Journal of European Integration History – Revue d'histoire de l'

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130Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungensionmaking process. The editors of the new German series have to answer the questionwhether it was possible to present a reliable and representative selection of issues in a maximumof 500 documents per year and whether the records of the Auswärtige Amt could adequatelyillustrate the decisionmaking process itself. The selection of documents for 1963gives an affirmative and convincing answer to both questions.In the presentation of the documents this new series is a continuation of the edition practiceof the Akten zur deutschen Auswärtigen Politik 1919-1945. An extensive summary ofeach document opens the volume followed by a chronological presentation of their full textdocuments together with a clear and informative annotation. Indexes of persons and subjectsform the key for the researcher and his specific questions while a chronology helps him inhis general orientation. The continuation of the edition practice of the previous German documentseries seems to neglect the issues mentioned earlier, but a careful examination demonstratesthe contrary. A wide variety of subjects has been covered. Of course, the editorshad to be very economical in the selection of documents for the separate issues, but theadvantage of this line of conduct is that the main themes of the German foreign policy in1963 are presented as a coherent whole. A thematical presentation as practised for instancein the Foreign Relations of the United States and the Documents on British Policy Overseaslacks this insight in the contemporary cohesion of issues. Of course, the selection of 492documents of this volume does not cover all aspects of German foreign policy and foreignrelations, but it absolutely enables the historian to analyse into some details the policy ofBonn in certain issues and its general orientation.The project has its weak points too. The most featuring is its restriction to the politicalarchives of the Auswärtige Amt. This implies that decisionmaking by other institutions in theFederal Republic is not documented or only in a very modest way. For instance this is thecase with the European agricultural policy, international economic issues and monetaryaffairs. More important is the coverage of the role of the federal Chancellor as an actor inGerman foreign policy. Of course, a number of the extensive memorandums of conversationof Adenauer and his successor Erhardt have been printed, but the policymaking within theBundeskanzleramt mostly remains obscure. Annoyance over and irritation on Adenauer’spolicies in the papers of the AA indicate the nature of the diverging views.The year 1963 is an excellent year for testing the formula chosen for the new series. Itwas Adenauer’s last year as Chancellor. He definitely linked the Federal Republic to Franceby the treaty of friendship of 20 January as the cementing of Franco-German cooperation.As such it was an act of very bad timing after De Gaulle’s veto to British membership of theEEC, which caused great difficulties with Germany’s Western European partners and theUnited States. By the end of the year all these problems seemed to have faded away duringthe American-German talks at President Johnson’s ranch in Texas. Of course, Germany’sposition in the Western Alliance is an important theme during 1963, but despite doubts onthe American preparedness to offer Western Europe its total nuclear protection, otheroptions such as an European nuclear force were not regarded as realistic. The manoeuvringof Bonn between Washington and Paris is a very delicate part of the process of putting Germanyon to the international map as an actor. Many examples are given of the Germandémarches in Washington, London and Paris for protecting German interests. The mainobsession in this context was any thinkable concession by the Western Big Three to Moscowwhich might imply a recognition of the German Democratic Republic. In this respect Bonnproved to be a meticulous designer of worst case scenarios and never became tired pointingout to its Allies the dangers and loopholes of the course they had chosen. The Test Ban treatywas the most important example of the anxiety bordering on paranoia. Other main themesare the commercial relations and treaties with communist Eastern European states and therelations with the Arabic countries and Israel. In the latter field Bonn was balancing betweenthe preservation of its good relations with the Islamic world as an export market and the fos-
Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen 131tering of understanding in Israel for its policy of non-recognition. This 1963 volume is avery promising start of a new series. It is an important contribution to the study of recentinternational relations, because it offers the opportunity to counterbalance the Americanviews of the Foreign Relations with those of an emerging economic and political force in theEuropean realm.Albert E. KerstenUniversity of Leiden (Netherlands)Pierre GUILLEN. – La question allemande, (1945-1995). Paris, Editions ImprimerieNationale, 1996, 236 pp. – ISBN 2-7433-0157-0. – 150,00 FF.Since unification, the German problem as an issue of immediate importance has disappearedfrom the world’s headlines. Still, there can be no doubt as to its longterm significance for thefuture of our continent. Even if the process of bringing together the two halves of the countrywill not produce any sensations, the more distant future of Germany does raise a numberof questions: Will there be a European Germany or rather Germany with Europe (or a part ofit) in tow? Will the new Germany maintain its ties both with Western Europe and the Atlanticcommunity of nations? If so, how will it balance its Atlantic with its European commitments?There surely can be no doubt as to the pro-Western orientation of the present Bonngovernment, but no one can predict what the foreign policy of a future German governmentbased on a different coalition of parties might be. A major merit of the book under review isthat it has provided the historical background for such a longterm exploration of the Germanquestion.Contrary to what the title might suggest, the author, who is a well known authority onFranco-German relations, not only presents an overview of the international dimensions ofhis topic, but also provides a full account of the history of the two Germanies from the endof World War Two to the present. For the purposes of this review I have chosen to concentrateon those parts that are devoted to the international implications, and especially to theFrench aspect of the author’s topic. In attempting to define the German problem, the authorrelies on a quotation by de Gaulle. In it the general dwelt on the uncertainties (“incertitudes”)surrounding Germany, a country lacking a fixed identity and which was subject, as heput it, to a continuous process of change (“ce pays en perpétuel devenir ...”). Be this as itmay as far as earlier periods of Germany are concerned, de Gaulle’s description was certainlyconfirmed by what happened to Germany after 1945 – the failure of the victors toagree on common policies regarding the defeated enemy, the founding of two German statesin 1949, and the development of their diverging identities when they had been granted nearsovereigntyin 1955.The author shows that the division of Germany enhanced France’s part in assuring theBonn republic’s integration into the Western world. He keeps reverting to this topic bypointing out that since the days of the Schuman Plan French governments – the MendèsFrance government included -were eager to create special ties with Bonn as an indispensableprerequisite for ensuring Germany’s continuous commitment to the West. To de Gaullethis meant absorbing West Germany into a West European continental block and reducingits ties with the United States.The general’s successors had to come to terms with Bonn’s Ostpolitik and later on withpopulist pacifism in Germany: both developments seemed to foreshadow West Germany’sdisassociation from its Western commitments. At the same time, its growing influencewithin the European communities and a more assertive policy by which its governments
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Journal of European Integration History – Revue d'histoire de l'

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