History of Europe

A World in Arms:The West with the Bundeswehr and NATO

"Never again war!" most Germans swear by it in the 1950s. Plans for rearmament cause great controversy. But the Cold War changed many people's attitudes towards the Bundeswehr and alliance partners.

by Ulrike Bosse, NDR Info

The 1950s are a time of departure and new beginnings. But the Second World War is in people's bones - even if they try to leave it behind or repress it. It is not only present in the memories, but there are always events that trigger fears of a new war:the Berlin Blockade in 1948/49, the Korean War in 1950, the Berlin Crisis in 1958. The Cold War has begun :The USA on the one hand, the Soviet Union on the other - and their allies are preparing for a possible new military conflict.

Against German rearmament - then into the Bundeswehr

Two years after the Bundeswehr was founded, Hagena became a soldier.

Hermann Hagena, born in 1931, experienced the new confrontation between the power blocs West and East as an officer in the Bundeswehr. The memory of his father, who served in the Luftwaffe during World War II and died in 1943, is one reason for this career path - even if it doesn't seem like it at first. "Never again war!" is the wish of the Germans. And like the majority, as a young man, Hermann Hagena was initially against Germany's rearmament and sympathized with the "Ohne mich" movement:"I said we'd never do that shit again."

NATO founding states view Germany with skepticism

On April 4, 1949, the USA, Canada and ten European countries sealed the founding of NATO by signing the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington. The signatory states pledge themselves to the peaceful principles of the United Nations, to friendly relations and economic cooperation among themselves - and to joint consultation should the national territory or the independence of a member state be threatened, and to assistance if one of them is attacked. At that time, the NATO countries not only had the Soviet Union in mind as a possible opponent, but initially also a Germany that might regain strength.

USA want Germany as an important defense partner

A few years after the end of the Nazi regime, many European neighbors find the idea of ​​a German military intolerable. Here women protest in London in 1951.

But the situation changed soon after the founding of the Federal Republic. The Americans consider a contribution from the Germans to be necessary in order to be able to successfully defend Western Europe. Neighboring European countries are not enthusiastic about the idea that Germans should bear arms again. To reassure them, the Americans point out that the German troop contingents would be integrated into the existing command structures of NATO.

Rearmament sparks controversy

Sections of the German population are also opposed to rearmament. In 1956, for example, a protest march by conscientious objectors roamed the streets of Cologne.

In the Federal Republic, the rearmament dispute was one of the dominant domestic political disputes in the 1950s. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU) initially spoke out against it. But then he sees the possibility of winning back sovereignty for the Federal Republic with a "military contribution".

Hermann Hagena also changed his attitude towards rearmament. In the early 1950s he got to know the USA on a scholarship. After his return, he studied in Heidelberg, where he often came into contact with American soldiers. "The rethinking clearly began with getting to know Americans who served in the armed forces and who of course campaigned for it when German rearmament started." He recalls a conversation with an American pastor:"He said that we Germans in particular should make a clear break with our past and should say:We Germans are partly responsible for what happened, but as a Germans now also have the opportunity to make an individual contribution in the other direction."

Germany will not use ABC weapons when it joins NATO

Initially, German armed forces are to be created within the framework of a European defense community - but this fails in August 1954 due to a vote by the French parliament. So initially purely national armed forces are built up. On May 5, 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany joins NATO - "under the same conditions" as all other member states, as Chancellor Adenauer emphasizes. Ten years after the end of the war, the Federal Republic is once again a sovereign state. However, it expressly refrains from using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The clear signal:Germany should never start war again.

The history of the Bundeswehr begins with 101 volunteers

Twelve of the first 101 volunteers of the new German armed forces receive their certificates of appointment from Defense Minister Blank in 1955 in uniform, the rest in civilian clothes.

Since the beginning of the decade, former Wehrmacht officers have been working on building up the armed forces under the leadership of the CDU member of parliament Theodor Blank. Blank becomes the first Minister of Defense in the Federal Republic, and on November 12, 1955, the first 101 volunteers receive their certificates of appointment as soldiers in the initially nameless new armed forces - officially called the Bundeswehr from April 1, 1956.

The Bundeswehr as an employer:temptation through security

Financial reasons also gave Hagena - here in 1969 with the Luftwaffe - the decisive factor in being sworn in.

Hermann Hagena's career in the Luftwaffe begins in 1957. In addition to his changed political assessment, very practical reasons also play a role:the prospect of flying training in the USA and the regular income. "Being able to help my younger siblings was a tempting thought for me," he explains.

Major Holz still leads "according to Wehrmacht principles"

The future Luftwaffe officer also starts with basic infantry training:"Crawling, crawling, gliding, everything you need to be able to do as an infantryman." Then follows a period in a Luftwaffe training regiment in Cuxhaven. "At that time it was headed by a Major Holz. After the third sentence he said:'I'm still leading here according to Wehrmacht principles.' And if you dared to use the subjunctive, he'd yell, 'What do you mean, I would, what do you want?'"

The Bundeswehr is built up by former Wehrmacht officers - otherwise it is hardly possible. But when it was founded, more strict care was taken than in other areas of society that no old Nazis were given leading positions - all applicants for officer posts were checked for their political past.

"Citizens in uniform" instead of "corpse obedience"

Hermann Hagena, too, became a "citizen in uniform" as an officer - here in 1985.

And the Bundeswehr deliberately wants to break with what is known as "corpse obedience":the soldier who can be used like "dead" material, so to speak - which, according to those responsible, was partly responsible for the war crimes committed in the Wehrmacht. Instead, the model of the "citizen in uniform" is created. Wolf Graf von Baudissin is responsible for this - as a German officer, military historian and peace researcher, he is convinced that neither discipline and freedom nor discipline and personality have to be opposites.

At the same time, the Bundeswehr, in its public appearance, is trying to avoid suspicion that the old German militarism is being revived. Swearing-in ceremonies take place in the barracks, and there are no public troop deployments. The Bundeswehr is only visible to the public through the uniforms that the soldiers have to wear when they go home on vacation. And accepted in this form, as Hermann Hagena says to himself:"I've never been looked at askance."

"The Soviet Union was seen as a threat"

The protests in the German population decrease after the founding of the Bundeswehr. The brutal suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 by the Warsaw Pact troops shows once again that the Soviet Union also enforces its interests with armed force. The number of advocates of rearmament is increasing.

"The Soviet Union, now Russia, was seen as a threat," Hagena recalls. "They were superior to us in terms of numbers and equipment." The danger lurks in the east, that is the credo. At the time, however, Hagena was not afraid that he would have to go to war against the Soviet Union as a soldier in the Bundeswehr:"Basically, everyone expected things to go well."

Conscription law includes conscientious objection

The number of those who volunteered for the Bundeswehr is not enough to reach the 500,000 troops that the NATO concept envisages for the German armed forces. The Bundestag therefore decides in 1956 to introduce general conscription:From April 1, 1957, every male German citizen must join the Bundeswehr - if he does not take the opportunity guaranteed by Article 12 of the Basic Law:to refuse military service for reasons of conscience and to perform alternative service instead .

Nuclear armament brings citizens to the barricades

The Germans are not enthusiastic about the introduction of conscription. However, resistance only arises when the federal government sets its sights on the nuclear armament of the German armed forces. In 1956 there was a debate as to whether the Bundeswehr should be equipped with tactical nuclear weapons. Fears of a German nuclear build-up are heightened when former "nuclear minister" Franz Josef Strauss is appointed as the new defense minister. A huge wave of protests breaks out.

On April 12, 1957, a group of nuclear physicists passed the "Göttingen Declaration" in which they called for the population to be comprehensively informed about the dangers of nuclear weapons and for the German armed forces to stop being equipped with nuclear weapons. They also state that none of them would be willing to build, test, or use bombs if ever asked.

The declaration by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker was decisively formulated. It has a signal effect. A huge protest movement ensues.

The Bundeswehr remains nuclear-free - not NATO

Hermann Hegena ruled out serving in the fighter-bomber because of the possible transport of nuclear weapons.

The campaign "Fight dem Atomic Death" is supported by the SPD, churches and trade unions. According to a representative opinion poll in 1958, 83 percent of Germans were against the installation of nuclear launch pads in the Federal Republic. When Hagena was asked whether he wanted to "move from the fighters to the fighter-bombers" within the Bundeswehr, he decided to do so because of the possible transport of nuclear weapons that this would entail. At the end of 1958, the NATO Council decided that the "key right" to use nuclear weapons in Western Europe and West Germany rested solely with the USA. This makes it clear that the promise from the founding phase of the Bundeswehr will remain true - albeit via detours:no nuclear weapons for the German armed forces.

The US, Britain and France remain NATO's nuclear powers.

Bundeswehr and military service at NDR Retro