread replaced the ordinary white variety, to the distaste of most housewives. Children learned that sweets supplies were reduced to save shipping space.

Woolton kept food prices down by subsidizing eggs and other items. He promoted recipes that worked well with the rationing system, most famously the "Woolton pie", which consisted of carrots, parsnips, potatoes and turnips in oatmeal, with a pastry or potato crust and served with brown gravy. Woolton's business skills made the Ministry of Food's difficult job a success and he earned a strong personal popularity despite the shortages.

He joined the Privy Council in 1940 and became a Companion of Honour in 1942. In 1943 Woolton entered the War Cabinet as Minister of Reconstruction, taking charge of the difficult task of planning for post-war Britain and in this role he appeared on the cover of Time on the issue of 26 March 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Marquis,_1st_Earl_of_Woolton

Ministry of Food - Rationing
https://plus.google.com/103755316640704343614/posts/5af393TbvMH

The Ministry of Food: Terry Charman explores Food Rationing in World War Two | Culture24

The Ministry of Food: Terry Charman explores Food Rationing in World War Two | Culture24

War Ministries WW2 ..

11 November 1943 to 26 July 1945
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jestyn_Llewellin,_1st_Baron_Llewellin

Farming: Make Fruitful The Land - 1945 Educational Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5oSmJpB6S4
Medieval 3-field rotation - introduced by Saxons
https://youtu.be/h5oSmJpB6S4?t=1m21s
18th century population explosion
https://youtu.be/h5oSmJpB6S4?t=2m35s
clover introduced from Flanders
https://youtu.be/h5oSmJpB6S4?t=3m17s
Norfolk 4-course rotation
https://youtu.be/h5oSmJpB6S4?t=4m12s
https://youtu.be/hQYpRhkkOKs?t=7m1s
https://plus.google.com/103755316640704343614/posts/hmnY2vHt9uM
Rotation - farming calendar 1940s
https://youtu.be/h5oSmJpB6S4?t=6m43s

The Butcher, The Baker - 1947 Educational Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9yw4Kgl-_g

Village Bakery (1940-1949) - silent, subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4QAaqEsza8
Modern Bakery (1940-1949)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNVhqA_ULy4 .

Food Shortages ..

Ministers of Food (1939–1958)

Minister of Food
	Term of office		Political party
W. S. Morrison (subsequently Viscount Dunrossil)	4 September 1939	3 April 1940	Conservative
The Lord Woolton	3 April 1940	11 November 1943	Independent
Colonel J. J. Llewellin (subsequently Lord Llewellin)	11 November 1943	26 July 1945	Conservative
Sir Ben Smith	3 August 1945	26 May 1946	Labour

MoH - Ministry of Health, 1919-1968

The recruitment of men to fight in WW1 highlighted the poor health of many of those who enlisted. By the 1910s, public health services were provided through a system of charitable voluntary hospitals and workhouses. Some were administered under the Poor Law through the Local Government Board. In April 1917 Lord Rhondda, President of the Local Government Board, proposed to Lloyd George's Cabinet that a Ministry of Health should take over the functions of the Board and Poor Law administration. The Government's Reconstruction Committee, set up to oversee the rebuilding of the nation after the war, approved of this proposal. Later in the same year in a lecture given at the Royal Institute of Public Health, Major Waldorf Astor MP confirmed the need for one central health department. In 1919 the Government passed an Act which established a Ministry of Health to exercise powers with respect to public health in England and Wales and to promote the health of the people.

The first body which could be called a department of government was the Ministry of Health, created through the Ministry of Health Act 1919, consolidating under a single authority the medical and public health functions of central government. This Act of Parliament established for the first time in the United Kingdom a Minister of Health. It also established the Consultative Council on National Health Insurance, the Consultative Council on Medical and Allied Services, the Consultative Council on Local Health Administration and the Consultative Council on General Health Questions. Separate provision was made for consultative arrangements in Wales and ireland. Christopher Addison was the first minister appointed.

The Ministry of Health, following its creation in 1919, took on the powers and duties of the health functions of the government, which were previously fragmented across departments, most notably from the following:

The principal purpose of the new ministry was to consolidate under a single authority the medical and public health functions of the central government and the co-ordination and supervision of local health services in England and Wales. Revisions to the administration came throughout the 20th century; notably, the co-ordination of local medical services was greatly extended in connection with emergency and wartime services from 1938 to 1945, and these developments culminated in the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.

In 1968, the Ministry of Health was dissolved and its functions transferred (along with those of the similarly dissolved Ministry of Social Security) to the newly created Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS). In 1988, these functions were split back into two government departments, forming the Department of Social Security (DSS) and the Department of Health.

After the 2018 British cabinet reshuffle, the department was renamed the Department of Health and Social Care.

Until 2017, the department was located in Richmond House, Whitehall.

In November 2017, the department's headquarters and ministerial offices were moved to 39 Victoria Street, London. Its other principal offices are Skipton House (Elephant and Castle), Wellington House near Waterloo station and Quarry House in Leeds. Wellington House is now mainly occupied by staff from the department's arms-length bodies. New King's Beam House near Blackfriars Bridge was formerly a Department of Health office prior to the expiry of its lease in October 2011. Alexander Fleming House and Hannibal House were previously used by the department. The archives are at Nelson, Lancashire.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/livinglearning/coll-9-health1/health-09/ .

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/twentieth-century-public-health-social-policy/ .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Health_and_Social_Care .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_National_Health_Service .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Health_Act_1919 .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:United_Kingdom_Acts_of_Parliament_1919 .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:United_Kingdom_Acts_of_Parliament_by_year .

2021:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care .

https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state--59 .