Valdai Club

Eighty years after the end of World War II, it must be recognized that the special relationship between the United States and Germany was a decisive obstacle to the reorientation of Europe in the new multipolar world order, writes Ulrike Reisner, independent political analyst and co-founder of the BRENNUS Institute Paris-Vienna.

Despite reunification, a rift continues to run through Germany: While foreign rule in East Germany ended at the time of reunification, it has continued throughout the country ever since, coming from the West. The US military still maintains a major presence in Germany, with more than 50,000 troops at the moment. Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, it must be acknowledged that the special relationship between the United States and Germany has become a decisive obstacle to the reorientation of Europe in the new multipolar world order. 

Germany is in crisis. The roots of this crisis go back a long time and stem from a series of wrong turns and misguided decisions in foreign and security policy, energy and economic policy, and social policy. This crisis is manifesting itself in a growing divide between western and eastern Germany. Not only are political party preferences becoming increasingly polarised, but people's attitudes towards arms deliveries to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia are also diverging:

Many East German voters see themselves politically represented by the AfD, Die Linke or the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). For example, 45% of East Germans support the BSW party’s decision to strive for a good relationship with Russia, while the German average is 28%.

Thirty-five years after the rally in front of the ruins of the Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany's reunification has failed politically and socio-culturally. The promise made by then Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU): “We will not abandon our compatriots in the GDR. Together we will manage this path into the German future!” has a bitter aftertaste for many East Germans today. The reawakened desire of many East Germans for a good relationship with their former ally Russia should give the whole of Germany food for thought. Have the promises of salvation of the Euro-Atlantic political models, which are only orientated towards the West, failed?

US foreign rule in Germany

Politically, Germany is in an extremely delicate phase of transition, the future of which is currently difficult to predict. The idea of a reunified Germany has been shaken by serious mistakes in domestic, EU-European and foreign policy. Germany has failed to recognise that the strong political and socio-cultural desire for freedom in East Germany would reject any form of occupation after reunification.

The continued presence of US military bases in Germany and the undeniable hegemonic influence of US and NATO interests on German and therefore also European politics stand in the way of genuine German unity and thus the stabilisation of Europe.

The increasing division of Germany not only endangers the country itself; it also jeopardises Europe's independent orientation in the new multipolar world order.

Seventy years after the Federal Republic of Germany joined the North Atlantic Pact and 70 years after the Warsaw Pact was founded, Europe finds itself in an almost paradoxical situation: on the one hand, it has had to continue to submit politically like a colony under the hegemonic influence of the USA and has been unable to participate in new developments in other regions of the world - on the contrary, it has participated in the numerous proxy wars of the United States.

On the other hand, since 1945, Europe has logically never succeeded in developing independently and autonomously, like the founding members of the BRICS states, Brazil, China, Russia, India or South Africa, for example. As a result, Europe - together with the United States - has also hindered the development and growth of the United Nations. It has made a decisive contribution to paralysing the United Nations by practising a policy of alignment with the American and British vetoes in the Security Council - through a France that has remained less and less faithful to General de Gaulle's policy of a “European Europe”.

Reorientation in Germany and Europe

The most important common political task would be for Europe to free itself from foreign military bases of non-European states and no longer belong to military alliances with non-European states. Instead, Europe should concentrate its military and security policy interests on safeguarding European security and sovereignty and on implementing and supporting tasks and decisions within the framework of the United Nations.

If Germany is unable to accomplish this task, the colonial divide in the centre of Europe will remain in place, with the recognisable consequence of a continued weakening of Germany and the threat of European disintegration. If the leading political elites of Germany and Europe continue to make the mistake of only betting on one card, namely the dependent, transatlantic one, they will come to the bitter realisation that they will end up in a new conflict-ridden peripheral zone of the new multipolar world order, namely between the BRICS states and the United States, as their deployment zone and counter-wall in the event of war.

The article is based on the book: Edouard Husson & Ulrike Reisner, Decolonise Europe – Germany Needs True Reunification / Brennus Institute, ISBN: 9783819092923. Available in English and German via epubli.com. Russian translation: https://www.institut-brennus.com