ABSTRACT
The new Federal Republic is a nation-state—though clearly of a more postclassical than classical nature. The Federal Republic was not only obliged by the preamble of its Basic Law to complete Germany's unity and freedom. It also had a moral obligation to correct, through all available means, the unequal distribution of Germany's historical burden. During the Adenauer era, the moderate political Right had pursued a policy of supranational integration, while the moderate Left had proclaimed the primacy of German unity. Konrad Adenauer's assurance integration into the West would eventually lead to reunification, however, was met with dwindling support, as the building of the Berlin Wall seemed to indicate: the division of Germany had deepened. In the 1980s, opposition to a sovereign German nation-state came more vocally from left-wing and liberal publications, from the Social Democrats and the Greens, than from government quarters.
