In Europe's Name: Germany and the Divided Continent

by Timothy Garton Ash

For forty-five years Europe was divided, and at the center of that divided continent lay a divided Germany. In this brilliantly nuanced book, one of our most respected authorities on Central Europe tells the story of German reunification. Garton Ash has produced a panoramic, dramatic, and definitive account of events that are continuing to transform the map of Europe.

Genres: History, Germany, European History, Politics, Nonfiction

680 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

About the author

Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSA is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe.

Reviews

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a very comprehensive look at the Federal Republic of Germany's Ostpolitik (eastern policy) during the Cold War through reunification. Ash looks at West Germany's foreign policies and its policy makers during this period from almost every angle imaginable, and does so in close detail. While other intellectuals and scholars tend toward sweeping, elegant theories they claim explain vast, complex phenomenon in relatively simple terms, Ash raises nuance almost to a fault. His work is repetitive and almost plodding in parts, but at the same time, it is as well-researched as it is thoughtful (and, at times, quite though-provoking).

Like Jean-François Revel, Ash takes the division of Euorpe at Yalta as his starting point for analyzing Cold War Europe, though even in this Ash looks at it from many angles and using various definitions. One of the major themes throughout the work was how German leaders kept trying to characterize and define the German national interest as in Europe's interest as well (hence the book title), though Ash breaks this down in fine detail in terms of various interests served or compromised by various policies. Ash also looks at the conflicting ideas and sometimes even policies of German leaders, though consensus and continuity seem to define Ostpolitik more than conflict through the years. However, given the constant jockeying for position among Germany's major parties, there were more than a few rhetorical battles than made mountains out of molehills, even despite the hands-on leadership of Hans-Dietrich Genscher for much of the period and through varying ruling coalitions.

Ash in general takes a very personal look at his subject, working mainly from the points of view of various leaders, policy-makers, and those influencing public opinions, in Germany and elsewhere. He also examines the impact of various decisions on the masses of people themselves, especially as this often varied significantly from the intended outcomes. Ash tries to be as sympathetic as possible to the Social Democrat point of view and policy, but his final analysis is often quite damning; the best he can say in many cases is the unintended good worked out of an otherwise poorly thought-out, chosen, or executed policy.

Ash looks not only at the German actors but the leaders in the German Democratic Republic, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and sometimes Poland and Hungary as well. He shows how the varying pressures from various West German factors interplayed with the several international currents and events ongoing.

Ash gives chief credit to Willy Brandt for the basic architecture of Ostpolitik, though he gives a nod to Konrad Adenauer as having made the necessary prologue. He examines the shifting positions of the various parties, the rhetoric of those in power and in opposition, and, of course, their actual conduct. In short, the policy called for a friendly attitude first of all with Moscow as a way toward rapprochement with East Germany, and to seek ties at the level of the common man among East and West Germans rather than dramatic political changes in East Germany. This included preserving "stability" within the Warsaw Pact, even at the expense of the human rights of those living there, and subsidizing the struggling Communist systems as means of maintaining contact. Ash is careful to document the many inherent contradictions in the basic policy and its competing priorities, the rhetorical vagueness of German leaders in trying to bridge those gaps, as well as their policy shifts intended to cover multiple bases at once.

Ash examines the opposition within East Germany and the impact of Ostpolitik upon it. He shows how civil society and dissention was much more alive in places like Poland, Hungary, or even Czechoslovakia, precisely because troublemakers could emigrate to the West more easily and were sometimes allowed to go by the GDR and sometimes ransomed by Bonn rather than germinate in place. While Ash gives this issue his usual multi-faceted and nuanced approach, in the end his judgment falls to one side: "Even defeated protests can leave their mark, and can sometimes, in the end, become victories. This can never be said of non-existent protests." (p 205)

Likewise, Ash does make judgments about other aspects of Ostpolitik, even though he plods through each issue in a very fact-based, objective manner. For instance, Ash takes FRG leaders to task for assuming all exchanges of goods and services were really trust-building measures: "Did the Siemens computers in the Polish Interior Ministry, or the American handcuffs with which the KGB held Vladimir Bukovsky, help to reduce the division of Europe?" (p 268) Yet even in his judgments, Ash strives for nuance: "if you supply a thousand computers it is hard to avoid one of them going to the secret police. The overall balance remained positive. But that argument had to be made concretely, and from case to case." (p 268)

Ash gives Berlin in-depth consideration, showing how it especially influenced the thinking and actions of West German leaders as something of a hostage city in the East. Second to this, Bonn thought of the East German people as hostage as well, sometimes going so far as to pay ransom for some, and in other cases acting "in their best interest" even when such actions seemed anything but.

Ash traces Ostpolitik right up to and through the fall of the wall and reunification. He showed how FRG leaders were increasingly out of step with events on the ground, particularly the Social Democrats. It is true much of the world failed to see the seismic changes underway until the cataclysmic event itself, but some could say at least they were on the side of change vice stability for stability's sake. When examining the reasons for the fall and reunification, Ash takes a look at domestic changes in Hungary, the changes wrought by Mikhail Gorbachev, the pressure applied by the Helsinki agreement, the firmness of the NATO alliance, the West European Community, the dynamism of capitalism, Solidarity, or even the demonstrations in Leipzig right before the fall. Ash also introduces the fact that Bonn was basically buying off Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest, and even East Berlin in the time leading up to the fall and even (in the case of the USSR) through reunification. If you have gathered anything by my review so far, you'd guess Ash does not endorse any one of these but sees a combination of factors, and you'd be right! In fact, in my own review of major historical developments, I have never seen a single compelling, necessary and sufficient cause, but rather all major history seems to be overdetermined. Just so, Ash regards the final chapters in Ostpolitik.

On a minor stylistic note, apart from perhaps being too repetitive and splitting hairs a touch too finely, it was surprising to see an articulate writer like Ash fulsomely using "fulsome" to mean something like "robust" vice "annoying" or "offensive." Read your Shakespeare man!

Had the book been a bit more accessible to the everyday reader (and a bit shorter thereby), I'd have given it four stars. It is hard to imagine an interest in Cold War Germany without coming across this work sooner or later. For the serious student of divided Germany, or even the Cold War more generally, this book is on the essential list. For others however, it is probably too much of a good thing, there are undoubtedly shorter and breezier works to satisfy more casual tastes.

[Gary Brim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative book whose value is diminished by its format and organization.

Twenty years after it was written, this book could be very valuable to a reader looking for a comprehensive view of the events and policies leading up to the unification of Germany, and its impact upon Europe, from the perspective of just after the unification.

The problem is the structure of the book doesn't lend itself to use as a reference book. Chapters and subheadings are few, with the structure more like a collection of very extended essays. The footnote system may be the worst I have ever seen in a serious book.

Four stars for content and the quality of the writing. The author clearly knows and is enthused by his subject. One star for organization of the good material in this book.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Close to his best book

But his liberal internationalist outlook and his obsessive Polonophila, skew this one into an unusual and dated book on Germany.

If you're interested in Ash's world view, it's worth a read, but this book isn't the classic some purport it to be.

Sadly a good writer, who is better at his facts than most, but bankrupt and greatly oversimplified in the ideas department with virtually every one of his books.

There is a reason why there's essays like this one in Foreign Policy

............

Foreign Policy
The Failed Life Project of Timothy Garton Ash

[revised title: Timothy Garton Ash Misunderstands Liberalism]

The British writer aimed to be the liberal intellectual of his generation—and ended up a victim of his own repressed dogmas.

............

[Marshall Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of how a divided city (Berlin) in a divided country (Germany) in a divided continent (Europe) managed the cold war in a way that resulted in the reunion of all German people when that war ended. This is a very interesting history of a major facet of the cold war and of how it ended.

[Lazarus P Badpenny Esq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forensic and fair-minded if, self-confessedly, lacking access to some of the most pertinent data.