Schroeder Softens Tone on U.S.

Fresh from the narrowest election victory in Germany’s postwar history, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder moved Monday to start repairing relations with the U.S. by accepting the resignation of his justice minister, who last week was quoted as saying President Bush’s talk of war echoed that of Adolf Hitler.

Schroeder’s reelection may have been largely propelled by his refusal to commit German troops to a U.S.-led war with Iraq. Washington was outraged at defiance from one of its closest allies. The atmosphere was further spoiled when Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin was quoted as saying that, like Hitler, Bush is using war rhetoric to distract voters from domestic economic issues.

Schroeder’s decision to accept Daeubler-Gmelin’s resignation was his first move after Sunday’s election to soothe tensions. Although Schroeder reiterated that German troops would not participate in ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his tone was less confrontational.

Some government officials and political analysts predict that Germany might end up indirectly providing support for a war in Iraq by accepting expanded peacekeeping responsibilities in the Balkans and Afghanistan. This would free American and other Western forces for duties in the Persian Gulf.

“We have nothing to change from what we said before the election,” Schroeder said Monday. “Between friends there can be factual differences, but they should not be personalized, particularly between close allies.”

The chancellor’s softer language followed weeks in which U.S.-German relations were at their lowest level in decades. U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said recently that the atmosphere between the countries had been “poisoned.” Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld signaled Monday that he had no interest in meeting with his German counterpart, Peter Struck, at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization gathering in Poland.

U.S. officials’ reactions to Schroeder’s victory indicated that animosities remained sharp.

“I have no comment on the German election’s outcome, but I would have to say that the way it was conducted was notably unhelpful and, as the White House has indicated, has had the effect of poisoning the relationship,” Rumsfeld told reporters after meeting with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

A senior White House official traveling with Bush in New Jersey on Monday indicated that the president did not call Schroeder to congratulate the chancellor on his reelection.

Karsten Voigt, an analyst of U.S.-German relations for the German Foreign Ministry, said he couldn’t tell yet how relations between the two allies might be improved. “But Herta Daeubler-Gmelin not joining the new government is one symbol” that things could start getting better, he said. Daeubler-Gmelin said she was misquoted.

Schroeder, whose coalition won a slim majority in Parliament, understands the reluctance of Germans to send troops into battle. This pacifism, an element of foreign policy since the end of World War II, is becoming increasingly difficult to adhere to as Germany takes a bigger role in international affairs.

Some analysts believe that Schroeder’s defiance of the U.S. over Iraq has also hurt the nation among its European partners.

“Germany is isolated in Europe now,” said Carlo Masala, a political scientist at the University of Cologne. “This is a real danger for Schroeder. I think we will see a major shift in his rhetoric and actions.... I think Germany will also lose certain access to Washington. Even France is seen as more of an ally than Germany these days. This damage will last a while, maybe throughout the rest of Bush’s presidency.”

Many Germans believe that the U.S. is strong-arming the rest of the world into moving toward an invasion of Iraq. Schroeder and most of the German electorate view this as a misguided use of force that could ignite the Middle East and muddy the war on terrorism. Germans, like most Europeans, would find a conflict with Iraq a bit more palatable if it was conducted under a U.N. mandate.

“It will make things easier if we have a U.N. resolution,” Voigt said. “Germany, of course, would never send troops, but maybe it would participate in some way.... It’s more about how Germany positions itself. We have to make it clear that the problem is Saddam Hussein and we just disagree on the method.”

Even some of Schroeder’s Social Democratic supporters are troubled that the shrill tenor of the debate over Iraq has aroused a once silent anti-Americanism and may have significantly altered the U.S.-German friendship.

“The big mistake was with Daeubler-Gmelin’s comment on Bush and Hitler,” said Steffen Reiche, a Social Democrat and government minister in the state of Brandenburg. “Maybe the U.S.-German relationship has been damaged. But maybe we can repair it. We are friends of the Americans. We know what the Americans did for us.”

Some political analysts say Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister and a leader of the Greens party--Schroeder’s coalition partner--could help bridge the gap.

Fischer is dynamic and well-liked. At great political risk, he and Schroeder dispatched German troops to Kosovo in 1999 and Afghanistan last year. He has mostly stayed out of the fray between Schroeder and the United States.

“Fischer kept a low profile on the Iraq issue,” said Masala. “If there is a person who has the ability to cool things down, it’s Fischer, not Schroeder.”