How Konrad Adenauer's Cold War strategy aimed at reunification

Fifty years after the death of the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Historical Museum in Berlin is presenting an exhibition focusing on how Konrad Adenauer aimed to reunite the country through his policies. "He has often been accused of not having done enough for German reunification. That's certainly not the case," says historian Hanns Jürgen Küsters.

After the Federal Republic of Germany was established after World War II, Konrad Adenauer became its first Chancellor on September 15, 1949, at age 73. Many expected him to stay in office for a short period - yet he was reelected three times afterwards. The 14 years of his chancellorship coincided with the preliminary phase of the Cold War and the consolidation of two separate German states.

This poster from 1952, detailing "The Way to Freedom and Unity," impressively anticipated the way West Germany would later develop. The Federal Republic remained under the governance of the United States, Great Britain and France, until the Bonn-Paris conventions were ratified on May 5, 1955, putting an end to the Allied occupation of West Germany.

There were other options on the table: In March 1952, Soviet leader Josef Stalin approached the Western Allies with a proposal for the reunification and neutralization of Germany. However, Adenauer didn't trust Stalin's intentions and therefore rejected the project of a united "neutral" Germany. He believed West Germany should first deepen its ties with the West to avoid communist influence.

The exhibition shows how Adenauer aimed to connect the Federal Republic with the West. In his opinion, integrating international liberal structures was West Germany's only realistic way of countering the threat of the Soviet Union. "He believed it was more important to have a part of Germany that remained free than to reunite it as one country. That was controversial at the time," says Küsters.

During the Berlin Crisis, which led to the construction of the Wall in 1961, Adenauer and France's Charles De Gaulle positioned themselves against the British and the Americans' flexibility in negotiating the status of West Berlin - which could have led it to fall under Soviet influence. This is why Adenauer later became an honorary citizen of Berlin, according to Küsters.

These items, a felt hat and boccia balls, became Adenauer's trademarks. He would often spend his holidays in Cadenabbia, Italy, where he would play boccia, the Italian version of bowles. These symbols of the politician's civil life offered a strong contrast to former German rulers, who preferred to be identified with tanks and spiked helmets.

Adenauer worked more towards Germany's reunification than many historians later claimed, believes the Adenauer expert Hanns Jürgen Küsters. The exhibition "Unity Only in Freedom - Konrad Adenauer and the German Question" explores how. Presented by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation, it is on display at the German Historical Museum from April 22 through May 7, 2017.