E-Books →The Ambivalent Alliance Konrad Adenauer, the CDUCSU, and the West, 1949–1966

Free Download Ronald J. Granieri, "The Ambivalent Alliance: Konrad Adenauer, the CDU/CSU, and the West, 1949-1966"
English | ISBN: 1571812725 | 2003 | 288 pages | PDF | 5 MB
Whenever asked to name his most significant accomplishment as West Germany's first Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer would invariably reply: "The alliance with the free West." Scholars have echoed his assessment, citing the Federal Republic of Germany's successful integration into the American-led West (Westbindung) as the key to its postwar economic and political recovery. Behind this simple success story, however,lies a much more complicated history: Adenauer and the CDU/CSU remained ambivalent about the ultimate relationship between Europe, Germany, and the United States within the West, torn between visions of Continental European integration based on Franco-German reconciliation and of an Atlantic community linking Europe and the "Anglo-Saxons." These differences eventually erupted into a damaging public conflict between "Atlanticists" and "Gaullists," which colored Adenauer's last years and, after his retirement in 1963, led directly to the failure of his successor, Ludwig Erhard.