Konrad Adenauer

Steve Chapman wrote an interesting column (registration required; sorry...) in yesterday's Chicago Tribune about Konrad Adenauer, Germany's chancellor from 1949 to 1963. Adenauer, who is seemingly forgotten today, was recently named in a recent poll of Germans as the greatest person their country has ever produced, topping such better-known luminaries as Einstein, Martin Luther, Beethoven and Karl Marx. A few key excerpts:

Criticized for allowing former Nazis to occupy high offices, he took the view that only the unrepentant should be shunned. He cultivated friendship with the new state of Israel and embraced West Germany's obligation to pay restitution to Jews for Hitler's crimes. When the Arab League threatened to sever trade, he replied, "There are higher things to think about than business deals."

...He thought his country could function only in humble partnership with its neighbors.

...Adenauer was responsible more than anyone else for the successful creation of a free and democratic state where Nazism once reigned. He also did everything he could to make sure Germany would never again pose a threat to the peace of Europe and the world.

With his aversion to nationalism, Adenauer was once accused of being "a good European but a bad German." From a "bad German" came a good Germany.

The Bush Adminstration could learn a lot from Adenauer's example, were it not so convinced of its self-righteous goodness that it shuns all criticism and inward reflection. To whit:

+ His decision to allow Nazis to occupy high offices, as long as they were repentant for their past ties, is in direct contrast to Bush's banning of all Baath party members from Iraq government jobs. Surely more than a few of these bureaucrats were Baathists in name only, and joined the party more out of expedience than political belief. The fate of the Kurds and Shiites under Saddam's regime clearly showed it was best to stay on the dictator's good side, even if that meant as little as officially joining a political party. If this also meant gainful government employment, the decision to join the party was even easier. With the U.S. taking over control of Iraq, the best way to win the loyalty of Baathists would have been to keep them in their jobs, always reminding them what a favor the U.S. was bestowing, rather than summarily firing them. This would have also maintained some continuity of government services, which would have averted much of the chaos which ensued and greatly eased the transition to Iraqi self-governance. Adenauer clearly understood this fact.

+ "There are higher things to think about than business deals." What an astounding statement, and an idea which would undoubtedly bewilder the Bush Administration, whose invasion of Iraq is looking more and more like it was motivated by the prospect of reconstruction work for military- and civil engineering-contractors like Halliburton and Bechtel.

+ "A good European but a bad German." Adenauer looked beyond myopic self-interest in striving to better the world as a whole, defying nationalistic concerns. The Bush Crusade, on the other hand, thinks only of increasing the might of the already predominant U.S. The rich striving to be richer, even if it requires stomping on the poor.