Vanishing Double Threat: The Case of Germany

Abstract

‘The question of security poses itself differently in Germany than in any other European country.’¹ This was how the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, speaking in 1950, outlined the position of the country — the divided country — that was both the cause and the victim of the new international order beginning to crystallise in Europe following the Second World War. The ‘question of security’ in and around Germany had displayed a number of special features since at least the foundation of the second German Reich at Versailles, if not before; and in the eyes of most European countries it was these features that created the real problems. In the German view, however, it was the legacy of the Second World War that was decisive — and continued to be so for the next forty years.