Adenauer: Foreign Visitors to Keio University

At Mita Hilltop Square during his visit to the Juku

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 well-known historical figure 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 was a former 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 an 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 municipal administration but also in German national politics. His activities were such that he was approached to become Chancellor, but Adenauer declined, focusing instead on the governance of Cologne. He was also a leader 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 was liberated from the misfortunes and suffering of the Nazi era and returned to politics (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 a policy of "Westernization" in post-war West Germany. While deepening strong political and economic ties based on reconciliation with former enemies—the United States and Western Europe, particularly France and the United Kingdom—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 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 the 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 having promoted the "forgetting of the past" by adopting a policy of "drawing a line under history" (Schlußstrichpolitik). In particular, it is a well-known fact that he showed an extremely passive attitude toward the purge of civil servants and judicial officers who had cooperated with the Nazi regime, as well as toward 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 point of comparison and praised as a model example. However, 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 could 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 rarely actually 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 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 notorious Nuremberg Race Laws that provided the legal basis for the persecution of Jews and was appointed by Adenauer as State Secretary in the Chancellery). This was likely not because he showed understanding or gave a positive evaluation of their "past" actions, but because his interest was solely directed toward 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—both the criticized insufficiency in liquidating the negative history of the Nazi era and the praised pragmatic attempt to "overcome the past" by skillfully utilizing international circumstances and external pressure—will likely continue to be the 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 an invitation to Japan extended to Adenauer by Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who had officially visited the West German capital of Bonn in July of the previous year. Amidst the intensifying US-Soviet confrontation of the Cold War, a stay of about one week was realized in a Japan shaken by the Security Treaty protests.

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 exceptionally short stay of only 45 minutes. On this day, Adenauer arrived at the Mita Campus at 10:00 a.m. 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 support and acceptance of many Keio University researchers and students in Germany. He then gave a speech for about 20 minutes and finally bid farewell to the Juku while being seen off by the Cheer Group's performance of "Wakaki-chi."

In his public speaking, after expressing 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 open 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 effort. 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 was published in issue No. 588 [1960] of this magazine).

The interpreter for this speech was Wilhelm Röhl, a judge (and researcher of Japanese legal history) who was seconded to the West German Embassy as the head of the cultural department and 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.

In addition to the Juku administration, the Keio University representatives at the time of Adenauer's visit included Eiichi Kiyooka (then a professor in the Faculty of Law), a grandson of Yukichi Fukuzawa, and faculty members from various departments who had experience studying in Germany. Faculty members from the Faculty of Law with particularly deep ties to Germany included Mitsuo Minemura and Koichi Miyazawa (who was the author's seminar supervisor). The fact that Adenauer offered 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 during the ceremony may have been done 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 the only time in his life and was extremely brief. 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.