A reminder of the road not taken: Hans-Dietrich Genscher and the holy grail of a united Europe

The state funeral of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, West Germany’s longest serving foreign minister and vice-chancellor, was held on 17 April. Kristina Spohr writes on Genscher’s career, his role in unifying Germany, and his ultimate aspiration to integrate both NATO and the Warsaw Pact into an all-European security order that incorporated the Soviet Union

Russia’s war against Ukraine is not only a challenge to territorial borders. It is Putin’s war to change Europe’s order.

Russia’s war against Ukraine is not only a challenge to Europe’s territorial borders, writes Kristina Spohr. It is a war that challenges the character and rules that have governed the international system since 1945

After Merkel: Germany from peace to war

In the autumn of 2021, after Angela Merkel retired, her successor, Olaf Scholz, assumed power as head of a new coalition consisting of Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats. Scholz had an ambitious agenda to reform Germany. Yet, within months, Russia launched its brutal military invasion of Ukraine. Overnight Scholz had to adapt to a Europe at war, which raised profound questions about Germany’s international role. Was its post-1945 ‘civilian power status’ still viable? What about its deep-seated ‘culture of restraint’? On 27 February 2022, three days into the war, Scholz addressed the Bundestag, boldly announcing a German Zeitenwende, an ‘epochal turn’ in the Federal Republic’s conduct of foreign and security affairs. This essay evaluates Scholz’s grand rhetorical vision a year on, questioning how much his claims for a major German foreign-policy revolution have yielded in practice. It will reveal that although Chancellor Scholz hoped to be seen as a decisive leader, his actions have so far been those of a beleaguered temporizer, unable to shake the age-old constraints tied to history, geography, and party politics. Crucially, his innate caution (reflected in long bouts of silences), his stubbornness, his unwillingness to lead from the front, as well as the structural limitations that Germany has long faced, have acted as breaks. Although the biggest tests are still to come, 2022 was a year of forced reinvention for both Scholz and Germany, and neither looked comfortable in assuming their new role

Exposing the myth of Western betrayal of Russia over NATO’s eastern enlargement

Thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is still peddling the old myth of Western betrayal of Russia by expanding NATO eastward after the end of the Cold War. Both Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov have used this myth to demand formal Western security guarantees and that NATO rules out future membership for Ukraine and other ex-Soviet republics. Kristina Spohr explains why this narrative is based on not only a misinterpretation of the treaty that reunified Germany, but also a misunderstanding of the diplomatic process that led to it

In memory of the “Two Helmuts”: the lives, legacies, and historical impact of Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl: a forum with Clayton Clemens, Ronald Granieri, Mathias Haeussler, Mary Elise Sarotte, Kristina Spohr, and Christian Wicke

Between them, the chancellorships of the “two Helmuts” span nearly a quarter-century of German history. Helmut Schmidt led the country from 1974 to 1982; his successor, Helmut Kohl, served until 1998. But the verdict on their respective tenures has been very different. Kohl was seen as a bumbling provincial when he came to office in 1982 but, by the end of his second term, he had won a place in the history books as the “Chancellor of Unity” (Einheitskanzler). By the time he lost the election for what would have been his fifth term, he was hailed as the “master-builder” (Baumeister) of Europe for his decisive role in furthering the European Community's political and economic integration through the Maastricht Treaty and the introduction of the Euro. Schmidt, by contrast, came to office with a reputation for high administrative competence and intellectual prowess, but left the chancellery under a cloud. Der Spiegel spoke for many commentators when it dismissed him as a “good chancellor with a bad record”; few features of his period in office stood out as “proof of success.” Schmidt, it was said, had been a mere crisis manager and “problem-solver” (Macher) who lacked broader vision, so that “little endured of historical significance.” This has also been the verdict of many historians

Helmut Schmidt: der Weltkanzler

elmut Schmidt und die Außenpolitik: In ihrem Buch beleuchtet Kristina Spohr abseits von Klischees, die Schmidt gern als »Macher« und »Krisenmanager« in der Innenpolitik beschreiben, den Menschen und sein politisches Wirken auf der Weltbühne. Der »Weltökonom« Schmidt war an der Einführung der G7-Gipfeltreffen zu Fragen der Weltwirtschaftspolitik sowie des Europäischen Währungssystems (EWS) beteiligt. Früh erkannte er die Tragweite der Globalisierung und des sich abzeichnenden Aufstiegs von China. Als »Stratege des Gleichgewichts« erdachte er den »NATO-Doppelbeschluss« als Reaktion auf die massive sowjetische Aufrüstung im Bereich der Mittelstreckenraketen. So trug er zum Zusammenhalt der Allianz und zur Entschärfung des Kalten Krieges bei. Basis des Titels ist eine umfangreiche Forschung in Schmidts Privatarchiv und in zahlreichen Archiven in Europa und Amerika. Ergänzt wird diese durch persönliche Gespräche mit dem Altkanzler bis kurz vor seinem Tod. Es entsteht daraus ein neues und dichtes politisches Porträt des »Weltkanzlers« vor dem Hintergrund seiner Zeit

German unification: between official history, academic scholarship, and political memoirs

Ten years after German unification, this historiographical review discusses how the cascade of published material reflects on two questions vital for contemporary history on this subject: first, why and how did unification happen, and second, what kind of sources and evidence are used by authors to justify their particular interpretation of events? In answering these questions, this review will not only give an overview of published accounts – official, scholarly, and autobiographical – but go beyond the immediate confines of the 1990s to shed light on the question of why Chancellor Helmut Kohl was able to win a prize that had eluded all of his predecessors since Konrad Adenauer