The German Social Democrats in Opposition, 1949-1960: The Case Against Rearmament

A reconstruction of the SPD struggle against Adenauer's policy of Western integration and West German rearmament at the expense of what SPD leaders thought should be the principal goal, reunification. For reasons of politics and principle, the SPD distrusted all efforts at rearmament and was in the forefront of opposition to nuclear weapons. Historically the SPD had been an opposition party and had always been anti-militarist. This sober and detailed monograph appears at a moment of extraordinary timeliness.