Amnesia in West Germany

Name-calling and dark predictions have replaced good sense on both sides of the Atlantic in the wake of news about West German companies’ involvement in building a chemical weapons plant in Libya and, more recently, the strong showing of a far-right political party in West Berlin city elections. Under the circumstances it might be instructive for both Germans and Americans to reflect on how the Federal Republic came to be created 40 years ago out of the ashes of defeat.

At the end of World War II, every major city in Germany lay in ruin. Millions of Germans were dead, millions more were crippled and wounded. There was no food, no fuel, no clothing. Survivors groveled in the ashes with little hope and only vague memories of a society that until the 20th Century had been one of the most enlightened in Europe. Thanks to its inhuman persecution of Jews and the murder of millions in concentration camps, Germany was the pariah of the world community.

Only the United States had the power, and her people the compassion, to deal with the calamity of postwar Germany. It was remarkable how quickly American political leadership came to put the agony of the war behind it, to take a deep breath and address with surprisingly little rancor the needs of the Germans as well as the plight of America’s wartime allies.

Fortunately, on the American political scene then there were men like Harry Truman and George C. Marshall, men of vision and courage the like of which the United States may not see again. Upon them fell the Herculean task of devising a strategy that would quickly put Europe back on its feet, while at the same time avoiding a new war with Russia. For no sooner had the last toast to victory been drunk than the Soviet Union confirmed its intention to consume as much of Europe as it could; Germany, now partitioned, became again a battleground.

The Soviets were committed to doing everything possible to transform East Germany into a model communist society. To the United States and its allies, this meant that West Germany had to be high on the priorities list of any plan for European recovery. The American response to these challenges was the Marshall Plan, a gesture of good will and generosity without precedent in modern history. It was also a statement of faith that the West Germans would work an economic miracle with their share.

How to resuscitate democracy in West Germany was another matter. After all, in 1933 most Germans had clearly demonstrated their indifference to the responsibilities of democracy, the need as citizens to become involved with the affairs of state. They had been quite willing to turn over their country to the loud and brutal followers of Hitler in return for Nazi promises of economic stability and Aryan rebirth.

Given this history, the Western allies were not nearly so sanguine about Germany’s chances for success in the political arena.

Then there appeared a miracle that would prove to be at least as profound as the economic transformation: the emergence of a small group of Germans with political courage who had managed to survive the Nazi years and Nazi persecution. Led by men like Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Schumacher and Theodor Heuss, this group was determined to demonstrate that there were Germans who would fight as fiercely to rebuild democracy in West Germany as the Nazis had fought to destroy it.

Prompted and prodded by the Americans, and with the U.S. Constitution as a model, Adenauer and 64 others began meeting as a parliamentary council in September, 1948. Less than a year later they met in Bonn to sign the Basic Law of the new Federal Republic of Germany.

By any standard, the Basic Law was a remarkable work. With clarity and precision it set forth a cavalcade of human and civil rights; the first 17 articles dealt with nothing but the inviolability of individual freedoms and rights under law. Freedom of expression, worship, assembly, association and movement were guaranteed, as were the rights to petition, education and property.

To prevent any national candidate from wresting power by direct appeal to the masses, as Hitler had done, the offices of federal chancellor and president would be elected by the political parties represented in the national legislature. To obtain that representation, a party would have to get at least 5% of the popular vote. But any party whose “aims or behavior of its adherents” might try to abridge or impair the basic rights of the people could be declared unconstitutional.

It has been suggested that the Republicans, the party that upset things in the recent West Berlin elections, be declared a threat to the constitution and disbanded. That would be a mistake, despite the repugnance of the party’s leaders and what they espouse. West Germans might be better advised to recall the lessons of the 1940s: that in a democracy, fringe elements grow to become a threat only when the decent majority abdicates responsibility to be involved with the political process--when people allow the pursuit of personal comfort and national economic power to supersede interest in and concern for the political soul of their nation. Since its economic power is no longer in doubt, perhaps it is time that the Federal Republic base national pride on performance as a democratic society as well as on annual export figures.

There are some in Bonn these days who want to put more distance between the Federal Republic and the United States. Opinion polls suggest that many West Germans find Moscow more cordial than Washington. One politician complained that Americans are treating West Germany like a “banana republic” when they express concern about the course of West German democracy.

Such sentiments convey the unfortunate impression that West Germans have forgotten the truly remarkable achievement of Adenauer, Schumacher and the others whose courage and resolve after the war persuaded the United States that West Germany deserved another chance.

The United States has not only the right but also the obligation to raise its voice in concern when the democracy that it helped to create appears to be veering off course.