West Germany

GERMANY and Ireland confronted very different legacies after the Second World War. The Allies partitioned Germany and after 1949 the newly created FRG (Federal Republic of Germany, also referred to as West Germany), with its capital in Bonn, pursued integration into the Western democratic fold. The first chancellor of West Germany, Konrad Adenauer (Christian-Democrat), unwaveringly pursued this Western orientation and reconciliation with France, the United States and the United Kingdom. West Germany's key geopolitical position, economic renaissance and European integration enabled its rehabilitation and transformed Bonn into a key American ally during the 1950s. It became a linchpin of western European and transatlantic economic vitality and security. By contrast, the survival of neutral Ireland during the Second World War not alone copper-fastened Irish sovereignty but also the central political and economic ideologies of the nation state. To shed light on evolving West German perspectives on post-war Ireland and FRG-Irish relations, this chapter considers selected background connections between Ireland and Germany before 1945. The chapter briefly examines the state of relations after independence and during the Second World War. Irish neutrality coloured international perceptions of German-Irish relations, as Ireland was the only neutral member of the British Commonwealth to both declare and maintain neutrality. Allied propaganda frequently depicted Ireland as pro-German. This, in addition to the German Reich's involvement in the Easter Rising of 1916, has attracted much interest, to the detriment of a broader and long-term perspective. Yet there were innumerable transnational connections between the two peoples and regions. They included, for example, a common Celtic heritage, the role of the Irish Celtic Church's conversion of the region from the 6th century, and German academic interest in Irish philology and history since the 1800s. By placing German-Irish interactions in a longterm and more pan-European constellation, the chapter seeks to redress this perspectival imbalance. Additionally, after the Second World War, German and Irish statesmen and diplomatic representatives and statesmen were alert to highlighting selected episodes and examples in their efforts to claim and construct a sense of intercultural connectedness as part of a European family of nations. Only then will the chapter investigate the establishment and normalisation of the West German state as a prism through which to view developing and deepening diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations with Ireland during the 1950s. Bonn held reservations about Ireland's foreign posture, economic policies and Northern Ireland policy. The chapter reveals that after the accession of Seán Lemass as taoiseach (prime minister) in 1959, West German assessments altered greatly. The FRG began to identify Ireland as an attractive investment location and approved of incipient Irish trade liberalisation. The FRG encouraged the early signs of Ireland's engagement with European integration and the chapter traces the FRG's evolving attitudes towards Ireland's engagement with the European Economic Community (EEC) after 1961. Simultaneously, a number of issues possessed the potential to complicate intergovernmental relations and negatively colour relations between the two peoples. These included a contentious debate about the establishment of a German cultural institute in Dublin and a wave of anti-Germanism driven by unwarranted fears in sections of Irish rural society about land purchases by foreigners, and 'Germans' in particular. This persisted for over a decade and, although it spawned acts of violence at the end of the decade, neither Bonn nor Dublin allowed this or other minor controversies to derail cordial bilateral relations or Irish moves to integrate with Western Europe. Indeed FRG-Irish relations continued to deepen and broaden despite the outbreak of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The genuine possibility of Irish accession to the EC emerged after 1969. Trade continued to grow because of West German foreign direct investment (FDI) and Bonn valued continuing friendly relations between the two countries.