Europe is once again the world's hub, and Germany is once again the hub of Europe. At a breathtaking pace, the two Germanys, East and West, find themselves hurtling toward reunification, a prospect that has stirred many hearts.
Although most Germans yearn for a reunited homeland, their neighbors, with long memories, are less keen on the idea. Even so, those who know the Germanys best agree the reunification process has begun, and merger is now likely to come about faster than many people, even many Germans, might prefer.It may not be possible to put the brakes on this evolution, and it might not even be wise to try. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze sounded almost plaintive recently when he suggested an international referendum before the two German states join into one, and such a vote is highly unlikely.
All the same, this epochal shift demands that leaders in East and West try to help guide the unification process in ways that promote Europe's security and ease anxieties.
West Germany's leaders, for their part, are keenly sensitive to the hard facts of their past and the implications they hold for the rest of Europe today. Andreas Meyer-Landrut, chief of staff to West German President Richard von Weizsacker and a former ambassador to the Soviet Union, spoke of this awareness the other evening in a discussion at Harvard University.
"Our people want unity," he said, "and it will happen, but it's very difficult. There is a lot of mistrust in neighboring countries, and I think it is justified, from our history . . . We can be a prosperous, worthy member of the free-world countries only if we can achieve that in a way acceptable to our neighbors, East and West."
What is striking, as this senior West German diplomat sketches his vision for a united German future, is the eagerness to keep Germany's destiny linked closely with that of its partners. The West German government, he says, places great reliance on the United States to guarantee Europe's security by maintaining a substantial troop presence on the continent.
Yet before these long-term questions can be addressed, West Germany has to bail out its foundering East German cousins, and this looks to be a staggering job. A complex West German proposal to create a German monetary union - a single currency for the two German states - is already raising many questions and could slow the unity drive. Meanwhile, East Germany, with a bare six days of coal reserves left in midwinter, still has 2,000 discouraged refugees streaming west each day, and its patched-up coalition government may not even hold together in time for the March 18 parliamentary elections.
Amid this uncertainty and turmoil, however, it must be remembered that West Germany has a bright 40-year record of democracy and scrupulous observance of political rights. Moreover, as Harvard Prof. Joseph Nye noted, West Germany is firmly ensconced in NATO, in agencies of the European Community and in the ongoing Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (the so-called "Helsinki process"). This web of linkage, soon to span the European continent and firmly imbedded in Western values, offers some of the best assurance that a unified Germany would conduct itself responsibly.