Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081952
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To begin with, Helmut Kohl is not prime minister of West Germany, he is chancellor. Since Germany has been a peaceful partner since the end of World War II, it seems hardly fair to say that it has been militaristic for almost a century.
At the end of World War I, Germany was saddled with huge reparations she could not repay. Davis asserts that Hitler came to power despite the Versailles Treaty. I contend that he came to power because of it.
The Morgenthau plan did not want to repeat the mistakes made at Versailles, and it did not ask for reparations. However, historians are in general agreement that the plan would have been a terrible mistake. Rather than offering stability, Germany would have become a destabilizing factor in the center of Europe.
The plan called for Germany to be truncated, losing even more territory than she did. Germany would have lost all industry, forcing all Germans to become farmers. The plan also advocated forced German labor outside Germany. Higher education would have been prohibited for some time to come. In short, it would have meant enslavement of a whole people.
Fueled largely by economic considerations, Germany's reunification is coming sooner than expected. Whether it will come at the price of Germany's neutrality or whether a united Germany will become a key player within a united Europe is still anybody's guess at the moment; but it seems to me that Europe and the world would do well to remember the lessons of history and make Germany a partner rather than reacting with fear and suspicion, once again forcing Germany into the defensive. HOLLE E. SCHNEIDER TROUTVILLE
by CNB