Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1982

From Schmidt to Kohl

Commissioned by the Federal Foreign Office, edited by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte.

General Editor: Horst Möller; Co-Editors Gregor Schöllgen and Andreas Wirsching.

The end of the Schmidt–Genscher administration in the fall of 1982 marked a new era in domestic policy, yet Germany's foreign policy remained remarkably consistent. A number of crises had already reached their high-water mark, including the Falklands conflict and the war in Lebanon. Yet problems persisted: the fruitless search for a compromise in INF treaty negotiations, which threatened to trigger a new arms race; the crisis in Poland; and the tensions between Europe and the U.S. regarding economic relations with the Eastern bloc. As 363 newly released documents show, in their foreign policy decisions Kohl and Genscher pursued a strategy of continuity with the Schmidt administration.

Von Schmidt zu Kohl