80 years of liberation and the critical turn of relationships with Germany
As if everything was like before: in cities such as Hanover or Leipzig, in which the liberation from American troops was commemorated 80 years ago last week, US diplomats or representatives of the US Army also took part in the celebrations. If this day is also remembered in our region with events for the last days of the war in the spring of 1945, it should be no different. And yet: in fact there is hardly anything like it used to be. Because at the latest with President Donald Trump’s second term in office Is out of the big brother USAthe reliable military protective power, a rumbling, angry stranger. Are we experiencing the decline of the grown German-American relationships?
In the United States, the Maga movement (« Make America Great Again ») is followed by Trump If, openly nationalist and racist goals, the freedom of the media and the independence of the judiciary in question. Washington covers the world with an insane customs policy, claims areas of sovereign states.
Unlike in the First World War, the US troops came in 1945 to stay
When the US armed forces ended up in Normandy in June 1944 to end the Third Reich and with it the Nazi terror on the side of the Allies, it was agreed that-unlike in the First World War-they had come to Europe.
It was initially not foreseeable that this – in the pathetic language of Hollywood – would become « the beginning of a wonderful friendship ». Of course it was the USA In the upcoming cold war Not least about tangible geopolitical interests when they were surprisingly quick to the defeat. The commitment of the Atlantic Alliance to democracy and free trade proved to be a reliable basis for the relationship between Washington and Bonn. Even if these principles have been injured again and again over the decades – often by the United States.
The estrangement between Washington and Berlin appears increasingly insurmountable
But the alienation, which has been felt for several years, appears more and more insurmountable. Reason enough to pause. One thing is that the US President threatens opponents and friends indiscriminately, explains intimidation and blackmail as a negotiation tactic. But this should not be forgotten that many US citizens also feel their president as a shame for their country and that after a shock rigid, to fight for democracy. A cheap, complacent anti -Americanism, which has a tradition in Germany as long as bad, should be forbidden as well as foolish boycott calls against the United States, which almost always meet the wrong ones anyway.
And what happens in Germany? Here, a party has achieved majorities in the federal election in many regions that stand for right -wing extremism, democracy and economic political ignorance.
USA and Europe: There is a lot at stake
The relationship between the United States and Europe has changed irreversibly – a process that used Donald Trump’s first term, but accepts dangerous dimensions by the great destroyer in the White House. It may sound naive, but the memory of the end of the Second World War should be seen in the USA and Germany as an opportunity to show themselves what is at stake when connections are cut and friendships are transformed into hostilities.
