The World Looks Up to the Germans
By Ambassador John Kornblum

"...(die) Deutschen sind unfassbarer, umfänglicher, widerspruchsvoller, unbekannter, unberechenbarer, überraschender, selbst erschrecklicher, als es andere Völker sich selbst sind: sie entschlüpfen der Definition."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Why is it that so many people, Germans and foreigners alike, have for centuries found it necessary to delve repeatedly into the mysteries and the contradictions of the German soul?  The discoveries are not necessarily attractive or even useful for daily life.  With the exception of Immanuel Kant, whose lessons have rarely been applied in Germany, few of its great philosophers have affected civil societies elsewhere.  Germany's political history is rife with disasters.

Konrad Adenauer believed that by turning westward, he could scrub the effects of these contradictions from the German consciousness.  Seventeen years after the Wende, the German axis seems again to be rotating, like a wheel of fortune at a carnival.  Nobody seems to know where it will stop: on jackpot or Schwarzer Peter.

Why do we all care so much?  Because it is Germany's contradictions which have been the "Exportmeisters'" most successful product. Germany's primary effect on world history has not been its philosophy or its technology, but rather the often disastrous results of its mysteries.

Because Germany remains the fulcrum of the post-war West, the world is again wondering in which direction it will turn.  This talented nation was the key to European recovery after World War II.  If Germany is confident in the coming years, Europe will be too.  If Germany sinks into stagnation and self-pity, so will Europe.

The Western world can remain a voice for democratic progress in the world only if Germany continues to be the hub of a productive partnership with North America.  If it doesn't, Europe will drift into isolation and protectionism as America turns eastward.

Foreigners watch with concern, because Germany is having a hard time adjusting to the twenty-first century.  It must regain its sense of nationhood, while at the same time puzzling over the effects of globalization and a severe demographic decline.  The country has no experience with dramatic change in times of peace.  In the past, war and depression regularly prepared the way for a new era.

Post-World War II Germany was not just a restructured society; it had returned from near death.  The visions of the 1950s were idealized beyond all reality. They projected a near-perfect Germany which rejected totally the excesses of the past.  Maintaining this identity appears even now to be an essential element of German psychological health. 

Rather than looking to the future, a large number of Germans seem intent on protecting the gains of the past.  It is hard for them to realize that Germany today is one of the true winners of history. Germans seem to be afraid to risk the one thing which could guarantee their future: openness about the future and responsibility for its success.

Ambassador John Kornblum is a former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, an AICGS Trustee, and Chairman of Lazard and Co. GmbH.

This article originally appeared in German in the November 19, 2006, Welt am Sonntag. Please click here to read the original version.  This article also appeared in the November 21, 2006, AICGS Advisor.