Where We Stand:
OLLENHAUER, ERICH
Where We Stand By Erich Ollenhauer How German Social Democrats View International Affairs THE POLICIES of the German Social Democratic party may be puzzling for intrinsic reasons; they may be...
...The complex is, I believe, reflected in three questions that recently reached me from the United States...
...We have to believe so, because the facts of the four-power occupation make any other solution of the German problem by peaceful means impossible...
...We also have a home audience...
...That is a period which I assume extends beyond the near future specified in the question...
...In a coming issue, we will publish commentary on this viewpoint...
...It established potential points of contact in their approach to the problem...
...It is composed of working men and women, and, above all, of youth with no desire for the belligerent settlement of issues...
...That is why the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic party emphasized last September 18 that, "parallel with negotiations on improved European cooperation, negotiations must be carried on between the Western pow ers and the Soviet Union on the relaxation of international tension, in the course of which an understanding on the reunification of Germany in freedom must be sought...
...I am not aware of any of the Occupation powers having, at any time, presented a workable basis...
...The first question is: "Have you serious reason to believe that Moscow might, in the near future, agree to the reunification of Germany on the basis of full and free elections, which would, no doubt, mean that they have given up control of East Germany...
...The policy is not unprecedented for any of the four powers, except perhaps for France as a non-participant, because it is clearly indicated in the Potsdam agreement...
...The biennial convention of my party at Berlin last July accepted this position: If Moscow is not prepared to agree as suggested in the first question quoted above, the Social Democratic party will throw all its weight behind a full-fledged Western system of defense...
...It was a propaganda conference rather than a working conference, and it is not impossible that a goodly proportion of the propaganda dispensed at Berlin was aimed primarily at the home audiences of the participants...
...M y party was nevertheless content, in a motion before the Bonn Bundestag on October 7, to call upon the Federal Government of West Germany to seek common action on German reunification between the powers involved...
...The question introduces the time element by limiting its range to the near future...
...It is today an accepted principle of French foreign policy...
...I must add that I am not aware of having characterized any offer by Molotov in the manner suggested in the question...
...The survivors and their descendants, together with German youth in general, are none too convinced of the wisdom of the victors, however much they may recognize and value the compensations generously offered and contributed afterward...
...But it was an abject failure with regard to agreed conclusions on any element of the problem...
...So far as the Germans in the Saar territory are concerned, the principles of self-determination have been spurned...
...I must add that I am not aware of having characterized any offer by Molotov in the manner suggested in the question...
...The biennial convention of my party at Berlin last July accepted this position: If Moscow is not prepared to agree as suggested in the first question quoted above, the Social Democratic party will throw all its weight behind a full-fledged Western system of defense...
...So far as the Germans in the Saar territory are concerned, the principles of self-determination have been spumed...
...But it was an abject failure with regard to agreed conclusions on any element of the problem...
...That is why we Social Democrats do not weary of pressing for unceasing exchanges on this and related problems...
...We certainly are not...
...To the totalitarianism of the Nazis, too, we were Enemy Number One...
...This "parallelism" in the approach of the free world was approved by the Scarborough conference of the British Labor party on September 28...
...But our main contention is that the London and Paris agreements emphasize agreement on military matters to the detriment and neglect of more basic and enduring elements of Western unity...
...When the London Conference was called to consider the situation arising out of the failure of the European Defense Community project, I made a point of welcoming the endeavor...
...Throughout the party and its electorate are men and women with memories still alive and painful from the days when, unobserved by the great, free world, they became the first victims of the Hitler terror...
...The problem is one of preventive action...
...Throughout the party and its electorate are men and women with memories still alive and painful from the days when, unobserved by the great, free world, they became the first victims of the Hitler terror...
...This article by Erich Ollenhauer, Chairman of the German Social Democratic party (SPD), is a response to three questions put to him by the editors of THE NEW LEADER in an attempt to clarify American understanding of the SPD position...
...It is also implied that there is a necessary link between these two elements of the problem...
...Whatever one may believe about the intentions of Moscow, there is no evidence that the Western powers in occupation are any more ready today to give up their hold on German soil than they were at the Berlin Conference...
...This "parallelism" in the approach of the free world was approved by the Scarborough conference of the British Labor party on September 28...
...But they can be brought to bear on the problem only by talks among the four powers having direct responsibility in and for Germany...
...But a test of Moscow's intentions that will carry conviction has still to be made...
...If our friends in the free world will understand that German Social Democracy is primarily concerned with objectives that will prevent the worst from coming to pass, then there is no riddle of Social Democratic foreign policy...
...But a test of Moscow's intentions that will carry conviction has still to be made...
...But they can be brought to bear on the problem only by talks among the four powers having direct responsibility in and for Germany...
...The Social Democratic leadership is nevertheless able and ready also to recognize those facts of the world situation which force it to make a decision...
...It was a propaganda conference rather than a working conference, and it is not impossible that a goodly proportion of the propaganda dispensed at Berlin was aimed primarily at the home audiences of the participants...
...I am not aware of any of the Occupation powers having, at any time, presented a workable basis...
...they may be difficult to grasp for the foreign observer because of different preconceptions...
...Motives would not be far to seek in a world afraid of World War III...
...We do take issue with the implication that the problem is essentially one of securing agreement from Moscow, as if (1) full and free elections and (2) the surrender of control, presumably military, of German soil depend exclusively on concessions from that quarter...
...It was successful in placing the Big Four on record with regard to a number of aspects of the problem...
...If the free world had been more alert, the attack might never have expanded, so far as Hitler Germany was able to extend, to embrace the humiliation and extinction of a great race...
...motives for such an unprecedented policy...
...The present call to arms from the West finds no easy response, and the Social Democratic party has to recognize that as one of the hard facts about the new Germany...
...Whatever bearing the establishment of native West German "Streitkrafte" may eventually have on the question, they will not come into existence for another three or four years...
...The survivors and their descendants, together with German youth in general, are none too convinced of the wisdom of the victors, however much they may recognize and value the compensations generously offered and contributed afterward...
...That is why we urge the acceptance of any and every offer by any of the four powers to confer on the German problem...
...We happen to believe in the possibility of all four powers coming to an agreed solution...
...The present call to arms from the West finds no easy response, and the Social Democratic party has to recognize that as one of the hard facts about the new Germany...
...And that is my answer to the third question: "What prompts you to accept Molotov's last proposal as a workable basis for a new Big Four conference...
...We did not reject the London Final Act unconditionally...
...It is composed of working men and women, and, above all, of youth with no desire for the belligerent settlement of issues...
...When the London Conference was called to consider the situation aris ing out of the failure of the Euro pean Defense Community project, made a point of welcoming the endeavor...
...The present-day world has no scope for remedial action...
...This was manifest in the deliberations of the four-power conference in Berlin last winter, where the Western powers showed their own concern in the matter...
...May I now be allowed to proceed to the fundamentals of Social Democratic foreign policy...
...And that is my answer to the third question: "What prompts you to accept Molotov's last proposal as a workable basis for a new Big Four conference...
...The last nine months have seen a more ferocious and sustained campaign than ever directed by the Communists against the German Social Democratic party as their Enemy Number One...
...The present-day world has no scope for remedial action...
...To have a genuine bearing on the German problem, the question would accordingly have to refer to all four powers now occupying Germany...
...If our friends in the free world will understand that German Social Democracy is primarily concerned with objectives that will prevent the worst from coming to pass, then there is no riddle of Social Democratic foreign policy...
...The Berlin Conference was remarkable for its total lack of any workable basis produced before the meeting, and for the Conference itself operating as a medium of diplomatic preparation rather than as an international conference in the mature sense of the term...
...The history of the last thirty-five years has, from beginning to end, proved that even those closest to the throne in Moscow are not necessarily in such a position...
...In the German orbit, the Social Democrats are further removed from the Moscow throne than anybody else...
...We have to believe so, because the facts of the four-power occupation make any other solution of the German problem by peaceful means impossible...
...Motives would not be far to seek in a world afraid of World War III...
...It established potential points of contact in their approach to the problem...
...If the free world had been more alert, the attack might never have expanded, so far as Hitler Germany was able to extend, to embrace the humiliation and extinction of a great race...
...We yield to no one in our live and active concern for the "racial" victims of Nazism, but we enjoyed, if that is the word, the political priority of attack...
...We are now faced with the disappointing fact that this approach has not been solidly embedded in the instruments of Western unity projected by the London and Paris conferences...
...We also have a home audience...
...That is why we Social Democrats do not weary of pressing for unceasing exchanges on this and related problems...
...The second question slightly varies the approach: "If you believe in that [Moscow's agreement to German unity], could you elaborate on their motives for such an unprecedented policy...
...To the totalitarianism of the Nazis, too, we were Enemy Number One...
...My party was nevertheless content, in a motion before the Bonn Bundestag on October 7, to call upon the Federal Government of West Germany to seek common action on German reunification between the powers involved...
...We happen to believe in the possibility of all four powers coining to an agreed solution...
...We did not reject the London Final Act unconditionally...
...We yield to no one in our live and active concern for the "racial" victims of Nazism, but we enjoyed, if that is the word, the political priority of attack...
...May I now be allowed to proceed to the fundamentals of Social Democratic foreign policy...
...That is why we urge the acceptance of any and every offer by any of the four powers to confer on the German problem...
...The Berlin Conference was remarkable for its total lack of any workable basis produced before the meeting, and for the Conference itself operating as a medium of diplomatic preparation rather than as an international conference in the mature sense of the term...
...The question implies that we German Social Democrats may be so placed as to have "serious reason to believe" anything about what Moscow might be prepared to do...
...And I take the liberty of suggesting that one reason was the absence of any corresponding intention among the participants...
...The question further seems to imply an exclusive preoccupation with the reunification of Germany, whereas we have repeatedly and consistently placed this objective in the context of the cold war, to the liquidation of which, in our view, a solution of the German problem by peaceful means would constitute a decisive contribution, if only as one in a series of comprehensive and ultimately global agreements...
...That is why the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic party emphasized last September 18 that, "parallel with negotiations on improved European cooperation, negotiations must be carried on between the Western powers and the Soviet Union on the relaxation of international tension, in the course of which an understanding on the reunification of Germany in freedom must be sought...
...and they may be just plain objectionable...
...And I take the liberty of suggesting that one reason was the absence of any corresponding intention among the participants...
...The London Final Act and the Paris Treaties, Declarations and Letters tend, rather, to perpetuate and safeguard foreign military establishments in the three Western occupation zones of today's Germany...
...But our main contention is that the London and Paris agreements emphasize agreement on military matters to the detriment and neglect of more basic and enduring elements of Western unity...
...We are now faced with the disappointing fact that this approach has not been solidly embedded in the instruments of Western unity projected by the London and Paris conferences...
...The problem is one of preventive action...
...The Social Democratic leadership is nevertheless able and ready also to recognize those facts of the world situation which force it to make a decision...
...It was successful in placing the Big Four on record with regard to a number of aspects of the problem...
...It is today an accepted principle of French foreign policy...
...The policy is not unprecedented for any of the four powers, except perhaps for France as a non-participant, because it is clearly indicated in the Potsdam agreement...
Vol. 37 • November 1954 • No. 47
