Adenauer: A Foreigner Who Visited Keio University

2017/02/02

At Mita Hilltop Square during his visit

Konrad Adenauer served as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (formerly West Germany) from 1949 to 1963. He was a leader who exerted extraordinary influence throughout Germany's long history and formed the foundation of post-war Germany. He is a historical figure widely known in Japan even without tracing his footsteps, but the fact that he was awarded an honorary degree by Keio University is likely not very well known outside of Mita Hilltop Square.

Adenauer was born in 1876, during the era of the Bismarck Empire, in the ancient city of Cologne. He was the third son of a court clerk who had been a career soldier, born into a family that was by no means wealthy. After studying law at the University of Bonn and other institutions, he served as a lawyer and assistant mayor of Cologne before being elected Mayor of Cologne. Subsequently, as mayor under the Weimar Republic—Germany's first attempt at a republican democratic system—he accumulated experience as a politician. For many years, he developed active political activities not only in Cologne's administration but also in German national politics. His activities were significant enough that he was approached about becoming Chancellor, but Adenauer declined, focusing instead on the governance of Cologne. He was also leadingly involved in the reconstruction of the University of Cologne (founded in 1388; closed during the French occupation led by Napoleon), which became a partner institution of Keio University after the war.

During the Nazi era, he came into conflict with the Hitler regime, was dismissed as mayor, persecuted, and forced into retirement for a period.

After the defeat, Adenauer, liberated from the misfortunes and suffering of the Nazi era, returned to the political world (despite his advanced age). As soon as a new state was established in the western part of divided Germany, he was elected its first Chancellor. Thereafter, using the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as his support base, he pushed for the establishment of a liberal democratic system and "Westernization" policies in post-war West Germany. While deepening strong political and economic ties based on reconciliation with the United States and Western Europe—particularly former enemies France and Great Britain—he constructed the basic line of post-war West German diplomacy known as "Western Integration" to make West Germany a member of the liberal democratic camp.

He also actively promoted measures regarding post-war reparations; in particular, policies such as the payment of huge reparations to Israel attracted worldwide attention. This was because, apart from so-called war crimes such as the mistreatment of prisoners of war, how to atone for or handle the unprecedented crimes of the Holocaust committed by Nazi Germany—namely, the persecution and extermination of the Jewish people (now referred to as genocide)—had become an urgent issue for Germany to achieve post-war reconstruction and return to the international community. In this regard, the following passage from a speech Adenauer gave after the war in neighboring Luxembourg is suggestive: "During the few years of the Nazi era, I despised the actions shown by the German people. However, since 1945, I have once again felt a sense of respect for my own people."

It is often said that Adenauer pioneered compensation policies for victims of the Nazi era by seeking reconciliation with the Jewish people. In other words, he is evaluated as having contributed to Germany's "overcoming the past." On the other hand, however, he is also criticized for adopting a so-called "policy of drawing a line under history" (Schlußstrichpolitik) and rather promoting the "forgetting of the past." In particular, it is a well-known fact that he showed an extremely reluctant attitude toward the purge of civil servants and judicial officers who had cooperated with the Nazi regime, as well as the prosecution and punishment of Nazi crimes by German hands (that is, by German justice rather than the "victor's justice" of the Allies). In discussions regarding Japan's war responsibility and how it was handled, Germany is often used as a subject of comparison and praised as a model example, but it is necessary to note that the German "policy toward the past" as a model in those cases is actually West Germany from the Brandt administration onward.

It can be said that many contradictions coexist in the fact that he took such an attitude after the war despite having suffered Nazi persecution himself, but this also seems to be an expression of a kind of Adenauer-style pragmatism. In a sense, Adenauer may have had a tendency to prefer "ahistorical" thinking. In his public speaking, he actually rarely brought up historical events—that is, the "past." Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, Adenauer continued to employ many bureaucrats from the Nazi era who had acted as largely obedient servants to a dictator like Hitler even under the post-war liberal democratic state system (for example, Hans Globke, who wrote the commentary for the infamous Nuremberg Race Laws that provided the legal basis for the persecution of Jews and was appointed State Secretary of the Chancellery by Adenauer). This fact was likely not because he showed understanding or gave a positive evaluation of their "past" actions, but because his interest was solely focused on smoothly handling the "present" affairs of the state before him.

It is very easy for those living in the present to condemn the actions of historical figures from the past. Steering a nation amidst the extreme political turmoil of the post-war period must have been incredibly difficult. In that sense, Adenauer's stance—on one hand criticized for the insufficient liquidation of the negative history of the Nazi era, and on the other hand evaluated for his pragmatic efforts to "overcome the past" by skillfully utilizing international circumstances and external pressure—will likely continue to be a subject of various evaluations.

Adenauer's first and last visit to Japan took place as a state guest from March 25 to April 1, 1960, during a stopover on his way back from a visit to the United States. The catalyst was when Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who had officially visited the West German capital of Bonn in July 1959 the previous year, extended an invitation to Adenauer. Thus, his stay of about one week in a Japan shaken by the Anpo protests, amidst the intensifying US-Soviet confrontation of the Cold War, was realized.

On the final day, April 1, 1960, Adenauer visited Keio University and was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of Keio University based on the recommendation of the Faculty of Law. According to records within Keio, Adenauer's time at the Juku was an unusually short stay of only 45 minutes. On this day, Adenauer arrived at the Mita Campus at 10:00 AM with his eldest son Konrad and second daughter Lotte, and was welcomed by President Fukutarō Okui and others. Subsequently, the conferral ceremony was held at the Mita Enzetsukan (Public Speaking Hall). He was handed the honorary degree certificate by the President in praise of his contributions to the German people and culture, as well as his acceptance and support of many Keio University researchers and students in Germany. He then gave a public speaking for about 20 minutes and finally bid farewell to the Juku while being seen off by the performance of "Wakaki-chi" by the Cheer Group.

In his public speaking, after expressing words of gratitude for the honorary degree, Adenauer, who was himself a legal expert, emphasized: "We must not overlook that the foundation of human happiness is, above all, always spiritual. Therefore, we must always keep an appropriate place for the spiritual sciences [Author's note: Geisteswissenschaften, humanities] in universities and the wider academic world." He also stressed that the order of the international community must be "founded upon the ground of natural law." Furthermore, regarding Japan-Germany relations, he stated: "Both the Japanese and German peoples have been struck by a harsh fate. However, both you and we are beginning to recover from that blow through diligence and hard work. Our two nations have much in common and complement each other splendidly." He thus explained the importance of cooperation between the two countries in the similar yet different post-war paths of Japan and Germany (a Japanese translation of the speech text is published in issue No. 588 [1960] of this magazine).

The interpreter for this public speaking was Wilhelm Röhl, a judge (and researcher of Japanese legal history) on secondment to the West German Embassy as Head of the Cultural Department, who was involved in the establishment of the German Cultural Center in Tokyo (now the Goethe-Institut). Röhl later returned to his home country and founded the "German-Japanese Association of Jurists," which now plays a major role in exchange between Keio University and Germany in the field of law.

Among the Keio University representatives at the time of Adenauer's visit, in addition to the Juku executive management, Eiichi Kiyooka (then a professor in the Faculty of Law), a grandson of Yukichi Fukuzawa, and faculty members from each department who had experience studying in Germany were present to welcome him. Faculty members of the Faculty of Law with particularly deep ties to Germany included Mitsuo Minemura and Koichi Miyazawa (who was the author's seminar supervisor). When Adenauer offered during the ceremony to invite one Keio University professor to his country as an international student and provide a scholarship to deepen academic exchange between Japan and Germany, it may have been with the awareness that a foundation for academic exchange had already been built through Keio University faculty members studying in Germany since before the war.

As mentioned earlier, Adenauer's time at the Juku was a single, extremely brief moment in his life. In that sense, the encounter between Keio University and Adenauer was truly a once-in-a-lifetime meeting. However, the exchange between Keio University and Germany, which became even stronger as a result of this meeting, continues to this day. I sincerely hope that such bidirectional exchange will continue for a long time to come in all fields between Japan and Germany.