Helmut Schmidt and British-German Relations

In light of Britain's impending departure from the European Union [EU], Helmut Schmidt's damning verdict on British attitudes towards post-war Europe seems as potent today as when the former West German Chancellor first uttered these words in a public lecture at Yale more than thirty years ago. Ever since the late 1940s, tensions over European integration have overshadowed an otherwise flourishing post-war relationship between Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany. After Britain's initial refusal in the 1950s to join the emerging European institutions such as the European Coal and Steel Community [ECSC] or the European Economic Community [EEC] from the outset, Germany's subsequent reluctance to back Britain's two membership applications in 1961-3 and 1967 against French resistance foreshadowed many of the dynamics that cloud the bilateral relationship to this day. Though Britain eventually did join the European Communities [EC] in 1973, its open scepticism towards new European initiatives such as direct elections to the European Parliament or the European Monetary System [EMS] continued to compromise British-German relations during much of Schmidt's chancellorship in the 1970s; developments that were not helped by Britain's attempts to renegotiateits terms of membership in 1974-75, or by its fight to reduce its EC budget contributions from the late 1970s onwards. The 1990s then saw British-German tensions over Europe reach new heights--