An Alliance for a New Westpolitik

Abstract

Rising Cold War tensions yielded broad support within the Federal Republic for a new Westpolitik without creating a consensus on the terms of the new policy. In fact, the proposals for a European Coal and Steel Community (in the Schuman Plan) and a West German defense contribution aroused bitter opposition. Many West German voters, workers, business people, and churchgoers viewed them with suspicion and fear: suspicion of French intentions; and fear of more bloodshed, less democracy, and a deeper national division. As a product of the Cold War, the rearmament and Schuman Plan proposals disturbed the social and political bases of Adenauer’s center-right government.