Demonstrating Reconciliation : State and Society in West German Foreign Policy toward Israel, 1952-1965

For more than a decade, West Germany denied Israel the commencement of official diplomatic relations for fear Arab governments might avenge such a step by recognizing its nemesis, Communist East Germany, as an independent state and thereby cementing the division of the German nation state. The goal of German unification was far more important to German policy makers in the 1950s and early 1960s than the concept of full and open reconciliation with Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust. In a policy-reversal, however, Bonn eventually offered Jerusalem the exchange of ambassadors in 1965. The author interprets the government's change of heart as the result of grassroots intervention in high level politics and, for the first time, provides an in-depth look at the role society played in shaping Germany's relations with the Middle East.