Kurt Schumacher Opens the SPD’s Federal Election Campaign in Gelsenkirchen by Rejecting Ludwig Erhard’s Free Market Economics (June 19, 1949) For Kurt Schumacher, the German nation, socialism, and democracy were programmatically linked. It was not in his character to compromise; his rejection of Ludwig Erhard's social market economy and his pointed criticism of the Western integration championed by Adenauer – whom he called "the Allies' chancellor" – put the SPD virtually in the role of the fundamental opposition for a long time. Photo by Hilmar Pabel.