Opinion polls in the United States show that Americans generally hold a positive view of bilateral relations between the United States and Germany.
However, the opinion of German residents on this issue is diametrically opposite.
For example, in a recent opinion survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 64% of German respondents stated that relations between the United States and Germany in 2019 were bad. Overall, during the last three years of the Trump administration, the polarization of opinions between Germans and Americans has only intensified. “Soon, relations between Germany and the US may deteriorate further. Added together, demands that the Germans help finance NATO, plus threats of sanctions, evoke displeasure among German citizens,” said German political scientist Alexander Rahr, when commenting on the results of the survey, according to which two thirds of Germans consider their country’s relations with the United States bad.
As the Pew Research Center report indicates, in contrast to Americans’ belief that the United States should protect Germany and other NATO allies from Russia, 60% of Germans hold opposite positions with regard to their country. Additionally, unlike most Americans who say that the use of military force is sometimes necessary to protect world order, only less than half of Germans can support this view.
However, the biggest disagreement is over the matter of US military bases in Germany. The German public, for the most part, are critical about the need for these bases for national security, while most Americans, under the influence of national propaganda, argue that their existence serves a purpose.
At the end of March, Waldemar Gerdt, the Deputy of the Bundestag from the “Alternative for Germany”, accused the United States directly of a de facto “American occupation” of Germany: “Weapons have not been removed, because Germany, in truth, still exists as an occupied country. Americans use their position as they deem fit.”
Against this background, discussions have intensified in Germany over the rationale for deploying American nuclear weapons in the country. Recall that Germany rejected building its own nuclear weapons. In 1991, the USSR withdrew all military nuclear components from the former GDR’s territory, but the US nuclear weapons remain in Germany. Today, according to various estimates, up to 20 US nuclear warheads are stored at an air base near the town of Büchel, in southwestern Germany. The Luftwaffe’s Tactical Air Force Wing 33 is located there and, according to Washington’s plans, German aircraft can be equipped with American nuclear warheads.
Several German defense experts have criticized the American nuclear weapons in the country. According to many German and European experts, it is unlikely that the German government, having deployed US nuclear weapons on its territory, will be able, as a result, to influence Washington’s decisions regarding their use.
Tobias Lindner, a defense expert in the Bundestag’s Greens Parliamentary Group, told Deutsche Welle that the US nuclear weapons stored in Germany are “an expensive, dangerous, and antiquated symbolic element, just to have a say in NATO.” According to Lindner’s information, the B61−3 and B61−4 bombs, located at the base in the city of Büchel, are already 30 years old. And the German “Tornado” aircraft that will be equipped with these bombs are a design of the last century, the 1980s. They are technically obsolete and prone to failure.
Further criticism of Washington’s deployment of its nuclear weapons in Germany arose from recent media reports about the secret US modernization of B61 nuclear warheads located in Germany. In particular, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported that such a secret operation was carried out in autumn. As part of this operation, approximately 20 warheads were transported from Germany to the US for two days to upgrade the software. Then, the modernized nuclear warheads were returned, and no one was bothered that, as far back as 10 years ago, the Germans began to ask their American colleagues to empty their country of foreign nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, Washington continues to push Europe around as it wishes. In March the US additionally deployed several B-2 Spirit bombers, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, to the “Lajes do Pico” base in the Azores to strengthen its nuclear potential in Europe. This move has heightened criticism of European politicians who simply could not unite to close their doors to US nuclear weapons.
Relations with the United States deteriorated significantly in early April, following a report of Andreas Geisel, the representative of the Berlin Senate for Internal Affairs, that the United States had deceitfully obtained 200 thousand respiratory masks intended for Germany. Geisel called the incident “an act of modern piracy,” and stated that “this was no way to treat partners in the Transatlantic Alliance.” He called on the German authorities to point out to the US “the need to comply with international rules,” and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to call for an investigation into the incident.
But it is very noteworthy that the current political problems of relations with the United States are not the result of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 only exposed the existing problems of the European Union, whose countries have long been under the destructive influence of the United States. A similar opinion was expressed in a column of the German publication Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten. “Europe and Germany in particular need to rethink themselves as soon as possible, and contemplate a future strategy, or they will perish,” the publication stressed. At the same time, it noted that, for this to happen, it is necessary “to get rid of the American dictatorship, build peaceful relations with Russia, as well as return to the rule of law by rejecting totalitarianism and authoritarianism,” which, recently, more often distinguishes American leadership in the international arena.
All this demonstrates that the Germans, like many in Europe today, are gradually coming to understand that American political self-interest versus their Western partners has a devastating effect on the EU.
Valery Kulikov, an expert political scientist, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
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