German Problem

Report Outline
Policy Conflicts Over Western Germany
West Germany Five Years After the War
Soviet Pressure on the West in Berlin

Policy Conflicts Over Western Germany

Renewed Consideration of the Problem of Germany

Settlement of outstanding policy differences and agreement on a more dynamic approach to the problem of Germany will be major objectives of the foreign ministers of the United States, Great Britain, and France when they meet at London in the second week of May. Today, five years after the unconditional surrender of the Nazis, Germany is a partitioned nation, divided east and west by the cold war that has developed between the victors of 1945. Both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union want to see Germany reunified, but their total inability to work together in that country has made it a bitter battleground between them. Under the circumstances, it has become the task of the Allies to maintain and strengthen their position in Western Germany against the Soviet threat; to seek to make Western Germany a self-supporting entity; and at the same time to guard against the revival of a Germany which might again menace the peace of Europe and the world.

Concern over threatening aspects of the German situation was reflected in the Senate, Apr. 17, when Sen. Gillette (D., la.) and seven of his colleagues introduced a resolution calling on President Truman to appoint a bipartisan commission to investigate all phases of United States policy in Germany. Gillette said in an accompanying statement that there was need to separate fact from rumor, in connection with recent ominous reports about Soviet activities and the resurgence of extreme nationalism in Germany, in order that Congress might learn how grave was the threat and “reach sound conclusions as to our country's future course” instead of waiting “until the crisis explodes.” Sen. Bridges (R., N. H.) already had requested, Apr. 7, that the Senate-House “watchdog” committee on foreign aid inquire into Allied economic policies in Western Germany with particular attention to the program of dismantling industrial plants.

Divergent Attitudes of Allies on German Question

Although the Allies have been in general agreement on the objectives of Germany policy, they have not always been at one on application of that policy. For the United States, which is bearing the bulk of the financial burden of the occupation, German economic recovery is a prime consideration. Great Britain and France, although recognizing that American taxpayers cannot be expected indefinitely to make up the economic deficits of Western Germany, tend to fear strong industrial recovery in Germany as a threat respectively to the British export trade and to French security. Integration of Western Germany in some form of European union is advocated as the way out of this dilemma. France concedes the validity of the proposal but only on condition that Great Britain play a full part in the organization as a counterweight to Germany. And Britain, always hesitant about a Continental orientation, is, under Labor leadership, particularly reluctant to make the commitment lest it interfere with the economic planning and controls which are an essential part of the Socialist experiment in that country.