United Germany: Nuclear or Neutral?

NO INTERNATIONAL observer can be indifferent to the prospect of a united Germany, but little attention seems to have been paid to a curious anomaly at the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany 35 years ago. The Paris agreements of October 1954 were imposed on West Germany by the NATO powers. Under the Third Protocol of these agreements, West Germans were forbidden to make three categories of weapons: nuclear, chemical, and bacteriological.

At that time, Dr. Erhard’s Wirt-schaftswunder was in full swing, and Chancellor Adenauer was providing strong, anti-Communist leadership. But West Germany only enjoyed “internal independence.” In other words, the country that accepted the Paris agreements was not sovereign.

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Brian Crozier

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NO INTERNATIONAL observer can be indifferent to the prospect of a united Germany, but little attention seems to have been paid to a curious anomaly at the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany 35 years ago. The Paris agreements of October 1954 were imposed on West Germany by the NATO powers. Under the Third Protocol of these agreements, West Germans were forbidden to make three categories of weapons: nuclear, chemical, and bacteriological.

At that time, Dr. Erhard’s Wirt-schaftswunder was in full swing, and Chancellor Adenauer was providing strong, anti-Communist leadership. But West Germany only enjoyed “internal independence.” In other words, the country that accepted the Paris agreements was not sovereign.