Wiederbewaffnung

"Wiederbewaffnung" (rearmament) refers to the United States plan to help build up Germany after World War II. This event sparked the creation of the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union was trying to fund East Germany. The United States did not want that to happen. The US was already controlling and funding West Germany but the US did not want the Soviets to have the control they had over East Germany. West Germany had the advantages of atomic warfare because of the amount of protection by other countries that had atomic capability, but they were not strong enough to defend Western Europe. They could not function outside an alliance framework [ David R. Snyder,” Arming the "Bundesmarine": The United States and the Build-Up of the German Federal Navy, 1950-1960” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 66, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 477-500.] . These events lead to the establishment of the Bundeswehr, the West German army, in 1955.

Heinz Guderian stated that the fight was mainly between the Soviet Union and the United States. “People resent the fact that while the United States followed a policy of German disarmament and of friendship with Russia after the war, it now advocates rearmament they could just as easily argue that it was for cooperation with the Soviet Union and to change its policy”. [ Heinz Guderian, Kann Westeuropa berteidigt warden? Göttingen, 1950; and idem, So geht es nicht, Heidelberg, 1951.] .

During the NATO meeting in September 1950 France decided to become isolated for the operation because they did not want Germany to join NATO. Germany wanted to join NATO because the German chancellor at that time decided that it would appease the fears of its neighbors and it would gain Germany's trust and show willingness to cooperate. [ Speier, Hans. German Rearmament and Atomic War. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1957. 198] At first the US was skeptical about the whole operation, but after Dwight D Eisenhower agreed to endorse the deal then the US was for the operation. The Federal Republic in Paris, France agreed to support the operation. [ David R. Snyder,” Arming the "Bundesmarine": The United States and the Build-Up of the German Federal Navy, 1950-1960” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 66, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 477-500.] In 1955 West Germany joined NATO.

Germany was still then unarmed but had a defense system. Slowly German navy personnel were put on the US navy ships and also Germany was trying to help supply the navy. Also the US told Germany that they are going to have the whole operation in their hands after the Soviets backed down. This whole operation was leading up to having Germany have a German army. The US supplied the army personals with intensive training to help build up the navy for the future. Germany wanted to be strong enough and set a goal to have up to 50,000 men. Theodor Blank wanted to have a bigger military than Italy because he wanted them to contribute more. [ Speier, Hans. German Rearmament and Atomic War. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1957.,196 ] To get his point across he used this chart:

To reach that goal they took the border security force and changed them into in to military personal, they used young men having “difficulty” finding something useful to do, and then there were men who volunteered. Germany issued a draft. At first Germany was skeptical of that because they did not want to have people think about the Hitler army. There was enough favor for the new army the state then became a more right sided party. The social democrats still argued that even though the numbers were high and there was enough positive reaction, it would still not be enough to revive German militarism.

To build the military's strength the US established the Navel Historical Team (NHT) to help with the British- American World War II navy historical project. Both countries recruited naval veterans and naval activists to help build up the navy by gaining a better perspective of the war in the water. NHT was not there for long studying the history and tactics for fighting at sea. [ David R. Snyder,” Arming the "Bundesmarine": The United States and the Build-Up of the German Federal Navy, 1950-1960” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 66, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 477-500.] They were then told to get information about the Soviet naval forces. The first thing they tried to study was the landing and targets of the Soviet navy. Eventually this agency became the coordinating staff of the West German navy. Another group of veterans were called the labor service units to do similar tasks. The veterans that were hired were from "Kriegsmarine" and they did a lot of converting of surveillance. Eventually the operations were set to the ground as well. Chancellor Adenauer created the Blank Office to gain sovereignty through the defense contribution. He also hired Kriegsmarine veterans to work with him. [ David R. Snyder,” Arming the "Bundesmarine": The United States and the Build-Up of the German Federal Navy, 1950-1960” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 66, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 477-500.] With the different organizations working together a naval proposal referred to as the Wagner Paper was adopted to use as a negotiation tool at the ECD conference. The ECD was held in Paris and it became a dead lock for all the navel issues in 1951. France did not approve of West Germany having its own navy for defense. They did not want them to have submarines or destroyers as a part of their navy because it was a threat to France and the weapons were perceived as Nazi regime. The resolve the issue the Wagner Paper was sent to the SHAPE organization. SHAPE wanted the navy to have weapons and have a big navy. Eventually France came to a conclusion, they offered some escorts and they got their desired size on the navy. The German military was under the supreme allied NATO control. This hurt the militaries command positions. [ Speier, Hans. German Rearmament and Atomic War. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1957.,199 ]

After a while Germany got a lot of power because of this army. Europe came up with the Treaty of Paris. This was a new formation of a military grouping of the Western European Union. This increased the threat of another war by decreasing the nation security in the neighboring countries. [ Halsall, Paul. "TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP, CO-OPERATION AND MUTUAL ASSISTANCE." Modern History Sourcebook. November 1998 . Internet Modern History Sourcebook. 18 Feb 2008 .] In April 1985 Eastern Europe got together in Warsaw to sign an extension to the 1955 Treaty on Friendship. The Warsaw pact ensured that it will be a part of the international political and military for years to come. [ Curtis, Glenn . "THE WARSAW PACT." THE WARSAW PACT. Czechoslovakia: A Country Study. 17 Feb 2008 .] It has been used to develop some other Eastern European militaries in a reasonable manner so there is no conflict between ranks, power, and alliances.

Notes

* Curtis, Glenn . "THE WARSAW PACT." THE WARSAW PACT. Czechoslovakia: A Country Study. 17 Feb 2008 .

* David R. Snyder,” Arming the "Bundesmarine": The United States and the Build-Up of the German Federal Navy, 1950-1960” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 66, No. 2. (Apr., 2002), pp. 477-500.
* Halsall, Paul. "TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP, CO-OPERATION AND MUTUAL ASSISTANCE." Modern History Sourcebook. November 1998 . Internet Modern History Sourcebook. 18 Feb 2008 .

* Heinz Guderian, Kann Westeuropa berteidigt warden? Göttingen, 1950; and idem, So geht es nicht, Heidelberg, 1951.

* Speier, Hans. German Rearmament and Atomic War. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1957.