According to the newspaper die Frankfurte Allgemeine Zeitung, the number of the unemployed people in Germany has decreased by 25.000 in November, reaching the stage of 4.531.000 jobless persons. The Federal Minister of the Economy, Michael Glos (CSU) spoke in the Bundestag „vom ersten November seit der Wiedervereinigung, in dem es zu keiner Zunahme der Arbeitslosigkeit gekommen ist“. Even long after Adenauer's mandates, his heritage is still perceptible in Germany. His decision to anchor the Western Federal Republic in the capitalist block, rather than to pursue unification at all costs, has raised many controversies. Did the policy-making of Adenauer, consolidating democracy in the West, indeed harm the East and delay German unification?
Addressing this issue implies to focus on several matters:
-First, one should show that democracy was well consolidated in the Western Part of Germany, together with its economic situation. (I)
-Second, one should explain, as the term “pursuit of integration” shows, that Adenauer's decision towards Western integration was not sovereign, but guided by the occupying forces. However, he actively supported Western Integration, a policy that makes him responsible for delaying unification and consequently harming the East. (II)
-Lastly, one shall see that the implementation of democracy in the West at the detriment of the East was a sacrifice that was worth it, since it was the quickest and safest way to stability in Germany. (III)
On the whole, the integration of the Federal Republic into the Western world was a sacrifice that was worth it.
[...] As a result, nowadays, the basic conception of democracy is rather homogeneous between the West and the East. In of the people in the East were moderately satisfied with democracy as it exists in the Federal Republic.[20] In the party political field, an East-West gap is still visible, however, in September 2005, a chancellor from the East, Angela Merkel, has been elected, which paves the way towards a deeper integration. To conclude, Adenauer's economic and democratic continuation of the Allies objectives was a decision from which Germany benefited as a whole. [...]
[...] On 20 September 1949, he declared: have no doubts that in accordance with our origins and our convictions we belong to the Western European world”[11] Even though, Adenauer saw the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into the West as part of the process of unification. -First, he aimed at ensuring security in the Westzone, against the Soviet Union. The necessity to rearm, as well as the recovery of the Saarland, were issues in his view that could only be achieved through a Western integration. [...]
[...] Therefore, it undeniably contributed to the enforcement of democracy in post war Germany. The policy of the CDU in the post war period “made a successful extremist challenge unlikely”. Besides, following the culturalist approach of nation shaping, according to which an accompanying culture is indispensable for the well functioning of democratic institutions, Adenauer chose to keep close relationships to the West so as to integrate their values into West German society.[5] As a response, Schumacher argued that not tackling national concerns was precisely the factor that had led the Weimarer Republik to exacerbated nationalism. [...]
[...] Indeed, it is the integration into the West that contributed to the reconstruction of Germany, and one cannot say that the abandonment of the East was a deliberate strategy to consolidate democracy in the FRG. Once the political context permitted it, Willy Brandt managed to combine close relationships with the Western powers and a prospective Ostpolitik. The failure to address the Eastern issue must just be seen as a historical impossibility at the beginnings of the Cold War. Thus, one should see that Adenauer's tendency towards Western integration was done at the detriment of _rather than thanks to_ a political dialogue with the East. [...]
[...] Conversely, Peter Krueger states that the implementation of democracy in West Germany inevitably led to the development of a nationalist feeling. is difficult to assess whether democracy, requiring a delimitable area and political community can be achieved ( ) in the long run without nation- building”.[15] The emergence of a certain form of German nationalism was thus a logical consequence of the implementation of democracy in Western Germany. The strategy of the Allies not to participate actively, but to assist the process of democratization, also paved the way for a common and autonomous political move in Germany. [...]
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