American Influences in the Occupation of Germany

Abstract

In its occupation policy toward Germany in 1945-1949, the United States and its allies pursued two main goals. The first sought to eradicate the remnants of Nazism and ensure that the new German government would be both demo cratic and peaceable. The second, pursued more ardently by the United States than Britain and France, was to "democratize" the German people. With the deepening of the Cold War and the division of Germany came a deemphasis on active efforts to change perspectives and practices in its western portions, and the beginnings of a policy designed to strengthen West Germany as an ally in the Western defense system. Democ ratization policies, in particular, sprang from an American idealism inherent in its own Revolution and Constitution: a conviction that other peoples, freed from tyranny and able to make their own choice, would adopt a set of principles and practices that had proved successful in the United States. American realism nonetheless made it clear that occupation officials could not force their own brand of democracy down Germans' throats and that ultimately their best strategy was to help Germans choose their own path to democratic govern ance. Such decisions made a significant contribution to demo cratic growth in postwar West Germany.