After the capitulation in 1945, everyone suffered from hunger and cold, but that didn't matter too much. What we most of all wanted was to broaden our own horizons on what had happened and to rebuild a new Germany. I and my friends studying at Göttin gen, not far from the border with the Soviets, kept a knapsack packed in case war broke out. What we couldn't agree on was whether in case of war it would be safer to head west to the Americans or east out of the combat zone.

Two things stand out in my memory: the magnanimous and at the same time wise action of the Marshall Plan, and, secondly, the keen American interest in getting the western part of Germany organized as a state and included in a Western alliance against the Soviets. The thing I least expected in 1945 was that by 1950 the American Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, would publicly ask for a German military contribution to the alliance.

Naturally, there was an enormous debate in Germany about whether we should rearm.