Stalin Note - Debate About The "missed Chance"

Debate About The "missed Chance"

There have been several debates about whether a real chance for reunification had been missed in 1952. There are two main disputes:

• The more concrete and easier to research question revolved around Stalin's motives, around how ready he was to permit a neutralized, democratic, unified Germany (and give up the GDR). Sceptics reject this. A completely independent Germany could be just as unpleasant in principle for Stalin as for the West. But above all, the existence of the GDR had great advantages for Stalin:
  • As one of four occupying powers of the Second World War, the Soviet Union enjoyed prestige, to begin with.
  • The Soviet right of occupation of East German soil was recognized in general by the Western Powers.
  • The GDR was an important Soviet bridgehead in the middle of Europe; and above all at a time when Soviet troops had again left Czechoslovakia and Poland. The GDR was important for holding together the system of the Soviet satellite states.
  • Because of its precarious situation, the GDR leadership were (for the most part) especially true vassals of the Soviet Union.
  • The GDR could be economically exploited and provide soldiers.
  • There is no comparison with Austria - from which the Soviet Union had withdrawn in 1955 - since Austria has a lesser strategic and economic weight than Germany. Beside, Austria had already had an all-Austrian government since 1945.

• A more political and more speculative question is whether such a Germany would have been more desirable. The sceptics feel:
  • Stalin could have still tried to subjugate all of Germany in a roundabout way through reunification.
  • Without the Western Alliance, Stalin could have been able to conquer the western European countries little by little, as Hitler had treated Germany's neighbors.
  • Without integration with the West, West Germany or all of Germany would have fared worse economically.

Above all, there is debate about the behavior of the FRD and the Western Powers. The publicist, Paul Sethe, and the historians Wilfried Loth, Josef Foschepoth, Karl-Gustav von Schönfels, and especially Rolf Steininger belong to the critics. Their views are answered by Hermann Graml, Gerhard Wettig and Gottfried Niedhart.

The critics alleged again and again that Adenauer, who came from Catholic Rhineland, didn't want reunification with the Protestant, Prussian East at all. The opinion of Adenauer in the Weimar Republic (he wanted an independent Rhineland inside of the German Empire) was used against him. The allegations were wrong, but Adenauer could have had a political motive also: many of the traditional supporters of the SPD were in the GDR. With the East zone, Germany would have become more Protestant and more Social Democratic than the FRG of the three Western zones.

In essence, the debate had two peaks: at the end of the 1950s and then again after the opening of the archive of the Western Powers in the middle of the 1980s. Newer research since the 1990s also takes into account the archives of the former East Block and thus brings up further discussion. Finally, a book on the analysis of the Stalin notes was published in 2002. During the reunification itself (1989/1990), the debate about the Stalin notes played no part.