Our step-by-step guide to the rules of how to play Candy Land board game. This is laid-back kids racing game that takes you on a wonderful journey rich with texture. Not much to it, but a fun ride. The game is for 2 – 4 players at ages 3+. The rules for how to play Candy Land are incredibly simple to learn making it perfect for even the youngest little tykes.
Welcome to Candy Land… a world of sweet adventure! Come and visit some very special friends. Travel the path and stop along the way to explore the Peppermint Forest, the Gumdrop Mountains and the Chocolate Swamp. As you go, don’t forget to visit fun-loving Gramma Nutt and beautiful Princess Frostline. But watch out for the ever menacing Lord Licorice.
The object of Candy Land board game is to be the first person to reach the Candy Castle by landing on the multi-colored rainbow space at the end of the path.
HOW TO PLAY CANDY LAND – STEP BY STEP
Time Needed: Approximately 30 minutes.
This is a step by step guide for how to play Candy Land the classic kids board game with a creative theme. Additional information and special rules can be found below the list. These will be referenced for your convenience.
1. SETUP | Place Gameboard To kick off how to play Candy Land setup, take the gameboard, unfold it and place it in the center of the gaming space.
2. SETUP | Place Pile of Cards Shuffle up all the cards and place them in a facedown stack in the middle of the play area.
3. SETUP | Pick Character Each player picks a gingerbread character pawn and places it on the START space on the gameboard.
4. SETUP | Choose Start Player The final step of how to play Candy Land setup before getting into Gameplay is to choose who goes first. The book says the youngest player goes first but you can use the randomizer of your choice.
5. GAMEPLAY | Draw a Card & Move On your turn, draw a card from the stack of facedown cards. Move along the game track based on the colors shown on this card. It may a single color block, multiple color blocks or something else. You basically get to move along that many colors on the track. See Movement and Cards below for more details.
6. GAMEPLAY | Repeat Until Rainbow Players take turns taking one card and moving to the spaces it designates until someone reaches the rainbow space at the end of the track.
7. WINNING | Be The First To Reach The End If you are the first person to reach the multi-colored rainbow space, you’ve reached the Candy Castle and won the game. Being the fastest in a race is all you need to know to master the steps for how to play Candy Landy.
HOW TO PLAY CANDY LAND – KEY INFORMATION
MOVEMENT
Always move in the direction of the signposts, unless a Picture card directs you to move backwards on the path.
Two or more Gingerbread characters pawns may be on the same space at the same time.
Shortcuts: There are 2 shortcuts on the path – the Rainbow Trail and the Gumdrop Pass. If your Gingerbread Character pawn lands, by exact count, on the orange space below the Rainbow Trail or on the yellow space below the Gumdrop Pass, you can take the shortcut immediately by moving your pawn to the purple space above the Rainbow Trail or to the green space above the Gumdrop Pass.
Licorice Spaces: There are 3 Licorice Spaces on the path. These Licorice spaces were put here by the sneaky Lord Licorice to try to slow you down. If you land on one of these spaces by exact count, your Gingerbread Character is stuck there for one turn.
CARDS
When you draw a card with one color block, move your pawn forward toward the Candy Castle to the first matching color space on the path.
When you draw a card with two color blocks, move your pawn forward toward the Candy Castle to the second matching color space on the path.
When you draw a Picture card, move your pawn forward or backward on the path to the Pink picture space on the board that matches the PINK picture space on your card. For example, of you draw a CANDY CANE / MR. MINT card, move your pawn to the pink space on the board that shows the candy cane.
GAME CONTENTS
1x Colorful Gameboard
4x Gingerbread Character Pawns
64x Cards
HOW TO PLAY CANDY LAND – IN CLOSING
We hope you can now say you know how to play Candy Land. This game is from way back in 1949 and it is still a strong seller. The game was to give something exciting and simple to very young children. It is that simple, you just move along a track, but with its interesting quirkiness, it has become more of a cultural phenomenon that people just know about. Certainly worth learning how to play Candy Land just to be part of that conversation.
Our step-by-step guide to the rules of how to play Sorry board game. This is a game about managing a team in a race while looking out for the evil players who attempt to hurt you. It just happens to be the simplest version of that. For kids and adults alike, the game is for 2 – 4 players at ages 6+. The rules for how to play Sorry are incredibly easy to understand in just a few steps.
Back in 1929 when Sorry! the board game released to the world, this was about as much theme as you got. The idea of polite meanness was enough and enough it was. This game was popular when it was released and remains an absolute classic today. An entire generation thinks of this kids game as one of the most memorable and edgiest things from their past.
The object of Sorry is to be the first player to get all four of their pawns from their color start to their color home. Players just need to watch out for others bumping them off and sending them back to the starting point. The is the OG “take that” board game.
HOW TO PLAY SORRY – STEP BY STEP
Time Needed: Approximately 30 minutes.
This is a step by step guide for how to play Sorry the popular racing and take that board game. Additional notes and special rules can be found below the list. These will be referenced for your convenience.
1. SETUP | Take Color Pawns To kick off how to play Sorry setup, everyone needs to grab their color pieces. Each player gets four pawns of their chosen color (blue, red, yellow, green).
2. SETUP | Place Pawns on Start Each player puts their four pawns on the corresponding “start” space of that color. Pawns are identical so no need to worry about their order or placement. You are going to slowly moves these out, across the track and towards the home space on your turn.
3. SETUP | Shuffle Deck The deck of number cards, which will dictate movement amounts throughout the game, needs to be organized. Shuffle up the cards and place the deck face down in the “place pack here” center of the board.
4. SETUP | Pick Starting Player The final step of how to play Sorry setup before getting into game play is to pick who is going to start. Draw a card with highest number going first or use your randomization method of choice.
5. GAMEPLAY | Draw Take the top card on the Draw pile and move accordingly if you can. Place the card face up on the “Discard Here” area.
6. GAMEPLAY | Starting A Pawn To move a Pawn from your START area out on the track, you must draw either a “1” or a “2”. If it is a 2, do as it says, then draw again and move if possible. You may not start a pawn out with any other numbers.
7. GAMEPLAY | Jump and Bumping You may jump over your own or another player’s pawn that’s in your way, counting it as a space. But… if you land on a space that’s already occupied by an opponent’s pawn, Bump that pawn back to its own color START space.
8. GAMEPLAY | Slide The four colored bars with triangle starts and circle ends are the slide areas. If you land on the triangle starting point of any of these that is not your color, with one of your pawns, you get to “slide” to the end. Move to the circle of that slide and Bump any pieces in the way, including your own, back to their START.
8. GAMEPLAY | Sorry Card If you draw the “Sorry” card, you get to really stick it to your opponent. Take one pawn from your START and place it on any space that is occupied by any opponent and bump that opponent’s pawn back to its START. If there is no pawn on your START or no opponent’s pawn on any space you can move to, you forfeit your move.
9. GAMEPLAY | Moving Backwards 4 and 10 cards move you backward. If you have successfully moved a pawn backward at least two spaces beyond your own START space, you may, on a subsequent turn, move into your own SAFETY ZONE without moving all the way around the board.
10. GAMEPLAY | Safety Zone When you enter into a slide area of your color you do not slide because you are almost home at your safety zone. Instead of sliding, you instead move up these colored spaces just like you would any other spaces on the track. Once in your color, you are safe from the bumping of other colored pawns.
11. GAMEPLAY | Making It Home You need to get all four of your pawns in the HOME space. You need exact number amounts to get there. You couldn’t use a “3” when you only had 2 spaces to go.
12. WINNING | First Player All Home The first player to get all four of their pawns into their color HOME space is the winner. As you can see, the rules for how to play Sorry are incredibly simple and quick to pick up.
HOW TO PLAY SORRY – KEY INFORMATION
CARD BREAKDOWN
1 | Either Start a pawn out OR move one pawn forward 1 space. 2 | Either Start a pawn out OR move one pawn forward 2 spaces. Draw Again. 3 | Move one pawn forward 3 spaces. 4 | Move one pawn backward 4 spaces. 5 | Move one pawn forward 5 spaces. 7 | Move one to two pawns forward a total of 7 spaces. 8 | Move one pawn forward 8 spaces. 10 | Move one pawn forward 10 spaces OR move one pawn backward 1 space. 11 | Move one pawn forward 10 spaces OR swap one of your pawns with any one other pawn. 12 | Move one pawn forward 12 spaces. SORRY | Take one pawn from your START and place it on any space that is occupied by any opponent and bump that opponent’s pawn back to its START.
VARIATION — TEAM RULES
RED is always YELLOW’s partner and GREEN is always with BLUE’s.
All regular rules apply and any partner may move — or bump! — his or her own partner’s piece in accordance with the card drawn.
If you land on a space occupied by a partner’s pawn, bump it back to its START!
SORRY cards must be used. If there’s no one else to pick on, this means you might send your own partner’s pieces back!
7 means you may split a move among any of your team’s eight pawns.
If you drew a 1 or a 2m you may enter a pawn of either partner. If it was a 2, when you draw again, you may use that card for any of your team’s eight pieces.
WINNING: The first partnership to get all eight pawns into their respective HOMEs wins the game.
VARIATION FOR ADULTS — PLAY FOR POINTS
Put only three of your pawns on the START space. Put the forth pawn on the circle outside of your START.
Shuffle the deck and deal five cards face down to each player. Place the rest of the pack face down on “Place Pack Here”.
On your turn, select one card from your hand and move according to its instructions. Discard it and draw a new card to bring your hand and move according to its instructions. Discard it and draw a new card to bring your hand back up to five cards.
If none of the cards in your hand allows you to move, discard any one card and draw a new one. Your turn ends; do not move a pawn until your next turn.
The first player to get all four pawns HOME wins.
All players score 5 points for each piece on HOME:
5 points for each opponent’s piece not in its HOME.
25 points if no opponent has more than two pawns HOME.
50 points if no opponent has more than one pawn HOME.
100 points if no opponents’ pawns reached HOME.
GAME CONTENTS
Sorry Game Board
Deck of number cards (no 6’s or 9’s)
16x Pawns (4 each of 4 colors)
HOW TO PLAY SORRY – IN CLOSING
We hope you can now say you know how to play Sorry. This classic racing and take that board game with really simple and straightforward gameplay was well ahead of its time and still holds up as a beloved kids’ game today. There are enough decisions to make, with plenty of stakes, to keep this one interesting. And even with that, it is so simple. This is what makes it a kids’ game, because it is simple, but there is enough here that players of all ages can enjoy it. Learning how to play Sorry, is certainly worthwhile.
The latest entry in our interview series Why You Should Back: Death By Coconuts on Kickstarter. We spoke with the creator to get information about their latest launch. They look to be bringing something very interesting to market that walks the fine line between humorous and morbid. The Kickstarter launch date is May 31, 2022. Check out the link below to go directly to Death By Coconuts Kickstarter page or continue on to read the interview with the creator.
1. How would you describe your product in a few sentences?
Death By Coconuts is best described as a race-to-the-finish board game where you move by betting on death statistics.
First, you draw three causes of death, which can be anything from sharks to falling vending machines and projectile Champagne corks. There are additional time periods and geographical parameters to help you work out the answer. Then, when you’ve made your mind up, you bet up to three chips on which of the three you think is most deadly.
If you’re right, you move forward the same number of spaces as chips you bet with. If you’re wrong, the same applies – only you move backward instead! So you can see, it’s a game of risk and reward were betting big or small dictates how quickly you move across the board.
You’ve got to navigate shortcuts and trapdoors, and the treasure chest cards will more often than not expedite your arrival at the finish line. But sometimes they’ll throw a curveball at you. Only the first to the finish wins, unless there’s a tie. In which case we’ve got a pretty dramatic best-of-three tiebreaker to decide the winner. This is our very first attempt at a board game. We’ve created a simpler mechanic than our first Kickstarter game, Plant-Based Riot, but it still delivers bucket loads of quick-fire fun.
2. Introduce the team bringing this to market? What is your background that brought you to launching this?
Marty Pardoe worked behind the scenes of Plant-Based Riot but is at the core of this team. She’s a hugely gifted designer that’s been involved from the early stages when the game went by the rather sinister name of “May Cause Cancer” (a story for another time…). Marty was named as a rising star in Mojo Nation’s 100 Influential Figures list in 2021 for her work on our game Girl Power. It was Marty’s idea to make Death By Coconuts a race-to-the-finish board game and we’ve run with that ever since.
Roberto Rotaru is our artist, graphic designer, motion graphic designer, video editor. He continues to add strings to his bow since our campaign last year. Originally from Romania, he’s the biggest gamer of the bunch – our go-to guy when it comes to making key decisions on mechanics. All the motion graphics and videos you see in relation to this project are down to his artistry.
I’m the content writer for Death By Coconuts. It was my job to trawl the deepest depths of the internet to put together 250 death statistics. It was definitely no day at a tropical beach, I can tell you. You know what they say, though… It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
Courtney is the guy that oversees everything. It’s his job to stitch all the individual components together. He started Bubblegum Stuff in Hong Kong back in 2013, so there’s traces of his blood, sweat and tears in this and every other product the company has put out over the years.
We’ve turned to Kickstarter again because we loved the experience last time out. It brought us closer to our community in more ways than one. Like us, the people that backed Plant-Based Riot believe in the power of collaboration. And because they have tons of experience backing games on the platform, they are an invaluable source of insight and opinion. We’re sure many of those guys will play active roles in making key design and gameplay decisions with Death By Coconuts, too.
3. What existing games would you compare your game to?
Death By Coconuts is similar to a few games – and in various ways. It’s got elements of Snakes & Ladders, which we all remember as one of the first games we ever played. The shortcut across the lake and the lava flow trapdoor are essentially a ladder and a snake respectively.
The treasure chest cards also give the sense you’re being given a ladder or a snake, depending on what you’re lucky or unlucky enough to pick up. Saying that, though, they could be likened to the chance or action cards that are fairly ubiquitous in many board games.
There are also similarities with a game from London-based games producer Big Potato. Their game What Came First? uses the same betting mechanic as the method for moving around the board. The difference being in What Came First? you’re betting on what happened first out of two events in history that are paired together on the same card. In Death By Coconuts you’re betting on three separately drawn death stats.
That small difference adds endless amounts of replayability to the game. It means there are over 2.5 million possible combinations of death cards! Each round will feel like a fresh challenge regardless of how many times you’ve played the game. That’s amplified even more when you consider the additional caveats like time period and location.
4. What sets your game apart?
What sets Death By Coconuts apart is the delivery. We’ve produced a game that features 250 causes of death without it feeling overtly morbid. And that was always the mission. It must be said, we’re not making light of death or any of the events featured on the cards in the game. But it is as much a part of life as birth. And we knew if we handled it correctly, it wouldn’t cause offense. Much in the same way that Halloween or the Mayan festival Day of the Dead doesn’t.
Some of the content comes across lighthearted, such as the deaths by falling coconuts, which causes on average 150 deaths a year! (Incidentally, that’s more than sharks – and it’s that fact that was the inspiration behind the game.) However, most of the leavening is being done by the 1950s Americana/tropicana/tiki-style design, artwork and overall theme. The board depicts our little skeleton character getting into all kinds of comedic scrapes with cannibals, krakens, snakes and more. Many of which are causes of death featured in the game. In addition to those Easter eggs, there are 150 coconuts on the board in reference to the stat that started it all. We’ll be impressed if anyone finds them all. You might even notice the spaces stretching from Coconut Beach to Eternal Paradise look familiar…
5. How can everyone be assured that they are going to get quality components and you are going to deliver on all the promises you are making?
As previously mentioned, we’re a slightly expanded team to the one that delivered Plant-Based Riot through Kickstarter last year. And this slightly expanded team is working within Bubblegum Stuff, which is a small gift and game company based in London. We’ve been plying our trade for nearly 10 years. So getting things designed, made and delivered is our bread and butter.
Furthermore, we delivered Plant-Based Riot – our first Kickstarter – through all the turmoil and disruption caused by Covid and one of the worst shipping crises in history. We’re really proud to have delivered the game to our backers, as promised, by Christmas. This meant changing from sea freight to air freight right at the eleventh hour. Seriously… the stock was on a ship in port and we took it off and got it onto a flight!
Not that we wouldn’t go above and beyond for our customers anyway. But the loyalty, support and patience showed to us by our backers last year really moved us. And that’s still ringing in our ears going into this next campaign. We’re committed to delivering on our promises and building on our incredible community through Kickstarter.
6. Why should someone back your project?
Death By Coconuts combines diabolically gruesome subject matter with super funky artwork, near-addictive fun and endless replayability.
It feels incredibly unique but still familiar enough that it’s accessible for pretty much everyone. And the learning to fun time ratio is stacked heavily in favor of fun. That makes it a perfect game to pick up and play, whether you’re looking for a casual game for two or something to sustain a great big games night.
So what are you waiting for? Back our project, grab a few fellow shipwrecked shipmates and get going on the race to Eternal Paradise. Where your knowledge of death might just save your life!
Well we are satisfied!
Great insight and enthusiasm from a passionate and experienced designer. This game has some wonderful funky art and is sure to please a very specific type of gamer. If you are looking for an interesting quick-fire game, give this one a shot. Take a look at their Kickstarter for more info!
Have you received enough info on why you should back Death By Coconuts on Kickstarter? Are you backing? Let us know in the comments below or on our BGH Facebook page.
May 25, 2022 – Publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announced a new Twilight Imperium Universe Game Twilight Inscription. The new stand-alone board game is expected to have an MSRP of $64.99 and release later this year.
They are taking everything that they can from the epic 8 hour or so 4X game Twilight Imperium and porting it into a roll and write game. This is incredibly popular thing to do with board games. Some past highly weighted and strategic games that have done this include The Castles of Burgundy, Settlers of Catan, Corinth, Dinosaur Island, My City, Uno, Zombicide and many more.
In Twilight Inscription, the Lazax Empire has burned to ash, rejected by its subjects. The aftermath was tragedy and petty conflict in equal measure, a time of loss and exhaustion. In the ensuing Dark Years, the factions of the galaxy retreated and recovered their strength. Now, they look upon the stars and see an opportunity—a chance to reclaim what was lost. A chance to redefine galactic civilization. A chance to leave their mark upon the stars.
The game an epic roll-and-write game for one to eight players offers an experience unlike anything Fantasy Flight Games has done before. With a limited pool of resources at your disposal, you’ll need to carefully manage Navigation, Expansion, Industry, and Warfare as you amass victory points and earn your right to the throne on Mecatol Rex. Will your faction become the new rulers of the galaxy? Or will your fledgling empire fade into obscurity? Anything can happen in this strategic, infinitely-replayable game!
Much like how Twilight Imperium is a massive board game, Twilight Inscription is a massive roll-and-write. Where most roll-and-writes have each player filling out a single board (referred to as a “player sheet”) as they play, Twilight Inscription has you filling out four!
A great solo mode. If you play the game by yourself or with only one other player, than you will square off against an AI opponent.
A new way to play in your favorite universe. Twilight Inscription is an all-new way to experience the Twilight Imperium universe. This roll-and-write is FFG’s first foray into the genre, and the game is as epic and massive as anything in the TI universe should be.
Ben Rosset, designer of The Search for Planet X, talks about how to design games based on real-life systems and processes. Ben has designed games based on aging cheese, brewing beer, finding planets, manufacturing board games, and many other themes that happen in the real world, so we have quite a bit to chat about.
May 24, 2022 – One of the biggest pieces of info in the Catan announcement was that the Catan 3D Seafarers Cities and Knights Expansion is coming. This new set that requires the base game to play will launch with an MSRP of $399.99.
“Component lovers will get lost in the immersive and detailed Seafarers + Cities & Knights expansion for CATAN – 3D Edition. And finally, our most competitive players will not want to miss the CATAN World Championship this fall.” said Morgan Dontanville, CATAN Studio chief creative officer.
CATAN – Seafarers: Send your ships to explore and discover uncharted islands off of Catan’s shores. Perhaps you will build new settlements there or even discover valuable gold fields. This is the first time this expansion has been produced in 3D.
CATAN – Cities & Knights: Improve your cities into great metropolises. Combine your forces with the forces of the other players to defend Catan against the relentless barbarian attacks.
The expansions’ 363 individual pieces, including hand-painted terrain tiles and antiqued player figures, make the “cooperatively competitive” world of CATAN more immersive than ever before. With CATAN – Seafarers, players set sail to uncharted islands in search of valuable gold and land to settle. In CATAN – Cities & Knights, players work to improve their cities and join forces to defend Catan against invading barbarians.
Jesse Stacy, from Triceratops Games, discusses how to design drafting games. Jesse has been working on a drafting style game for a while, and we dive into the different types, how to keep a game moving, stacking other mechanisms, and more.
Gino Brancazio, from Tinkerbot Games, talks about the three stages of prototyping, and we discuss what you need to know depending on which stage you’re in.
Some caveats ahead: The chancellors will be rated by the knowledge of their time. If they or their contemporaries could not have known about the effects of something, I will not use my hindsight to mark it as a mistake of theirs. The assessment is focused on their conduct as chancellor, but includes their life after holding the office (in which they will still be regarded in the public eye as (ex-)chancellors).
Now, to the system itself: There are three policy field categories (foreign, domestic, and economic policy) and three more general ones (vision, pragmatism, integrity). A chancellor can earn from one to five stars in each category (for a total sum of up to 30). In detail, the chancellor is assessed as follows:
Foreign policy: Did the chancellor increase German influence in the world and the security of Germans at home? Did the chancellor wield German power responsibly and with positive results for the regions affected (the latter counting for a greater deal in times of German power being great)?
Domestic policy: Did the chancellor increase the liberty of Germans to express themselves and to participate in the political process? Did the chancellor promote domestic security and shape the framework for fair justice dealing with offenses?
Economic policy: Did the chancellor facilitate the prosperity and economic security of Germans (including in the mid- and long-term)? Was the chancellor’s economic policy based on mutual benefit of those involved or did it unduly burden one side?
Vision: Did the chancellor have an idea of what Germany and Europe (the latter counting for more in times of German influence being great) should look like beyond the immediate future? Did the chancellor’s policies steer Germany (and, if applicable, Europe) in this direction?
Pragmatism: Did the chancellor succeed in seeing their policy through from inception to completion? How well did the chancellor manage the support from parliament, society, the administration, the media (the latter counting for more in more recent years)?
Integrity: Did the chancellor understand the office as a means to benefit themselves, special interest groups, the entire country, or another community? Did the chancellor respect the boundaries of the office?
Note: If you have read my UK prime minister or US president ratings, you will remember that I rated them on the global impacts of their vision as well. As the rating system is only really applicable to democratic leaders and no democratic German leader ever had the chance to conduct a truly global policy, I only assess their vision on national and European grounds.
Erhard’s Life
Ludwig Erhard was born on February 4, 1897. His parents owned a clothing store in Fürth, a city in the south of Germany. Erhard was initially destined to follow them in the business, but came back from World War I badly wounded and unable to stand for an extended period of time (as we would have had to as a store owner). He thus turned to academia and studied business. After graduating, he managed his parents’ store for a short time before it went bankrupt in 1928. Erhard then succeeded in following his academic aspirations and worked at various institutes and universities. Erhard was no supporter of the Nazi regime which took power in 1933, but conducted advisory research for them. In 1942, he failed in a bid to head his university’s institute for economics (losing to a member of the Nazi party) and was soon after forced out of the institute. He then set up his own one-man think tank, writing on how to re-build Germany’s economy after the war.
These studies – and Erhard’s relative distance from the Nazi regime – recommended him to the post-war authorities. After quick stints on the local and regional level, he was appointed Head of the Special Office for Money and Credit (and soon after Director of Economics) of the Anglo-American occupation zone in Germany. When he was informed by the Allied authorities of their decision to introduce a new currency (the Deutsche Mark) in the three western occupation zones, Erhard went ahead and also announced the lifting of price-fixing and production controls for most goods.
Economically speaking, the monetary reform and abolition of state control over the economy were not an immediate success. Prices shot up (while wages were still fixed) and unemployed quadrupled to 12%, thus, unrest (leading to a general strike) spread in West Germany. However, the abolition of price-fixing all but abolished the previously ubiquitous black markets. Erhard’s reputation thus was stellar, and the newly formed big-tent center-right party CDU (Christlich-Demokratische Union, Christian Democratic Union) invited Erhard to join forces with them. Erhard, who personally was more of a classical liberal than a conservative, joined with the intent of committing a large party to his ideas of free markets, and successfully ran for parliament on the CDU ticket in West Germany’s first national elections in 1949. Erhard then became Minister for the Economy in the new administration, a post he would hold for the next fourteen years.
Early in Erhard’s tenure, economic success blossomed: The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 re-committed the American economy to war production – and West Germany seized the opportunity to produce the civilian goods not made in America anymore. The West German economy boomed. Unemployment fell. Wages rose. Exports grew manifold. And Erhard, who steadfastly (but not always successfully) defended his liberal economic principles against any attempts to introduce more state intervention, became the lucky charm of the German “economic miracle”.
Erhard’s corresponding popularity made him a natural contender for the succession of West Germany’s first chancellor Konrad Adenauer. When Adenauer finally resigned in 1963 (aged 87), the CDU and its allies in government elected Erhard as the new chancellor. Erhard, never a politician’s politician, refrained from domestic initiatives. His foreign policy was based on the attempt to align West Germany closer with the United States and Great Britain at the expense of the cordial Franco-German relationship his predecessor had built. Erhard won a resounding electoral victory in 1965, but his relationship with his own party remained frail. When a mild recession hit West Germany and the budget was threatened by Erhard’s earlier commitment to payments to the United States and Britain to make up for the spending of their troops stationed in Germany (the “offset arrangement”), his government broke down (1966). Erhard was forced to resign. The new government which was based on the CDU and the long-time oppositional Social Democrats elected Kurt Georg Kiesinger as his successor. Erhard retired to a quiet life, but remained a member of parliament until his death on May 5, 1977.
The Rating
Foreign policy:
Erhard’s only field of ambition during his chancellorship – and also the area of his most obvious failure. His pivot away from France damaged the Franco-German relationship and European integration (which he, against his general economic principles, did not seek anyway). On the other hand, Erhard could not make good on his aim to improve German-American relationships – his professed dislike for France took any kind of lever out his hand, and his willingness to accede to American demands (like promising full payment in the offset arrangement) did not result in any favors in return from the United States (the key prize would have been if America had continued to seek a Multilateral Force with nuclear weapons – which would have resulted in Germany’s nuclear sharing).
Erhard did not start any domestic policy initiatives and ignored the growing societal pressures beyond his favorite topic of the economy. In the rare cases that such topics were forced onto him, Erhard, to his credit, deviated from the previous course of German policy which had been to largely ignore the Nazi crimes: When he found out that his Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees, and War Victims had been an active Nazi party functionary, Erhard forced his resignation (in a striking difference to his predecessor Adenauer, who kept his Chief of Staff for ten years despite the man’s well-known involvement in drafting the Nazis’ laws prosecuting German Jews).
As German law knew a statute of limitation preventing criminal prosecution after twenty years, all Nazi crimes would have gone unpunished from 1965 on. Erhard was in the minority of government members who wanted to extend the period of prosecution. Parliament passed an extension with a mixed-party majority – Erhard, however, had nor been able to convince his own government colleagues and was not instrumental in securing this majority.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Economic policy:
Another policy field of Erhard inaction – this time, however, by design. Erhard’s liberal economic credo kept him from intervening in the economy. That was defensible in the narrow view – economic activity in the short term – but defective otherwise: Erhard knew (more than a year before the budgetary crisis of 1966) that the economic downswing lowered public revenue while his promises concerning the offset arrangement would raise expenses. Erhard thus brought the budgetary crisis, over which he’d fall, onto himself. In the longer term, Erhard’s torpedoing of European integration denied the German economy export markets and delayed the innovation stimulus of increased competition.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Vision:
Erhard’s overarching vision in life was to allow free individuals to pursue their ambitions in a market economy – but when he entered office, he felt the preconditions for that were already achieved (a debatable claim). Thus, his policy mostly consisted of staying the course. He did pitch a foreign policy plan to refuse the Soviet Union loans and then “buy” German reunification when the Soviet economy collapsed, but was met with (justified) bewilderment by both his domestic and foreign interlocutors. Domestically, his only contribution which went beyond the immediate needs was his idea of a “Formed-Up Society” in which both egoism and pluralism would be overcome – an idea that he brought up during the 1965 election campaign and did not return to afterward.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Pragmatism:
Likely Erhard’s weakest suit. While he did not attempt much, what he attempted usually fell flat because Erhard was unable to secure support for it (or because he wavered and dropped it in the face of resistance). He had lost his own party’s support for his foreign policy within his first year in office. Their support for his domestic activities (or, rather, the lack thereof) withered soon after. Particularly instructive is the aftermath of Erhard’s 1965 electoral victory: Erhard squandered this testament of his popularity with the voters within weeks. He had intended to downsize the cabinet (and thus to get rid of ministers appointed by his predecessor and unfriendly to him) but waited too long to begin that process. In the end, the parliamentary parties of the coalition partners CDU, its Bavarian sister party CSU, and the pro-business FDP prevailed in securing all the posts for ministers they wanted. Erhard was forced to accept a virtually unchanged cabinet. Only one year after his electoral victory, the remainder of his political capital was spent and he resigned.
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Integrity:
Erhard came into office planning to abolish his predecessor’s “democracy of favors” which was based on securing the support of powerful interest groups like the churches, the farmers’ associations, the employers’ associations, or the trade unions by passing legislation and channeling government funding in their favor. While Erhard was not above combatting European economic integration (against his liberal credo of open markets and the benefits of competition) to protect the German farmers from their French competitors, he doled out distinctly fewer favors than his predecessor. He also confined himself to the limits the constitution spelled out and did not attempt to shape the state offices to his liking (as Adenauer had done when he tried to move from the chancellorship into the presidency – but, of course, turning the presidency into the more important office). Finally, Erhard’s more collegial government style confirmed that Germany had moved beyond authoritarianism.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Erhard is the rare case of a politician not defined by the highest office he attained: He took the decisive action of his life as Director of Economics for the Bizone. He is best remembered by the public as Minister for the Economy. Looking at his chancellorship, it’s easy to see why: During this short period in office, Erhard did not attempt much, and what he attempted usually failed. His successors were left to respond to pressures resulting from the changing civil society and to repair the damage done to Franco-German relations (only achieved around ten years later). Erhard positions himself on the lower rungs of the leaders rated.
How would you rate Erhard? Let me know in the comments!
Further Reading
For short overview essays on all German chancellors from Bismarck on, see Sternburg, Wilhelm von: Die deutschen Kanzler. Von Bismarck bis Merkel[The German Chancellors. From Bismarck to Merkel], Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2006 (in German).
For a recent English-language biography (or, rather, a hagiography), see Mierzejewski, Alfred C.: Ludwig Erhard. A Biography, University of North Carolina press, Chapel Hill, NC 2005.
The standard, primary-source based, scholarly biography (which is a bit vitriolic, but generally sound in its judgment) is Hentschel, Volker: Ludwig Erhard. Ein Politikerleben [Ludwig Erhard. A Politician’s Life], Olzog, Munich 1996 (in German).
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