Konrad Adenauer specials; Adenauer: Thoughts on democracy

Though it is sometimes said that mankind is incapable of learning from history. This is not necessarily correct to judge by our German experiences as a result of the disaster which two world wars have brought to Germany. The great majority of our people have consciously or intuitively realized that nations cannot continue to live exclusively according to their own desires and inclinations but can only live on a basis of common interests with the other peoples of the world. There is no longer any really important problem which is only a German or even only a European one. We must learn to think and to act in bigger areas. This saying we are all brothers is not an empty phrase and it should not be one we must do not think that some country is far away and of no interest to us. Every country concerns us for peace is in the visible and of every

country and its decisions and acts does not consider the state of the whole world. This peace will never come. What happens in East Asia concerns us just as much as what happens on our borders. One could practically speak of communicating tubes when looking at the political repercussions of happenings in the east and the West. We are not alone. We are needed in the world. But still more. We need the world. It would mean judging us wrongly if. One saw in the present foreign policy of the German Federal Republic and attempted taking advantage of a situation where the West stands in need of all strength. On the contrary we realize very clearly that exclusively national political advantages which are not concerned with the larger interdependency in which we all live will be of no benefit to us either. It is

also not only a question of political problems in the economic and cultural sphere as well. We are no longer alone. Nobody can exist in the long run dependent on only himself. That is valid for both the east and the West. It is a special characteristic of the world of today that one can only truly serve the interests of one's country by acting in concert with the interests of the others. Old style politics of maintaining or enforcing the will of a great nation on the basis of power have gone forever for any nation. We are not abandoning true national feeling by this. We should remain good Germans and can be proud of our many achievements just as the others should remain good Americans British or French or whatever nationality they belong to. But this national feeling must not force us into material or spiritual

borders which prevent by true peace. The precept of the hour and the vital question of our epoch reads cooperation.