The Unstable States of Germany

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THE revival of a unified German nation has been receding across the horizon for so many years now that the prospect has come to be taken as a mirage. It is demonstrably true that no charted road exists to reach it. No one, in or outside Germany, pretends seriously to believe any longer that an effective formula for reunification is about to materialize.

Nevertheless, the tensions set up by the problem remain acute. The major power dispute over Berlin is their dramatic reflection. The painful search for a way to reduce the explosive potential of the East-West conflict is blocked again by the inability to reach a common decision on Germany. Nothing, it seems, can be done towards satisfying the ambitions of one side without injuring the interests of the other so grieviously that war could easily result. In this distressing situation, intolerable to orderly minds eager to clean up unfinished business and get on with the world's new problems, the temptation has grown to see a reasonably durable solution in stalemate.

The arguments in favor of trying to settle down permanently at the impasse are of two major types. The first is that partition of Germany is desirable for her neighbors, that it acts as a governor on the car of an habitual speeder, that it restrains the frightening Teutonic momentum. In this view, it is as well to keep the Germans divided, despite the trouble that results, because it makes them more manageable. The second and concomitant argument is that partition not only exists but can and will last because the Germans are coming to accept it. Taken together, the two lines of argument are presented as the stuff of miracle--a solution to the German problem. It is simply a matter of acknowledging that what is must needs be, and that the worst of the complications will automatically sort themselves out...