Germany: The Long Road West 1933-1990
by Heinrich August Winkler
Oxford University Press, £35
IN HIS second volume covering what he calls Germany’s long road west (the first covered the years 1789-1933) Heinrich August Winkler of Humboldt University in Berlin traces the history of Germany from the coming to power of the National Socialist Party in 1933 to the emergence of a reunified German state in 1990 and the consequential effects of this on both the West and East German populations and the international arena.
The outbreak of both the Great War and the Second World War have a direct link, according to Winkler. He argues that on both occasions Berlin sought to dismantle the world order and achieve German global hegemony: “This connects the Second World War with the First. The unprecedented nature of Hitler’s regime and its crimes should not blind us to the continuity of the German will to fundamentally reshape the balance of world power in favour of the Reich.”
The Nazi period – the “German catastrophe” – is held by Winkler to have had a major impact on the politics and political culture of both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. Addressing the Parliamentary Council of the FRG in 1949 Theodor Heuss, the federal president, said that May 8 1945 would continue to be “the most tragic and questionable paradox for us since we were rescued and destroyed at the same time.” As for East Germany, Winkler says: “Anti-fascism became the foundation myth of the GDR. It served as the justification for the founding of a new dictatorship, one that posed as the only true democratic government on German soil and as a guarantee against a relapse into barbarism.”
The political and economic systems of the two Germanys are expertly scrutinised. Winkler argues that the economy of the GDR during the early and mid-1980s was bankrolled, in the form of loans, by the FRG and these loans prevented the economy from going bankrupt: “The loan from the FRG restored East Germany’s credit-worthiness even in the West and permitted the continuation of the ‘unity of economic and social policy’ first promulgated [by the GDR] in 1976.” Thus Winkler contends that “the capitalist class enemy thereby became a pillar of socialism.”
Winkler also provides a fascinating insight into international reaction to the reunification of the two Germanys in October 1990. The reader learns of a meeting between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her foreign secretary Douglas Hurd and a group of experts on Germany at Chequers in early 1990 at which the consequences of German reunification were discussed. Perceived German characteristics were highlighted: aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying and egotism. Thatcher opposed reunification because she feared that a reunited Germany could “resurrect the concept of Mitteleuropa.”
In the first volume of Germany: The Long Road West Winkler asked whether Germany cultivated a Sonderweg – a unique path through history. We had to wait until volume two to find out his answer and now we have it – he says there was indeed a German Sonderweg. In support of this Winkler notes that the concepts of human and civil rights, while strongly embedded in Britain, France and America by the turn of the 19th century, were absent in Germany.
Uncharacteristically, Winkler makes a reckless comment when discussing the consequences of Germany’s recognition in 1991 of Slovene and Croatian independence: “The German initiative had no effect on the conflicts in the region.” In fact, German recognition of two republics which were at the time still internationally recognised as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ensured there would be a civil war in that country. Indeed, the war in the former Yugoslavia was referred to by the US mediator at the time, Cyrus Vance, as “Genscher’s War” after Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the German foreign minister, who played a leading role in Germany and the then European Community recognising Slovenia and Croatia as independent.
But that is a minor quibble. Because in this, his concluding volume of Germany: The Long Road West, Winkler confirms his status as one of the world’s leading authorities on German history; his account of the country’s complex history is unlikely to be surpassed for many years to come and it should be read by anyone wishing to understand the history of the European Union’s most important and influential member.
Marcus Papadopoulos
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