Why the Germans Hesitate
Professor of Government at Harvard University. CARL, J. FRIEDRICH was governmental adviser to General Clay during the early years of the Army of Occupation, and last summer he spent two months at the University of Heidelberg lecturing on political science and the problems of democracy. His classes were more than half composed of veterans of the Wehrmacht, and in the informal discussions outside the classroom, this is what they told him.
by CARL J. FRIEDRICH
THE opposition to rearmament among Germans is one of the puzzles of the present situation. It has excited much comment and interest recently, though at first many observers were incredulous because it ran so much counter to established views and set opinions. When I taught at Heidelberg University last summer, the issue was a constant topic of discussion and often violent argument among the students. Time and again we would get into it, inside class and out. Vividly I recall sitting by the river once, with a group of students, while the ruins of the castle greeted us from the hillside.
“Would you servo in a Cennan army, voluntarily or as a draftee, if the call came?" I asked a law student, about twenty-live, who looked like the perfect noncom.
“No, sir, I have had enough.”About eight others nodded assent. The tenth fellow, younger than the others, said: “I would, as a volunteer, if we were treated the way the American a rim is.”
“Oh sure,”a not her said. “ but we never would be. Besides, I have had three years as a Russian prisoner of war and that is all I want.”Since I looked puzzled, he went on: “You must understand, Herr Professor, that five years in the a rim and three years as a prisoner is a long time. The longer it lasted, the less we knew win it should go on. And I tell you another thing: there is nothing more awful than to be out on the front, waiting for mail from home, and then hearing that your home town has been bombed. I don’t want to be in that situation again, ever. When I came home for one of my leaves, I went straight to where we lived — I wanted to surprise them — and what did I find when I got there? Ruins. My mother, my sister, dead. More of that? No, thank you.”
“But,”I remarked, “surely there would be a difference if you were defending your country against a Russian imasion.”
“Oh yes, a lot of difference,”one of them said, “but Hitler said that too. They all do.” The others seemed to disagree among themselves. There was some muttering. “Anyway,”he went on, “what comes of it all? They’ll smash our cities, they’ll rape our women, they’ll steal our watches, whether we fight or not. Because we can’t win.”I tried to disagree. “I am not talking about what’s going to be the final outcome.”he continued, “but first, and for some time, the Russians will win. And the Commies here will be proclaiming the liberation of Germany and all that stuff, but they won’t be able to control the Red army, any more than in 1945. Every Commie will talk big until his own wife gets it, or his kid. Then he’ll turn against it. but that just lands him in the camp of the MVD. So if we haven’t fought, we’ll be better off because then they’ll do their lighting and looting in France unless the French have sense, and don’t light either.”
“Don’t believe him,”a rather thoughtful follow said to me, “he likes to hear himself talk. But it is true, don’t you think, that there isn’t much sense in our fighting if we haven’t a chance of wanning?”
I conceded the point, but added that after all we wanted to prevent a war by this arming.
“All right then. Still, you have to have a chance. Do wet Hitler tried to light the Russians and lost, He had over a hundred divisions. How many have wo got? How many can wo got t Suppose you said to us: we ll help you arm twenty divisions. Could they hope to light fifty Russian divisions? I know some of your GI’s think the Russians don’t amount to much. Well, let me tell you and I hope you won’t be offended as an American some of us found the Russians the toughest soldiers we had to fight. As for me, I’d rather fight an American than a Russian. So, what I think is that there is no sense in trying to have a German army fighting the Russians. We’ll lose, sure thing.
“He is right.”another said, “even though I did not find the Russians quite as good as he. In fact, I don’t believe the Russkies fight very well once they get outside Russia. Still, they have very good weapons, like the field guns with which they licked us. But that isn’t the whole slory. The Russians don’t care how they live; they are barbarians. They’d come for loot and women.
“Well,”I said, “let’s leave that aside. But wouldn’t our air force make quile a difference? We could blast their communications and . . .”
“Oh, you with your air force,” he interrupted me impatiently. “All that means is that more of our cities will be destroyed, more of our factories go to rack and ruin. How can you attack the Russians without attacking us? You bombed France in the last war, and you’d bomb us in this one. That, sir, is just our big point: unless there are strong enough ground forces, infantry most of all, to keep the Russians out of here, your air force means for us more harm than good. That’s win your people who talk about neutralizing us are so crazy. If you Americans abandon us to neutral status. I am for ma king our peace with Russia and to hell with you.”
“But now I am completely bewildered,” I said. “Are you willing to go over to the Russian side?”
“Heavens no,”they shouted in chorus. “Only the Commies want that. But you disarmed us and now vou have to defend us. We can’t make you, but you are morally obliged to. and you know it.”
“He who conquers a country and rules it is responsible for its security,” a young lawyer added rat her testily.
I did not want to argue that point, so I observed: “Suppose we don’t. Isn’t ii still your job to help defend Germany and Europe?”
“You don’t seem to understand,”my blond noncom remarked. “We’d like to help defend Germany, and Europe too, against those Reds, but now that you have destroyed our military how can we, unless you show us a way? Mind you, I don’t blame you for destroying our military. Some of our militarists do, of course, but 1 don’t like Prussian militarism, and I don’t want a German army, because all the old brass would come back, and the Prussian sergeants too. But, heck, a fight is a fight, and unless you have a good army, you might just as well not start. If you’d open up enlistments in the American army a lot of fellows would enlist.”
“How many:” I asked. Three of them said they would, if conditions were right. They seemed to realize that there was a lot of griping about the army by Americans but still they thought it would be so much better than the German army ,
“Well, is there no way out, then, except trying to raise a volunteer force under American auspices?” I remarked rather dejectedly. You could not help gelling troubled by their arguments; they were so sensible and so earnest, these disillusioned veterans of Hitler’s mighty Wehrmaeht.
“Oh yes,” the thoughtful one who was studying political science began. “There is one wav, and the only way. Help us organize a European army.”
“Would you serve in a European army, but not in a German one?" Five of them said they would. “Why would you? Surely it is a strange thing for you fellows not to want to join a German army, but to join a European one!”
“That just shows, Herr Professor.” a man spoke up who had been silent all the while, “how hard ii is for you Americans to understand ns. Let me tell you why. First, I believe a European army , backed by you, may have n chance; second, the Russians could not object to a European army, especially if the Germans came in when France and the others had been strengthened; third, in a European army our generals could not vralk away with the show: and fourth, if I fought in a European army. I’d know what I was fighting for. I believe in a united Europe.” “So do I! So do I!” several of them shouted. The systematic fellow looked about triumphantly as he added: “’There is no help for Germany, or for Europe either, unless we get together. But it’s gel to be a real government of Europe, not just some lame international conference.“
I recalled that the German parliament at Ronn had just passed a resolution, 360-odd to 40, instructing the German delegation going to Strasbourg, to work for a united Europe with all means at its disposal. “Do they represent general German sentiment?” I asked.
“Of course they do,” one of them said. “Those politicians are limping behind the rest of us. The Schumacher boys just want to make people forgel that they were against Germany’s accepting the invitation to enter the Council of Europe.”
It seemed very clear, though, that these fellows did not want to enter a European army unless it was controlled by a European government. “We must insist upon equality,”one of them said suspiciously , “or the European army will become an army of German mercenaries and the rest of them will keep their national armies with just a regiment or two in the European army. And we don’t want that.”
Such was the tenor of our many talks Iasi summer. But when I recently met with a group of German students visiting Harvard University under State Department, auspices, I told them about what I had heard and asked whether it was still true.
“Sure,”one of t hem said. “ Look at the elections. A French politician said recently: ‘If you want peace, prepare Europe.’ We held a rally in Frankfurt before! loft Germany. For German youth. We thought two thousand might come, to hear about next steps toward European unity. Twelve thousand turned up. A delegate from the Saar pleaded with them: ‘Do not ask us Saarlanders to choose between France and Germany, but let us all choose Europe instead. He got the biggest hand of the day. We are all sick of war, and we are afraid that you Americans will get us into another one.’