The man likely to be Germany’s next chancellor has decided to smash a little history. Friedrich Merz announced that Germany would dramatically increase its spending on defense, and that it would significantly increase its deficit spending to do so.
Like much of Europe, Germany increasingly feels that the Trump administration’s apparent leanings toward Russia makes the United States an unreliable partner in defending European territory and values. Higher defense spending is in many ways a natural response, even if that means raising the debt.
But for Germany in particular, such a move marks an important moment in its freedom from a Nazi past.
The Third Reich came to power in part by taking advantage of the despair created by the rampant inflation of the 1920s. It then militarized the nation and started World War II. Ever since its defeat, these have been two cardinal points in the modern German mentality – extreme caution to be financially prudent and avoid military might.
Often, these have served Germany well. But the needs of this moment are demanding more. If the U.S. pulls back from its traditional role in Europe, it would leave a gap. As the continent’s essential centripetal force, Germany is needed to fill it. That means acting boldly.
What has enabled Germany to be ready for this step is its determination over decades to make amends for the past.
Immediately after World War II, many Germans were unrepentant about the Nazi era, surveys show. Some 83% felt Germany had been no more at fault than other nations. A third still considered Jews inferior. The change began only when West German political leaders dedicated themselves to reconciliation.
In the 1950s and ’60s, West Germany’s first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, helped forged a “special relationship” with the fledgling state of Israel. He reestablished ties with France. In 1970, Chancellor Willy Brandt remained kneeling on the wet ground for half a minute to lay a wreath at a memorial to a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland.
The “cornerstone, perhaps the very definition, of German foreign policy after World War II became, progressively, reconciliation,” wrote Lily Gardner Feldman in her 2012 book, “Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity.”
In a 2015 interview with Johns Hopkins Magazine, she went further. “It’s an ongoing process and it never ends,” she said.
For 80 years, that contrition has allowed Germany to reinvent itself. Now, it is providing the moral foundation to perhaps do it again.