Adenauer and Rhenish Separatism

Extract

Adenauer's role during the Rhineland occupation after the First World War has been the subject of bitter controversy. His critics, whether Nazi, Communist, or Socialist, have depicted him as a “Rhenish separatist” devoid of German patriotism and willing — perhaps even eager to — collaborate with France at the expense of national unity; parallels were often drawn between his alleged eagerness to create an independent West German Republic allied to France in 1919 and 1923, and his alleged indifference to the cause of German reunification after 1949. His foes depicted him steadily in the 1950's as a Prussophobe-Rhenish provincialist who preferred alliance with the Western Powers to any unification of Germany which might require the loosening of NATO ties.