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

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