Timothy Garton Ash: Old King [Helmut] Kohl
[Timothy Garton Ash, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of European studies at Oxford University.]
On Saturday, Helmut Kohl, the "chancellor of German unity," will turn 80. To mark the occasion, Chancellor Angela Merkel and many others in Germany will deliver nice tributes to old King Kohl; yet his country's current approach to Europe, and especially to the embattled Eurozone, risks dismantling his European legacy. If you ask why the European project is faltering today, one of the main reasons is that the German motor has stalled. And if you ask why, the short answer is because Germany has become a "normal" nation, like France and Britain. Assuming, that is, anyone in his right mind would call us Brits normal.
In the steps of his mentor, Konrad Adenauer, Kohl tirelessly insisted that German and European unity were "two sides of the same coin." That coin eventually became the euro. Kohl, like most of his predecessors, was committed to European integration for two reasons: Out of personal wartime experience, he believed in it; and he understood that it served the German national interest. Only by reassuring its neighbors that Germany had changed, and was utterly devoted to blending into Europe, could the Germans hope to achieve their national goal of reunification of Germany in peace and freedom. It worked. When the chance came, unexpectedly, in 1989, Kohl seized it with both hands, and all Europe has benefited. We could not have a Europe whole and free without a Germany whole and free in its center....
One of the most far-reaching consequences of Kohl's twin-track policy was that Germany gave up its beloved deutsche mark for the euro. Kohl might have wanted to do this anyway, but if you look closely at the historical documents relating to German unification, it is clear that he committed to it in the context of overcoming French President Francois Mitterrand's hostility to German unification. "Half of Germany for Kohl, the whole D-mark for Mitterrand," wits quipped at the time. Kohl then used his immense authority at home to push through the euro against the resistance, or at least reluctance, of the majority of his compatriots....
Students of Germany then watched with interest to see whether it would continue the exceptional European commitment of the Adenauer-to-Kohl Federal Republic. Or would it become a more "normal" nation-state, like France and Britain, pursuing its own national interests, through European channels for choice, but on its own account, even at the expense of others, when it considered that necessary? The special relationship it developed with Russia, including the bilateral securing of its energy needs, gave a clear indication which way post-unification Germany was leaning. Now its response to the first historic crisis of the Eurozone makes the conclusion definite....
So instead of complaining, I note this final irony. Twenty years ago, Eurosceptic British Conservatives shrieked with alarm at the prospect of a united Germany imposing a federal European superstate upon us. Some even cried "A Fourth Reich!" Today, as Eurosceptic British Conservatives edge back toward power, we can see that the unintended result of German unification has been the emergence of a more British Europe: dramatically enlarged to the east, intergovernmental rather than federal, with Germany, too, now calmly pursuing its own national interests in its own national way, like Britain and France. Come to think of it, Margaret Thatcher is the one who should be posting a message of thanks on Kohl's 80th birthday website. Whether the old man would appreciate that particular e-card is another question.
Read entire article at LA Times
On Saturday, Helmut Kohl, the "chancellor of German unity," will turn 80. To mark the occasion, Chancellor Angela Merkel and many others in Germany will deliver nice tributes to old King Kohl; yet his country's current approach to Europe, and especially to the embattled Eurozone, risks dismantling his European legacy. If you ask why the European project is faltering today, one of the main reasons is that the German motor has stalled. And if you ask why, the short answer is because Germany has become a "normal" nation, like France and Britain. Assuming, that is, anyone in his right mind would call us Brits normal.
In the steps of his mentor, Konrad Adenauer, Kohl tirelessly insisted that German and European unity were "two sides of the same coin." That coin eventually became the euro. Kohl, like most of his predecessors, was committed to European integration for two reasons: Out of personal wartime experience, he believed in it; and he understood that it served the German national interest. Only by reassuring its neighbors that Germany had changed, and was utterly devoted to blending into Europe, could the Germans hope to achieve their national goal of reunification of Germany in peace and freedom. It worked. When the chance came, unexpectedly, in 1989, Kohl seized it with both hands, and all Europe has benefited. We could not have a Europe whole and free without a Germany whole and free in its center....
One of the most far-reaching consequences of Kohl's twin-track policy was that Germany gave up its beloved deutsche mark for the euro. Kohl might have wanted to do this anyway, but if you look closely at the historical documents relating to German unification, it is clear that he committed to it in the context of overcoming French President Francois Mitterrand's hostility to German unification. "Half of Germany for Kohl, the whole D-mark for Mitterrand," wits quipped at the time. Kohl then used his immense authority at home to push through the euro against the resistance, or at least reluctance, of the majority of his compatriots....
Students of Germany then watched with interest to see whether it would continue the exceptional European commitment of the Adenauer-to-Kohl Federal Republic. Or would it become a more "normal" nation-state, like France and Britain, pursuing its own national interests, through European channels for choice, but on its own account, even at the expense of others, when it considered that necessary? The special relationship it developed with Russia, including the bilateral securing of its energy needs, gave a clear indication which way post-unification Germany was leaning. Now its response to the first historic crisis of the Eurozone makes the conclusion definite....
So instead of complaining, I note this final irony. Twenty years ago, Eurosceptic British Conservatives shrieked with alarm at the prospect of a united Germany imposing a federal European superstate upon us. Some even cried "A Fourth Reich!" Today, as Eurosceptic British Conservatives edge back toward power, we can see that the unintended result of German unification has been the emergence of a more British Europe: dramatically enlarged to the east, intergovernmental rather than federal, with Germany, too, now calmly pursuing its own national interests in its own national way, like Britain and France. Come to think of it, Margaret Thatcher is the one who should be posting a message of thanks on Kohl's 80th birthday website. Whether the old man would appreciate that particular e-card is another question.