That Enduring German-Russian Complex

That Enduring German-Russian Complex

Thursday, April 28, 2016 | http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=63480&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTWpRMU5UUXlZMkpsWlRobSIsInQiOiJ3aFlNOFZ0XC83TEpFT3VOTjBKS1ZSMldwXC9GM0hmazUxYWlwWnpMUEI3NlR3OFwvaFIyNkRobEpaNUJQTWpYeDM0TTBcLzdxeWVGcDd5RXN6V3U4N01Ba3FRUFM0ZWFXWmJock15Q0RPOEhzZ2M9In0%3D

How Germany perceives Russia matters. Germany’s perception affects Europe. It affects the transatlantic relationship. It affects Germany’s reputation with its Eastern neighbors. And it affects stability and security.
The complex German-Russian relationship, forged over centuries by war, rivalry, alliances, invasion, and a certain respect, has shaped the two countries’ views of each other, particularly since the end of World War II.
But surveys published in April 2016 by two German foundations—Körber and Bertelsmann—show how Germany’s and Russia’s fundamental perceptions of each other have changed for the worse because of Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Though neither survey tackles the long-term consequences of those shifts, Russia’s relationships with Germany, Europe, and the United States have become unpredictable and aggressive.

In the early 1950s, West Germany’s first postwar chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, began reaching out to the Kremlin. The conservative leader sought some kind of rapprochement, predictability, even possibly gradual reconciliation with the Soviet Union as the Cold War intensified and the ideological divide between East and West deepened. http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=63480&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTWpRMU5UUXlZMkpsWlRobSIsInQiOiJ3aFlNOFZ0XC83TEpFT3VOTjBKS1ZSMldwXC9GM0hmazUxYWlwWnpMUEI3NlR3OFwvaFIyNkRobEpaNUJQTWpYeDM0TTBcLzdxeWVGcDd5RXN6V3U4N01Ba3FRUFM0ZWFXWmJock15Q0RPOEhzZ2M9In0%3D