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Rearmament and the European Defense
Community
The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 convinced Western leaders of
the growing threat of international communism. The United States began
to encourage the Europeans--the FRG in particular--to contribute to their
own defense. For Germany, five years after having lost the most devastating
of all wars, this meant forming an army, a step unthinkable for many Germans.
Germany's rearmament was also anathema to some of its neighbors, especially
France. As the Korean War continued, however, opposition to rearmament
lessened within the FRG, and China's entry in the war caused France to
revise its negative position toward German rearmament.
To contain a newly armed Germany, French officials proposed the creation
of the European Defense Community (EDC) under the aegis of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). Adenauer quickly agreed to join the EDC because
he saw membership as likely to increase his country's sovereignty. The
treaties establishing the EDC were signed in May 1952 in Bonn by the Western
Allies and the FRG. Although the Bundestag ratified the treaties, the
EDC was ultimately blocked by France's parliament, the National Assembly,
because it opposed putting French troops under foreign command. The French
veto meant that a new formula was needed to allay French fears of a strong
Germany.
Countries that would have formed the European Defence Community according to Pleven Plan
The negotiations surrounding the planned rearmament of the FRG and the
creation of the EDC provoked a Soviet countermeasure. After a second East
German proposal for talks on a possible unification of the two Germanys
failed because of the FRG's demands for free elections in the GDR, the
Soviet Union put forth a new proposal to the Western Allies in March 1952.
The Soviet Union would agree to German unification if the Oder-Neisse
border were recognized as final and if a unified Germany were to remain
neutral. If the proposal were accepted, Allied troops would leave Germany
within one year, and the country would obtain its full sovereignty.
Although the offer was directed to the Western Allies, its content was
aimed directly at the West German public and aroused lively discussion
about the country's future. Adenauer was convinced, however, that even
if the Soviet proposal were serious, an acceptance of the plan would mean
Germany's exclusion from the community of Western democracies and an uncertain
future. Together with the Western Allies, which did not wish to act without
his consent, Adenauer continued to demand free elections supervised by
the United Nations (UN) in all of Germany as a precondition for negotiations.
The Soviet Union declined and abandoned its proposal. Adenauer was harshly
criticized by the opposition for not having seized this opportunity for
unification. As his impressive victory in the Bundestag elections of 1953
clearly demonstrated, however, Adenauer had acted according to the wishes
of the overwhelming majority of West Germans.
Adenauer's decision to turn down the Soviet proposal was convincing
evidence that the FRG intended to remain firmly anchored in the Western
defense community. After plans for the EDC had failed because of the French
veto, negotiations were successfully concluded on the Treaties of Paris
in May 1954, which ended the Occupation Statute and made the FRG a member
of the Western European Union and of NATO. On May 5, 1955, the FRG declared
its sovereignty as a country and, as a new member of NATO, undertook to
contribute to the organization's defense effort by building up its own
armed forces, the Bundeswehr.
West Germany joins NATO in 1955
The FRG contributed to NATO's defense effort by building up the Bundeswehr,
an undertaking that met with considerable opposition within the population.
For many, the memories of the war were still too vivid. To avoid separating
the army from the country's civilian and political life, as was the case
during the Weimar Republic, laws were passed that guaranteed civilian
control over the armed forces and gave the individual soldier a new status.
Members of the conscription army were to be "citizens in uniform" and
were encouraged to take an active part in democratic politics. Although
West Germans generally remained less than enthusiastic about their new
army, the majority accepted the responsibility of sharing the burden of
defense with the United States and the other members of NATO.
By 1955 the Soviet Union had abandoned efforts to secure a neutralized
Germany, having become convinced of the FRG's firm position within the
Western Alliance. Following the Four Power Conference in Geneva in July
1955, Chancellor Adenauer accepted an invitation to visit Moscow, seeking
to open new lines of communication with the East without compromising
the FRG's firm commitment to the West. In Moscow in September, he arranged
for the release of 10,000 German war prisoners. In addition, without having
recognized the division of Germany or the Oder-Neisse line as permanent,
West German negotiators also established diplomatic relations with the
Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union had recognized the GDR as a state in 1954, and the
two countries maintained diplomatic relations with one another. The FRG
had not, however, recognized the GDR. And to dissuade other countries
from recognizing East Germany, Adenauer's foreign policy adviser, Walter
Hallstein, proposed that the FRG break diplomatic relations with any country
that recognized the GDR. The proposal was based on the FRG's claim, as
a democratic state, to be the only legitimate representative of the German
people. The Hallstein Doctrine was adopted as a principle of West German
foreign policy in September 1955 and remained in effect until the late
1960s.
Another important development in the FRG's relations with its neighbors
was that the Saarland rejoined the FRG in 1957. After World War II, France
had attempted to separate this region economically and politically from
the rest of Germany. In 1947 the Saarland received its own constitution
and was virtually autonomous. During negotiations leading to the Treaties
of Paris, the FRG and France agreed, in the Saar Statute, that the Saarland
should become a territory under the control of the Council of Europe.
However, in the referendum of October 1955, which was supposed to confirm
the Saar Statute, Saarland voters rejected the statute by a two-thirds
majority, an indication that they wished their region to become part of
the FRG. On January 1, 1957, the Saarland became a West German Land.
In addition to his success in building a close and firm relationship
with the United States, another of Adenauer's great foreign policy achievements
was reconciliation with France, with which Germany had been locked in
rivalry and conflict for centuries. In spite of remaining disagreements
on the areas of European integration and NATO, a basis for the development
of more normal relations between their two countries was forged upon a
good personal understanding between Adenauer and French president Charles
de Gaulle, who had assumed the French presidency in 1958.
Élysée Treaty also known as the Treaty of Friendship, was established by Charles de Gaulle of France and Konrad Adenauer of Germany on January 22, 1963 for reconciliation between the two countries.
The German-French Friendship Treaty (Elysee Treaty), which went into
effect in January 1963, called for regular consultations between the two
governments, semiannual meetings of the chiefs of state, and a youth exchange
program. The treaty was seen by many as a positive step in the history
of a difficult relationship between the two countries. Of greater importance
to the majority of West Germans, however, was the country's relationship
with the United States and its secure place within the Western defense
community.
- West Germany and the
Community of Nations
- Rearmament and the European
Defense Community
- Social Market Economy
- Ludwig Erhard
and the Grand Coalition
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