Transatlantic Divide: Germany's Rift Wth America

"I have pledged Germany's unrestricted solidarity to U.S. President George Bush," were the words used by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Back then, when German-American relations were still nicely intact, there was much talk in Berlin about "unrestricted solidarity" towards the U.S. And relations between the two nations were still blossoming at the end of January 2002, when the German Chancellor visited George Bush at the White House.

Just a short while earlier, Bush had spoken about the 'axis of evil' which was threatening world peace, and pointedly cited North Korea, Iran and Iraq. It was a statement which likely caused some consternation within the ranks of the German government, but Schröder remained cool.

Even when the U.S. threats against Baghdad became more serious, and the first signs of dissent began to appear in Germany, the Chancellor stood squarely behind the American leader, telling the German public "To exert pressure on Iraq and the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, is the right thing to do if he is to fulfill what the United Nations expects of him."

Warm words turn icy

Schröder was keen not to rock the boat, even when the U.S. president visited Berlin at the end of May to outline his position. Following Bush's speech in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, Schröder believed he had witnessed a "truly meaningful speech," which utterly disproved the much-nurtured prejudices harbored towards US politics and the president himself.

But the warm words succumbed to an icy chill as relations became strained over the newly established International Criminal Court, where Washington tried to secure general immunity for all US citizens. Images from Guantanamo Bay, showing the demeaning caged conditions to which prisoners from Afghanistan were subjected, didn't help matters, and neither did the U.S. pledge to use military means should Saddam Hussein not step down.

The last point ended up being the final straw for the German public. Chancellor Schröder, who was running for a second term, saw votes in Germany's war-wariness and turned the Iraq debate into a central election campaign issue. At a rally in the small lower Saxony town of Goslar, he made his first public anti-war statement:

"I am opposed to military intervention in Iraq. Under my leadership, Germany would not take part," he told an appreciative crowd.

Washington cool in face of red-green electoral win

Washington officials raised an eyebrow at the anti-war rhetoric from Berlin, which had until then never surfaced in such a public way. Relations between Berlin and Washington hit a further low point in September, when the then-German Minister of Justice, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, allegedly compared Bush with Adolf Hitler.

The reports, published by a local German newspaper, had hit Washington before Däubler-Gmelin had a chance to utter her denial. The outrage at the far side of the Atlantic swelled to volcanic proportions, and the statement was denounced as "monstrous". But with just days to go to the election Schröder was reluctant to let the justice minister go, convincing her instead to forgo a post in the new cabinet.

The White House responded coolly to the news that the red-green coalition had sealed a second term in office: There was no congratulatory phone call or telegram. To some, the snub was an unmistakable indication that what German politicians said during the election campaign would not be easily forgotten. Schröder tried to heal the rift, stating that a friendship as good as Germany and America's ought to be able to bear the weight of differing opinions.

But it was not until Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Defense Minister Peter Struck went to Washington on a peacemaking mission in November, that Schröder was granted a ten-minute phone call with President Bush. They didn't meet face to face again until the NATO summit in Prague in November, when the demonstrative handshake between the two men was considered a sensation.

"New Europe"

On the issue of Iraq, the Chancellor stood firm, repeating his opposition to a war, and categorically ruling out any German involvement. In January of this year, Schröder received the public backing from French President Jacques Chirac, who used the occasion of the German-Franco Friendship Treaty to make it clear that he too, was against any military attack on Iraq. It wasn't long before Schröder and Chirac had Russian President Vladimir Putin on board, completing the trio they needed to prevent legitimate U.S. intervention through the UN Security Council.

U.S. Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld responded to the formation of the trio by dubbing France and Germany "old Europe", and voicing his preference for "new Europe" with such countries as Poland and Romania, which had pledged to support a war against Iraq. And Schröder had to sit back and listen as his country was named in the same breath as the dictatorships which rule Cuba and Libya.

Although France has topped Germany as primary target for Washington's ire, U.S.-German relations have not improved, at least not at government level. Opposition politicians such as CDU leader Angela Merkel are openly received in Washington, and Defense Minister Peter Struck and some deputies were were received well at a recent NATO summit in Washington. But for the time being at least, the telephone line between Schröder and Bush remains conspicuously dead.