Inner-German Relations and Gesamtdeutsche Security
| Author | Jeffrey Boutwell |
| Published date | 01 September 1984 |
| Date | 01 September 1984 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900306 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
JEFFREY BOUTWELL
Inner-German
relations
and
gesamtdeutsche
security
Es
gibt
keinen
Staat,
der
zwei V61ker
hat,
und
kein
Volk,
das
zwei
Staaten
hat.
ADOLF
ARNDT
Since
1949,
the
two
German
states
that emerged
from the
dis-
memberment
of
the
Third
Reich
have
been
engaged
in
a
search
for
both
external
security and
internal
legitimacy.
As
with
all
nation-states,
these
two
processes
have
been
inter-
dependent.
In
the
case
of
the
two
Germanies,
however,
the
task
has
been
made more
difficult
by
the
historical
burden
of
the 'German question'
as
well
as
by
the
artificiality
of
their
cre-
ation
amidst the
exigencies
of
Cold
War
politics.
To
a
great
extent,
the
external
security
provided
by
their
membership
in
opposing
alliances
had
to
be
the
foundation
on
which
the
Bundesrepublik
Deutschland
(BRD)
and
the
Deutsche
Demo-
kratische
Republik
(DDR)
sought
to
establish
their
respective
national
identities.
1
For
obvious
reasons,
little
attempt
was
made,
or
could
be
made,
to
strengthen
the
identification
of
the
German
people
with
the German nation.
Because
both
states
were
creations
of
a
bipolar
confronta-
tion
between
the United
States
and
the
Soviet
Union
and
were
Staff
Associate,
American
Academy
of
Arts
and
Sciences,
and
Adjunct
Research
Fellow,
Center
for
Science
and
International
Affairs,
Harvard
University.
The
author
would
like
to
thank
Jorg
Baldauf,
Stephen
Graubard,
William
Grif-
fith,
Jeffrey
Herf,
and
Robert
Putnam
for
their
comments
on
an
earlier
draft
of
this
article.
1
See
especially,
Rudolf
Schuster,
Deutschlands
staatliche
Existenz
im
widerstreit
poli-
tischer
und
rechtlicher
Gesichtspunkte:
1945-1963
(Munich:
R.
Oldenbourg
Verlag
1963).
International
Journal
Xxxix
summer
1984
6oo
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
surrounded
by
neighbours
determined
to
prevent
a
recur-
rence
of
German
hegemony,
the
BRD
and the
DDR
had
no
choice
but
to
forgo
fashioning
a
distinct
German
identity
for
them-
selves
and
their
inhabitants.
Under
Konrad
Adenauer,
the
Bundesrepublik
successfully
pursued
a
policy
of
integration
with
the
West,
defining
West
German national interests
within
the
economic
framework
of
Western
Europe
and
the
security
framework
of
the
North
Atlantic
Treaty
Organization
(NATO).
In
East
Germany,
Walter
Ulbricht both
through
necessity
and
through
choice
defined
his
country's
national
interest
in
terms
of
the
sovietization
of
East
German
society.
As
a
consequence,
for
most
of
the
postwar
period
the
inner-
German
relationship
has
been
shaped
by
the
vagaries
of
East-
West
politics,,
2
while
the
security
policies
of
the
two
German
states have
worked at cross-purposes.
Although
both
the
BRD
and
the
DDR
have
given
much
lip
service to
safeguarding
the
se-
curity
of
the
German
people
as
a
whole,
and
to
ensuring
that
war
would
never
again
start from
German
soil,
the
policy
frame
of
reference
continued
to
be
that
of
two
separate German
states
as
opposed
to
the German nation.
Whatever
concept
of
gesamt-
deutsche
('all-German')
security
there
might
have
been
remained
less
than the
sum
of
its
two
constituent
parts.
Since
the
late
197os,
however,
two
trends
have
come
to-
gether
which
could
give
new
meaning
to gesamtdeutsche
secu-
rity
and
to
the
way
each
German
state
defines
its
security.
First,
the
severe
deterioration
in
East-West
relations
since
the
Soviet
move
into
Afghanistan
has
brought
home
to
the
entire
German
people, and
their
governments,
how
dependent
their
security
is
on relations
between the
United
States
and
the
So-
viet
Union.
Increased
fears
of
nuclear
war
and
the
inability
of
the
governments
in
Bonn
and
East
Berlin
to
moderate
the
nu-
clear
weapons
policies
of
their
respective
superpowers
have
given
this
dependence
an
anxious
quality.
To
a
far
greater
de-
gree
than
for the
citizens
in
the
major
nuclear
weapons
states,
2
See
Eberhard
Schulz,
Die
deutsche
Nation
in
Europa
(Bonn: Union Verlag
1982).
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