Contents page 1 — The limits of realism page 2 — safety politicians and economic thinkers, page 3 — a foreign-policy Realist page 4 — Schmidt acted as a “world economist” On a page
Helmut Schmidt read was the fifth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and crafted the foreign policy in a crucial phase of Transition towards a more independent foreign policy role of the West German state on the world stage. Previously, it had a German foreign policy, beyond the recovery of national sovereignty, both internally and externally, not given.
Joschka Fischer
(The Green) was from 1998 to 2005 Federal Minister for foreign Affairs.
After 1945, no rule of law and not a German foreign policy existed, in fact. The West German state was founded in 1949, but remained powers for the time being, under the auspices of the Western allied occupation, and the name was without the right to its own foreign policy. The Foreign office was founded only in 1952, with the end of the occupation Statute and the regaining of sovereignty over foreign policy.
the first Chancellor of The Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, stand before the task, after the utter Disaster of the Nazi Empire and of the total defeat of Germany in the Second world war in the first place, once again, something of a separate German state, to restore the rule of law under the supervision of the allies and a Widening of the Soviet Union to the West (and West-Berlin) – a danger which was adopted by the Berlin Blockade in 1948/49 very concrete forms: Together with the Korean war (1950-1953) at the other end of the world, marked the beginning of the high phase of the Cold war, the powers then in its second Phase of the thermo-nuclear arms race between the two superpowers, the main victors of the Second world war, should it occur.
This article dates back to the TIME no 46/2018. Here you can read the entire issue.
For Adenauer had the political and military Western integration of the West German partial state clearly take precedence over national unity. By a neutral, reunified Germany, he saw democracy and freedom at risk: The risk of falling into dependence on Moscow, was too big for him. But also its historical experience with Germany, played a decisive role. Adenauer held the German Sonderweg between East and West for one of the Central causes of the German catastrophe in the 20th century. Century. Only a clear, doubt-free Integration of the Federal Republic into the Western community of States was able to avert the danger Once and for all. The West German rearmament and inclusion in Nato, were of Central importance – as well as the German-French reconciliation, which reached the Élysée Treaty of January 1963 to a peak, and the beginning of the end of European Integration in the form of the coal and steel Union.
The two, Konrad Adenauer, following the CDU-Chancellor, Ludwig Erhard and Kurt Georg Kiesinger, managed more or less to Adenauer’s heritage, and have the outside left politically, hardly any traces. You did not have the power to do the Grand coalition under Kurt Georg Kiesinger, the crucial second step for the recovery of the foreign policy sovereignty to West Germany, namely, the Opening to the East, and the reconciliation with the Eastern neighbors. The main obstacles were still in West Germany, “open” questions of the final Eastern border of Germany (the Oder-Neisse line), the right of return of displaced persons and the recognition of the East German state, the GDR.
Schmidt’s century Smiths century
A TIME-series about the man who was for many Germans the ideal Chancellor
On 23. December 2018, Helmut Schmidt, would have been 100 years old. For the TIME being, this is an occasion to look back on the life and Work of their long-standing publisher. As a Senator for the interior in Hamburg, the SPD Faction leader in the Bundestag, Minister, and finally as Chancellor, he has shaped the Federal Republic and a few others. Our series throws in five major Essays on the great themes of his life and asks: What has remained of him?
authors of the TIME, remember the years with Schmidt at the Hamburg press house that now bears his name.
1. Result: an image of A man
By Sabine Rückert
2. Result: the Chancellor contrary to the spirit of the times
By Hartmut Soell
3. Result: In the wrong party?
By Sigmar Gabriel,
4. Result: The Smiths, a century few
Of Reiner Lehberger
5. Result: the world economy and world politics
Joschka Fischer
