Adenauer and his Successors

Abstract

In September 1951 a conference of Allied ministers in Washington issued a declaration on Germany in which they defined their objective as ‘the inclusion of a democratic Germany in a European community on the basis of equal statue’.¹ This implied that Germany was to recover full sovereignty and was an indication of the extent to which western governments, especially the American, now saw in Germany a new ally rather than an ex-enemy. Already much had been done since the signing of the Petersberg Agreement to reduce or remove the remaining controls. The Occupation Statute was formally revised in March 1951. Germany again had a Foreign Ministry and diplomatic representation abroad. The western and other nations formally ended the state of war with her, and restrictions on industrial production, including shipbuilding, were lifted. The Federal Republic became a full member of the Council of Europe, and, though she could not belong to the United Nations without raising the awkward question of East German membership, she joined the economic and social agencies of U.N.O. such as the Food and Agriculture and World Health Organisations, the World Bank, the International Labour Office and U.N.E.S.C.O. Both as a democracy on trial and as a newly admitted member of the international community West Germany was making gratifying progress.