The German Question

THE GERMAN QUESTION “The German question is the most sombre, the most complicated, the most comprehensive problem of all recent history.” Constantin Frantz (1866) THE GERMAN QUESTION by WILHELM RÖPKE T*rofessor at the lnstitut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, Geneva TRANSLATED BY E.W. DICKES INTRODUCTION BY PROFESSOR F. A. HAYEK LONDON GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD First published in Great Britain in 1946 All rights reserved Published in Switzerland in 1945 under the title Die Deutsche Frage (Eugen Rentsch Verlag, Erlenbach-Zürich). Translated from the Second Edition BOOK PRODUCTION | WAR ECONOMY STAM^RD This book is produced in complete uniformity with the authorised economy standards. Printed in Great Britain in 12 point Bembo type The Blackfriars Press Limited Smith-Dorrien Road, Leicester PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION A YEAR has now passed since the overthrow and the complete occupation of Germany. What progress has been made in this critical year in the solution of the German problem? A dispassionate answer with justice to all sides can only be that the progress made has been utterly disappointing. A year ago Germany was a molten mass ready for pouring into the right moulds. The moment for this was missed; the metal has cooled and toughened. A year ago, when this book was written, it was possible to indicate the paths to a real solution of the German problem and to have confidence in their practicability. Today it must be confessed that at critical points the exact opposite has been done of what should have been done, and that an opportunity has been let slip which all eternity cannot bring back. Warnings have gone unheard, appeals have fallen on deaf ears. Few people in the world venture to speak out on this subject, and yet everyone knows its extreme gravity, and knows it so well that everywhere a feeling of hopelessness and desperation is spreading. This feeling is under- standable, and yet it must be most strenuously combated, lest we should resign ourselves to the doom that threatens. Thus we are bound to speak openly of errors, neither in denunciation nor in exculpation, but in the effort to make clear what should be done better in the years to come. After the failure of every attempt to bring down the Nazi regime in time, and to establish contact during the war between the German opposition to the regime and the Allies, any solution of the German question was bound to be a desperate enterprise; this was at all times obvious. It was known that the victors would have to take over the government of a country left by its rulers in a state of material, political, and moral ruin. This was realized, and it was realized what it involved. Perhaps the vast mortgage of the ruined cities, of the chaos of the displaced persons, of the passions inevitably aroused by Germany's criminal masters, crushing though it looked, was still underestimated. But on top of all this there came further encum- berments of any constructive German policy, errors which did more than all else to make the situation desperate. It was anticipated that 6 THE GERMAN QUESTION the four Powers would share out the occupation of Germany, but not that they would demarcate their zones so arbitrarily and shut them off from each other with such crippling effect on German economy, or that things would happen in the Russian Zone which would destroy the basis of the German food supply and would fill West Germany with millions of uprooted refugees. This vast mortgaging faced the victors, who were not out simply to trample on the vanquished, with a most difficult and thankless task. In spite of this, astonishing results have been achieved in some directions; all the more credit is due for them. But it was in the very nature of so unique a task that serious errors should be almost unavoidable. This applies particularly to the ticklish problem of denazification, the handling of which has been complained of as too irresolute in some places and too harsh in others. Inevitably in the vast number of borderline cases the necessary schematism produced hardships and robbed reconstruction of competent man-power. Many cases could be quoted of bitter injustice persisted in in spite of all representations. The psychological results of these are scarcely taken seriously enough, and a remedy would be greatly facilitated if relations of confidence were established between the occupying authorities and the genuine and proved anti-Nazis, whether Christian, Socialist, Liberal, or Democrat. The thesis of undifferentiated guilt of all Germans, Nazi and anti-Nazi alike, deserves to have been posthu- mously invented by Dr. Goebbels. It has been desperately depressing for all anti-Nazis, and it has led to a penal instead of a re-educative treatment of all Germany. Only so can measures be understood which give the impression that it has been considered of no importance to have regard to their possible reactions among Germans. When all the inhabitants of a whole district of a great city are compelled at a moment's notice to clear out in order to make way for families of officers of the occupying armies, what else are they likely to become but convinced Nazis, Communists, or anarchists? As was to be expected, in the Russian Zone a terrorist system has been established that is little different in essence from the past National Socialist system; its political “life” is indistinguishable from that of Nazism. Confining ourselves to West Germany, it is clear that if it is not to be subjected virtually to chronic famine or else to become a permanent burden on international charity, it must be given economic PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 7 unification and quick aid to its industries for the intensification of agriculture through the provision of fertilizers (i.e., products of the chemical industry) and machines, and for the assurance of the import of additional foodstuffs and fodder by the export of manufactures, coal, and steel. This is plain to every clear-headed person in the world. And yet the Russians and a still powerful American group have conspired to block this path of elementary common sense by the resolutions of the Control Council aiming at the de-industrialization of Germany. It would be difficult to criticize this policy more sharply than has been done in the Economist, the Manchester Guardian, and the Times. It is conjuring up a catastrophe that will give Europe a de- monstration of the extent to which its own health is dependent on the healthy state of German industry. As regards the coal of the Ruhr this is plain to all, whatever they may think in other respects of Germany and the Germans. But the Ruhr coal production cannot be increased unless the iron and steel industry is able to supply its machinery and tools, unless the miners are properly fed, and unless to this end agriculture is supplied with fertilizers and machines and industry in general is enabled to pay with its products for the necessary additional foodstuffs and raw materials from abroad. So one thing dovetails into another, and it does not show much sense if anyone imagines that the Ruhr coal which Europe needs can be delivered by a Germany condemned in general to hunger, poverty, and unemployment. Those who want Ruhr coal must want also the manifold and comprehensive conditions on which its production depends. But ifRuhr coal matters, so also, and no less, does the combination of measures that can only drive even the Germans of good will into a crippling despair—a combination that would deserve admiration if the purpose was to instil into the Germans the temper of the most vicious chained dog and forcibly to turn them into old or new Nihilists. Even enlightened anti-Nazis are beginning to ask them- selves sadly whether all has not been in vain, and whether there is any sense in working for a future for their children, while the Nazis scornfully ask them whether they still place faith in the wartime propaganda that declared that the Allies were not out to destroy Germany. A terrible number of Germans see no alternative to emigration, anywhere and under any conditions. As one of them 8 THE GERMAN QUESTION wrote to me, ”A sound factory that cannot produce because it is forbidden to, creates more bad blood than a whole lot of bombed cities.” There are many who declare that he is right. The solution of the German problem as a whole depends on the solution of the further problem of Russia's attitude to the world and of her relations with the Anglo-Saxon Powers. At present the practical question, and one that is growing steadily graver, is whether West Germany at least can be saved for Europe, thus, probably, saving Europe herself. If one described this situation with such brutal candour twelve months ago there were many shakings of the head, and only a few weeks ago the Times Literary Supplement, in the course of an otherwise approving review of the Zurich edition of this book, charged me with going too far in attributing to the Russians the intention of acting independently in Germany. Today all but the Communists probably agree that the main thing is to preserve West Germany from relapsing into nationalism and National Socialism, without handing it over to the Communist variety of totalitarianism. Both dangers have certain principal causes in common, namely perplexity, disappointment, and hopelessness. Thus a successful battle with these causes will diminish both dangers and contribute toward giving the upper hand to the more rational of the Germans.

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