'Ich bin ein Berliner,' revisited

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'Ich bin ein Berliner,' revisited

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"I am a Berliner"—now considered to be the sentence most widely recognized worldwide as being German.

Kennedy’s historic June 26, 1963, speech declaring American solidarity with the citizens of Berlin and Germany bitterly divided between the communist east and the free west may well prove to have been the high-water mark of postwar German-American relations. This seems especially so in the aftermath of the bitter dispute between the United States and Germany over President George Bush's decision to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by force.

Interestingly, however, one of the same elements in the most recent dispute over Iraq was already becoming a thorn in the German-American relationship when John F. Kennedy visited Berlin 40 years ago. That thorn was Germany’s desire for closer cooperation with its neighbor and former traditional enemy, France. The Berlin Wall, the blight on Berlin that Kennedy condemned during his Schöneberg speech, contributed to the growth of that thorn in the first place.

Germany's chancellor Konrad Adenauer was disappointed by Kennedy's position on the Berlin question prior to, during, and immediately after the erection of the Berlin Wall. America's foreign policy at the time was perceived as being committed to maintaining the postwar status quo of a divided Germany. This was a totally unacceptable proposition for a democratic nationalist like Adenauer.

In the months after August 1961, when the wall first went up, a remarkable closing of the ranks transpired between Germany and France. It lead to the triumphant state visit to Germany by French President Charles de Gaulle in September 1962. Four months later, in January 1963, the historic Franco-German friendship treaty was signed at Elysée palace near Paris. The two former enemies embarked on a new course of cooperation and mutual support as neighbors committed to peace and good bilateral relations.

The treaty was criticized in Washington and caused tensions between the "Atlanticists" and the "Gaullists" in Adenauer's party and its sister party of then-chairman Franz Josef Strauss. That domestic of dispute 40 years closely resembles similar charges and countercharges made by German politicians in the months leading up to the latest Iraq war.

In a private meeting with Adenauer during his June 1963 visit to Germany, Kennedy mentioned his disappointment over France's decision to remove its Atlantic naval fleet from NATO jurisdiction. In his response, Chancellor Adenauer reportedly told the American President that "Europe, including France, would be lost without the United States of America" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 23, 2003).

With the collapse of the Soviet system, the threat that was the basis of Adenauer's comment to Kennedy is gone. The division of Germany is over, and with it the division of Europe. In its desire to solve its problem, Germany turned to France instead of going it alone, as would have been the case in an earlier time, in view of Europe's history of strong national states seeking domination.

The German-French relationship has continued to develop, leading in the 1980s to the formation of a joint German-French military brigade, stationed in southwestern Germany. More recently Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg agreed to create a joint command structure for a combined military force.

The Europe of today is a far cry from the Europe that John F. Kennedy visited in the summer of 1963. The postwar division of Europe will be symbolically ended next May when the European Union adds 10 new members from formerly communist Eastern Europe. The recent tensions between Europe and America were not the result of "too much America, but too little Europe," according to Germany’s chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

With "more Europe" visible on the horizon, what does the future hold for European-American relations? Our free booklets The book of Revelation Unveiled and The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy are a must-read if you want a sneak preview of the years to come.