Reunification - some history rewriting

by Jerome a Paris Thu Sep 10th, 2009 at 05:58:31 AM EST

The UK press has received advance leaks of archive documents to be released tomorrow about UK reactions to German reunification 20 years ago, and is happy printing scary titles like United Germany might allow another Hitler, Mitterrand told Thatcher or Mitterrand feared emergence of ‘bad’ Germans which underline French hostility to Germany.

As the articles all make clear, the early release of documents are about the Foreign Office trying to show that they were a lot more favorable to reunification than Margaret Thatcher. If you dig deeper in the articles (see the second link), the documents would seem to underline that Mitterrand played a game to goad Thatcher into making more anti-German comments - even if he did not like unification, he knew he could not oppose it.

Again, the Foreign Office presumably wants to display its better understanding of European affairs, but this ends up turning again into yet another screed against the nasty continentals and yet another attempt to sow discord between France and Germany - and it's certainly that angle which is gleefully and unsurprisingly played up by the UK media.

So what else is new? And why should we care? Well, because this is as clear a statement by the Foreign Office that their position is "a good European policy is not to be systematically hostile to all things European - divide and conquer works a lot better" - in other words, they are still in the 19th century, openly, proudly, and they think that it is more sophisticated than what the current crop of UK politicans is able to do...

Reunification - some history rewriting | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (4.00 / 5)

cary titles like United Germany might allow another Hitler, Mitterrand told Thatcher or Mitterrand feared emergence of `bad' Germans which underline French hostility to Germany.

Fear? Hostility? These guys don't look hostile:

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Thu Sep 10th, 2009 at 09:33:05 AM EST

That photo probably (4.00 / 4)

scares the Foreign Office silly.

It's one of the most powerful and significant messages of the second half of the 20th century.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Sep 10th, 2009 at 09:57:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That photo probably (none / 0)

[Murdoch Alert] United Germany might allow another Hitler, Mitterrand told Thatcher - Times Online

At a lunch at the Élysée Palace on January 20, 1990, Charles, now Lord, Powell, the then foreign affairs adviser to Mrs Thatcher reports in a memo that Mr Mitterrand talked about how reunification would cause the re-emergence of the "bad" Germans who dominated Europe.
According to the memo, Mr Mitterrand said at one point that if Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of West Germany at the time, were to get his way, a unified Germany could win more ground than Hitler ever did and that Europe would have to bear the consequences.

Contra Jérôme, the Foreign Office seemed to think German reunification was a good thing...

Mrs Thatcher's opposition to reunification, and her disagreement with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the issue, is also revealed in the 500 papers. One document refers to her expressing horror on hearing incorrect reports that the members of the Bundestag in Bonn sang Deutschland über alles to celebrate the fall of the Wall.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Sep 10th, 2009 at 10:22:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: That photo probably (4.00 / 2)

Please read my story.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Sep 10th, 2009 at 04:33:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (4.00 / 3)

Indeed that's how SPIEGEL interprets it:

"Die Deutschen sind wieder da!" - einestages		"The Germans are back!" - Einestages
Mitterrand hatte sich im Januar 1990 bereits mit der Wiedervereinigung abgefunden, er sah sie als unaufhaltsam an. Er hielt es jedoch offensichtlich für nützlich, wenn jemand wie Thatcher in der Öffentlichkeit noch Widerstand leistete. Das würde es einfacher machen, den Deutschen bei der europäischen Einigung Zugeständnisse abzuringen.		By January 1990, Mitterrand had already resigned to the fact of the [coming] Reunification, he saw it as unstoppable. However, he obviously thought that it wouzld be useful if someone like Margaret Thatcher still resisted in tpublic. That would make it easier to extract concessions from the Germans in the European unification.

How much of that is the UK media, and how much is it really the Foreign Office? In the German media, the story is Foreign Office vs. intransigent anti-German Iron Lady, with Mitterrand appearing only as a side story.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Sep 11th, 2009 at 11:13:34 AM EST

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (none / 0)

Erm, somehow I left off what the bilingual column was in agreement with, this:

If you dig deeper in the articles (see the second link), the documents would seem to underline that Mitterrand played a game to goad Thatcher into making more anti-German comments - even if he did not like unification, he knew he could not oppose it.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Fri Sep 11th, 2009 at 11:57:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (4.00 / 4)

Well, that´s how I (being a German) remember it too. :)
Reading lots of German media reports back then.
(Just barely an adult back then. Although one with family members in the then GDR. Which is the reason why I was interested.)

Thatcher pretty opposed to German reunification. Even publicly. And the French government seriously worried by it. Not opposing it publicly like Thatcher but not happy with the idea either. :)

Jerome, it was pretty obvious back then that the French government wasn´t exactly "cheering" at the prospect of German reunification. It was pretty obvious to any adult German reading the German and international media back then.

Mitterand just understood earlier than Thatcher that it would happen anyway (or maybe he used her in her opposition) to press for a common currency?
Some kind of concessions from Germany?

Just to add, I was amused by the UK media back then.
In 1989/90 they were printing articles about the new combined "mighty" German army possibly threatening Western Europe again.
In 1991 I´d see headlines in the British press like "Where is Rommel?". Bemoaning the fact that Germany was very reluctant to send troops to the Gulf War back then.

Some media seem to have a very short memory. :)

by Detlef (Detlef1961_at_yahoo_dot_de) on Fri Sep 11th, 2009 at 05:30:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (none / 1)

Mitterand just understood earlier than Thatcher that it would happen anyway (or maybe he used her in her opposition) to press for a common currency?
Some kind of concessions from Germany?

Methinks this is something Jérôme, you, I, the German media, and even the small print at the end of the FT article all agree upon -- but in its headlines and article starters, the British media played up Mitterrand's position vs. Thatcher's, and it seems to me Jérôme is protesting that.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Sep 12th, 2009 at 02:34:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (4.00 / 2)

maybe he used her in her opposition) to press for a common currency?
Some kind of concessions from Germany?

Here is Thatcher's thinking on this, as told by the SPIEGEL article:

Thatcher hingegen glaubte bis Februar 1990 daran, den Prozess zumindest verlangsamen zu können. Ihr ging alles viel zu schnell. Sie fürchtete, dass der sowjetische Staats- und Parteichef Michail Gorbatschow durch die Wiedervereinigung destabilisiert würde - was sich im Nachhinein als nicht falsch herausstellte. Sie wollte eine fünfjährige Übergangslösung mit zwei deutschen Staaten. Sie teilte auch nicht Mitterrands Optimismus, die Deutschen durch eine stärkere Einbindung in europäische Institutionen zähmen zu können. "Die Probleme werden durch eine Stärkung der Europäischen Gemeinschaft nicht gelöst", schrieb sie am 2. Februar 1990 in einem internen Vermerk. "Deutschlands Ehrgeiz würde dann der dominante und aktive Faktor werden".

Thatcher, however, believed until February 1990 that she can at least slow down the process. It all went much too fast for her. She feared that the Soviet state and party leader Mikhail Gorbachev would be destabilized by the reunification - which in retrospect turned out to be not wrong. She wanted a five-year transitory solution with two German states. She did not share Mitterrand's optimism that the Germans could be tamed by a stronger integration into European institutions. "The problems are not solved by a strengthening of the European Community", she wrote on 2 February 1990 in an internal memo. "Germany's ambition would then become the dominant and active factor".

It is interesting to think about this in retrospect.

On one hand, Mitterrands expectations regarding 'taming' Germany in the EC->EU proved to be correct for at least 15 years. Germany was for the EU, consented to give up the D-Mark and accept the monetary union, Germany voluntarily accepted that as a country of 80 million it has no greater weight in the Council than the three countries with 60 million, and pushed for no big changes without at least France as partner.

There was one nineties EU policy certainly dominated by Germany: the Eastward expansion. There, France (not to mention the UK) had rather different ideas, but Germany sought the compromise (well, was there any other choice). Then again, the end result was a rushed Big Bang expansion with not enough attention to non-economic issues.

However, lately I get the feeling that we are getting closer to Thatcher's fears, and Germany is becoming dominant in the EU.

While all big EU member states have been criticised recently by the smaller ones for acting in the Council and the European Council like a directorship bypassing the rest (ironically, acting informally in a way Bliar wanted to but institutionalise 8-10 years ago), Merkel is clearly the most influential in the European Council.
In the previous period, the leaders of both large factions of the EP, which formed a de-facto Grand Coalition, were from Germany (Hans-Gert Pöttering and Martin Schulz). One of them ascended to President of the EP, the other remained in office this term and will ascend into the Presidency at half-term.
Though running in France, the Greens' leader (Daniel Cohn-Bendit) is German citizen too. This term, GUE/NGL got a German leader too (Lothar Bisky); and even for the ALDE leadership, a German was in discussion (Silvana Koch-Mehrin).
In the outgoing Barroso Commission, Enterprise & Industry Commissioner Günther Verheugen (the former Enlargement Commissioner) was Vice-President and behind-the-scenes strongman. Specilated successors, as well as potential anti-Barroso candidates from Austria would IMO also strengthen Germany.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Sep 12th, 2009 at 03:34:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (4.00 / 2)

BTW, about this:

FT.com / Europe - Mitterrand feared emergence of `bad' Germans

One meeting between the two leaders was at the European Community heads of government summit in Strasbourg on December 8. Mr Powell relates that Mr Mitterrand spoke critically of Mr Kohl, saying that he had no understanding of other nations' sensitivities and was exploiting German "national" feeling.

...I tend towards agreeing with Mitterrand. Kohl was certainly exploiting German "national" feeling for his own benefit, IMO especially by accelerating Reunification; and that certainly allowed him to sideline East German local movements and trounce the SPD a year later, in the 1990 federal elections. The economic effects of rushed Reunification began to show only after...

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Sep 12th, 2009 at 02:42:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (none / 1)

My memory from that time is also that Mitterand feared reunification but was resigned to it - and negotiated with Kohl to get stronger European integration, particularly wrt the common currency, as the price of his support.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Sep 15th, 2009 at 03:50:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Reunification - some history rewriting (none / 0)

No, no, you're parroting the Torygraph's spin </snark>

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 15th, 2009 at 04:11:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Reunification - some history rewriting | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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Reunification - some history rewriting

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