Allied Control and German Freedom: American Political and Ideological Influences on the Framing of the West German Basic Law (Grundgesetz)

Although there is a virtual consensus among historians, political scientists, and legal scholars that the West German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) has been one of the great successes of recent European constitutional history, providing many decades of stability and the rule of law, a public myth, in effect ever since 1949, holds that it was a totally indigenous German achievement. Although attention has been paid to the overall role of the Allies in Germany between the end of World War II in 1945 and the ratification of the Basic Law in 1949, the present study is the first book-length attempt to describe and evaluate the specific political and ideological influences, direct and indirect, of the United States on the origins, development, and implementation of the Basic Law. It presents and analyzes American and German policies and personalities, parties and programs, and their interplay in the intriguing and subtle process of constitution-making.