German Decision-Making Elites and European Integration: German ‘Europolitik’ during the Years of the EEC and Free Trade Area Negotiations

Abstract

Arnulf Baring characterised the immediate postwar years in Germany with the words: ‘in the beginning was Adenauer’.¹ Indeed, given Adenauer’s apparent dominance in foreign policy, first as Chancellor, then also as Foreign Minister, one wonders about the importance of bureaucratic elites in the foreign policy-making process in general and in decision-making in the sphere of European policies in particular. Was there any room for these elites to exert influence on decisions of significance? If so, which views were held in different governmental departments, and which concepts were adopted? In trying to answer these questions we shall first examine the structural framework of foreign policy-making in the Adenauer era, before turning to the different concepts of European integration promoted by policy-makers around the Chancellor.