Germans to the Front: West German Rearmament in the Adenauer Era

by David Clay Large

In Germans to the Front , David Large charts the path from Germany's total demilitarization immediately after World War II to the appearance of the Bundeswehr, the West German army, in 1956. The book is the first comprehensive study in English of West German rearmament during this critical period. Large's analysis of the complex interplay between the diplomatic and domestic facets of the rearmament debate illuminates key elements in the development of the Cold War and in Germany's ongoing difficulty in formulating a role for itself on the international scene.

Rearmament severely tested West Germany's new parliamentary institutions, dramatically defined emerging power relationships in German politics, and posed a crucial challenge for the NATO alliance. Although the establishment of the Bundeswehr ultimately helped stabilize the nation, the acrimony surrounding its formation generated deep divisions in German society that persisted long after the army took the field. According to Large, the conflict was so bitter because rearmament forced a confrontation with fundamental questions of national identity and demanded a painful reckoning with the past.

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

David Clay Large is a senior fellow at the Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and professor of history at the Fromm Institute, University of San Francisco. He has also taught at Smith College, Yale University, and Montana State University.

Reviews

[Vic Lauterbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good study of the diplomatic struggle to create the Bundeswehr that shows how rearmament changed West German society and the political landscape of Europe. Rearmament was one facet, albeit a key one, of the problem of reintegrating West Germany into the European community of nations, and the strength of this book is an examination of how the many internal and external obstacles to German rearmament were overcome in a remarkably short time. Of special interest is how French and Benelux concerns about a re-militarized Germany were assuaged by building the Bundeswehr within NATO after the original plan for a Pan-European security force directed by the European Defense Committee fell apart due to concerns about the loss of national sovereignty. Mr. Large's focus is primarily on West Germany's relations with the Western Allies, not tensions between the Allies and the Soviet Union even though it was the threat posed by the Red Army that made German participation in European defense inevitable. This is not a military history. Technical aspects of German rearmament aren't addressed unless they relate to its creation, such as the political wrangling over the social and legal aspects of creating an army of citizen soldiers. (Military history is clearly not Mr. Large's area of expertise, as revealed by research slips such as Wehrmacht veterans complaining that the gasoline engines of their US-supplied M-47 tanks were less efficient than "their old German diesels" [p. 245] when all German tanks in WWII had gasoline engines.) This isn't a weakness because this is primarily a political history, and English works on this subject are rare, so if you are interested in it, this book is essential reading.