German genius: in defence of the Federal Republic

Olaf Scholz, the mournful German Chancellor, is not having a great time. His Social Democratic party has just come third in the European Parliamentary elections. While he is hugely unpopular, the problems of Germany are much wider than the hapless Scholz.

The last few years have not been kind to Germany: economically, politically or diplomatically.  The great export boom to China has come to an end, as the Chinese move up the value chain. The energy shock of the Russo-Ukrainian war has hit the German economy, as cheap Russian gas disappears, just as nuclear plants are shut and the pivot from coal continues. Solar panels in the German winter are not going to fill the gap in places like Kiel.

Diplomatically, the return of Trump would expose Germany’s neglect of its own defence even more. The mass immigration of 2015, and the ongoing flow of large numbers of asylum seekers, are upsetting voters. This shown not least in the rise of nationalist parties, led by Alternative for Germany (AFD). And yet, with all these problems, it is easy to forget what a huge and monumental success the Federal Republic of Germany has been.

The Federal Republic was born in May 1949 with the merger of the British, American and French German sectors. In 1945 Germany was occupied, war torn and having to absorb millions of German refugees fleeing eastern cities such as Breslau, Königsberg, Memel and Danzig. Ancient cities whose German populations have passed into history. The German people were also having to deal with the guilt of the Holocaust and the threat of the Soviet Union, which occupied what became East Germany. In a bit of Russian humour, they even named East Germany the German Democratic Republic.

In response the Federal Republic and the German people rose to the challenge. Under the leadership of the canny Konrad Adenauer the West Germans (as they became known) rebuilt and later, with NATO approval, re-armed. The key to their success was to create a relatively weak central government and allow the German states to flourish. After all, there had been a Bavaria or a Hanover long before there was a German state. Free from Prussian militarism and Nazi totalitarianism, the German people’s natural hard work and industry paid off. Unlike France or Britain, with economic success being concentrated around the capital, even the German car industry — the four wheeled symbol of German manufacturing might — was spread throughout the country, with Volkswagen in Lower Saxony, Mercedes in Stuttgart and BMW in Munich. Adenauer’s choice of Bonn, Germany’s answer to Reading or Toulouse, as capital showed the Federal Republic’s intention not to overshadow the states.

By the time Adenauer left office in 1963, a German economic miracle had taken place. This success was not a one-off: Germany’s economic strength continued, with Germany performing much better in the 1970s, under the Social Democrats, than Britain. Such was the economic success of the Federal Republic that it stood as a rebuke to East Germany — itself, let us not forget, the most successful of Eastern bloc European countries. When the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was reunified, it was this economic success that paid for the huge costs of reunification. Of course, it was not really a unification at all, it was the takeover of the Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic. The Federal Republic’s institutions expanded to include East Germany and the Democratic Republic marched into history, to join Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire in the hall of past German polities.

The Federal Republic was not just an economic powerhouse and success, but it was also a democratic and moral one. Providing stable coalition governments Germany saw a remarkable level of political stability, including grand coalitions in the 1960s and 2010s, unthinkable in other large Western democracies. The extremist elements that existed were small and well contained by a constitution that had learned the painful lessons of the Weimar Republic. Even the emergence of the AfD, thanks to Angela Merkel’s “open door” immigration policy, is a sign of Germany’s continuing normalisation. The AfD are more like the Reform Party of the UK than a new Nazi threat.

The moral character of the Federal Republic can also be overlooked. No country has faced the horrors of its past, particularly in the form of the Holocaust, more squarely. From Willy Brandt kneeling before the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto to rock-solid support for Israel, in the form of military aid — a support that has led to vicious attacks online from pro-Palestinian activists since October 2023 and a failed case against Germany over arms sales at the international court of justice. No state has taken as much ownership of its past horrors, certainly not Japan, a comparable example in postwar success and wartime atrocities. If the Russians had committed the Holocaust, would they have a huge memorial to its victims in their capital?

The Federal Republic of 2024 faces many challenges and is led by a coalition that can charitably called useless, yet it will survive and flourish. Just don’t expect many people to appreciate the quiet genius of this German republic — but the world is a better place for it.

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