question: How did the world learn to trust Germany after 2 world wars?
comment: In WW2, the ability to wage war was heavily dependent on the ability to produce weapons like guns, tanks and planes. These things all require industrial processes, like steel production. The logic went, that if Germany can't produce weapons, then they can't start another war. So, the [European Coal and Steel Community]( URL_0 ) was formed in 1951. This would be an international body that would oversee the production of steel in several of the European countries that were involved in World War 2. Besides overseeing the production of steel, to make it harder for countries to amass an arsenal, it also created economic ties between the countries in Europe, so that they would not *want* to go to war with each other. This is considered one of the first steps towards the formation of the European Union.
passages: Section::::1919–1933.:1990–present.
  
  After the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany, German reunification took effect on 3 October 1990.
  
  On 14 November 1990, Germany and Poland signed a treaty confirming the Oder-Neisse line. They also concluded a cooperation treaty on 17 June 1991. Germany concluded four treaties with the Soviet Union covering the overall bilateral relationship, economic relations, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of the former German Democratic Republic, and German support for those troops.
  
  Russia accepted obligations under these treaties as successor to the Soviet Union.
  
  Section::::See also.
   No one doubted Germany's economic and engineering prowess; the question was how long bitter memories of the war would cause Europeans to distrust Germany, and whether Germany could demonstrate it had rejected totalitarianism and militarism and embraced democracy and human rights.
  
  Section::::Germany during the Cold War, 1945–1990.:Post-war chaos.
   In 1984, EWI hosted the first track 2 military-to-military discussions between the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries.These talks, focusing heavily on the establishment of confidence-building measures (CBMs) between the two parties, ultimately resulted in an agreement requiring each side to alert the other of troop movements.
   Since 1951, Germany has been at the heart of European integration. The reunification in 1990, which saw East Germany merged into West Germany, promoted peaceful integration with its neighbors. Strong ties with the United States remain central to German foreign policy.
  
  Within the framework of NATO and an integrated European Union Military Staff, the Federal Republic has resumed the deployment of military units to mediate in conflict regions worldwide.
  
  Germany is one of the world's strongest supporters for ecological awareness in response to climate change and global warming.
  
  Section::::1919–1933.:1945–1990.
  
  BULLET::::- Westbindung
   Since 1945, Germany has recovered from massive wartime destruction to become again the richest and most powerful country in Europe, this time it is fully integrated into European affairs. Its major conflict was West Germany versus East Germany, with East Germany being a client state of the Soviet Union until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the 1970s, (West) Germany has also sought to play a more important role internationally again. 
  
  Section::::1871–1919.
  
  Section::::1871–1919.:Military role in the foreign policy decisions of the German Empire.
   "Bindung" is the German word for "fixation" or "bond"; "Westbindung" is Germany's implant into Europe and the Western World.
  
  BULLET::::- Ostpolitik
  
  Under the Hallstein Doctrine, the FRG did not have any diplomatic relations with countries in Eastern Bloc until the early 1970s, when Willy Brandt's "Ostpolitik" led to increased dialogue and treaties like the Treaty of Warsaw, where West Germany accepted the Oder-Neisse line as German-Polish border, and the Basic Treaty, where West and East Germany accepted each other as sovereign entities. Both Germany states were admitted to the United Nations on 18 September 1973.
  
  Section::::1919–1933.:1945–1990.:German Question and German Problem.
   During the Cold War, Germany's partition by the Iron Curtain made it a symbol of East–West tensions and a political battleground in Europe. However, Willy Brandt's "Ostpolitik" was a key factor in the "détente" of the 1970s. In 1999, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government defined a new basis for German foreign policy by taking a full part in the decisions surrounding the NATO war against Yugoslavia and by sending German troops into combat for the first time since World War II.
   It was a shocking statement. It made us think that our western border was being questioned by the Germans and by other Western countries. It was one of the most important things that strengthened our ties with the Soviet Union.
   Section::::Toleration shown by other states.
   When de Gaulle announced his decision to withdraw from the integrated NATO command, President Lyndon Johnson suggested that when de Gaulle "comes rushing down like a locomotive on the track, why the Germans and ourselves, we just stand aside and let him go on by, then we are back together again." The vision came true. France announced their return to full participation at the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit.
  
  Section::::Détente and escalation.
   BULLET::::- Geiss, Imanuel. "German Foreign Policy, 1871-1914" (1979) excerpt
  
  BULLET::::- Haftendorn, Helga. "German Foreign Policy Since 1945" (2006), 441pp
  
  BULLET::::- Hale, Oron James. "Publicity and Diplomacy: With Special Reference to England and Germany, 1890-1914" (1940) online
  
  BULLET::::- Hanrieder, Wolfram F. " Germany, America, Europe: Forty Years of German Foreign Policy" (1991)
  
  BULLET::::- Heuser, Beatrice. "NATO, Britain, France & the FRG: Nuclear Strategies & Forces for Europe, 1949-2000" (1997) 256pp
   The Bonn–Paris conventions ended the allies’ occupation of West Germany, and were ratified in part on the condition that West Germany join NATO, which it did in 1955. Though initially isolationist, Spain under Francisco Franco was staunchly anti-Communist, and bound by regular defence agreements with NATO countries. After its transition to democracy, Spain came under pressure to normalize its European relations, including joining NATO, which it did in 1982. A referendum in 1986 confirmed popular support for this.
  
  Section::::Past enlargements.:German reunification.
   Section::::Toleration shown by other states.:American Corporate involvement.
   After 1955, Britain decided to rely on relatively inexpensive nuclear weapons as a deterrent against the Soviet Union, and a way to reduce its very expensive troop commitments in West Germany. London gained support from Washington and went ahead with the reductions while insisting it was maintaining its commitment to the defence of Western Europe.
  
  Britain made two applications for membership in the Common Market (European Community). It failed in the face of the French veto in 1961, but its reapplication in 1967 was eventually successful, with negotiations being concluded in 1972. The diplomatic support of West Germany proved decisive.
   Ever since the creation of the consolidated German nation state in 1871, the German Problem as to what interests, ambitions, and borders Germany would have and how it would fit into the international system, was a major concern not just for the neighbours but also for German policy-makers themselves. This Problem was temporarily suspended during the Cold War as with Germany being a divided nation, the question as to how to reunify the country (the German Question) would take precedence over other considerations. During the Cold War, both Germanys also lacked the power to challenge the system more generally. 
   In 1999, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's government defined a new basis for German foreign policy by taking part in the NATO decisions surrounding the Kosovo War and by sending German troops into combat for the first time since 1945. The governments of Germany and the United States are close political allies. Cultural ties and economic interests have crafted a bond between the two countries resulting in Atlanticism.
  
  Section::::Politics.:Military.
   The powers met again in Paris on October 20–23, in an intergovernmental conference followed by a NATO Council meeting, to put the decisions reached in London into formal declarations and protocols to existing treaties. "Protocol No. I Modifying and Completing the Brussels Treaty" formally added West Germany and Italy to the Brussels Treaty, creating the Western European Union (WEU), which, while not as broad or powerful as the previously proposed EDC, nevertheless was sufficient for the "Deutschlandvertrag" to come into force and therefore to end the occupation of West Germany and admit it as an ally in the Cold War.
   Germany was the first state to establish diplomatic relations with the new Soviet Union. Under the Treaty of Rapallo, Germany accorded the Soviet Union "de jure" recognition, and the two signatories mutually cancelled all pre-war debts and renounced war claims.
   Section::::Other.
  
  The term has been used to describe German and Japanese international involvement during and after Gulf War I. Their history made both countries unable to commit troops to the coalition because of restrictions placed into their constitutions when they were drawn up under allied occupation following World War II (see Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and Art. 87a of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany). Instead they volunteered large amounts of financing for the war effort. However, Germany was also providing additional NATO navy units in other regions.
  
  Section::::External links.
   BULLET::::- Foreign relations of Germany
  
  BULLET::::- History of Germany
  
  Section::::Further reading.
  
  Section::::Further reading.:German diplomacy.
  
  BULLET::::- Bark, Dennis L., and David R. Gress. "A History of West Germany. Vol. 1: From Shadow to Substance, 1945–1963. Vol. 2: Democracy and Its Discontents, 1963–1991" (1993), the standard scholarly history
  
  BULLET::::- Blumenau, Bernhard, 'German Foreign Policy and the "German Problem" During and After the Cold War: Changes and Continuities'. in: B Blumenau, J Hanhimäki & B Zanchetta (eds), "New Perspectives on the End of the Cold War: Unexpected Transformations?" Ch. 5. London: Routledge, 2018. .
   During a NATO–Warsaw Pact conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Genscher persuaded the four powers to treat the two Germanys as equals instead of defeated junior partners, and for the six nations to negotiate alone. Although the Dutch, Italians, Spanish, and other NATO powers opposed such a structure, which meant that the alliance's boundaries would change without their participation, the six nations began negotiations in March 1990. After Gorbachev's May agreement on German NATO membership, the Soviets further agreed that Germany would be treated as an ordinary NATO country, with the exception that former East German territory would not have foreign NATO troops or nuclear weapons. In exchange, Kohl agreed to reduce the sizes of the militaries of both West and East Germany, renounce weapons of mass destruction, and accept the postwar Oder–Neisse line as Germany's eastern border. In addition, Germany agreed to pay about 55 billion deutschmarks to the Soviet Union in gifts and loans, the equivalent of eight days of the West German GDP.
   In the early 1950s, the Department of the Army's Military History Division published a number of studies, the "German Report Series", which were devised to glean lessons from the German World War II experience. Some studies in the series were written by former German generals and general staff officers. 
  
  The publications among other issues also analyzed the German response to the threat of guerrilla warfare. Indeed, the Wehrmacht had attempted a systematic approach to the threat of partisan warfare during Operation Barbarossa (the Russian campaign) in 1941, and later in the Balkans.
   The 1952 Stalin Note proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe but Britain, France, and the United States rejected the offer as insincere. Also, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer preferred "Westintegration", rejecting "experiments".
   The failure to establish the EDC resulted in the 1954 amendment of the Treaty of Brussels at the London and Paris Conferences which in replacement of EDC established the political Western European Union (WEU) out of the Western Union. While the WEU was not as broad or powerful as the previously proposed EDC, it was nevertheless sufficient for the "Deutschlandvertrag" to come into force and therefore to end the occupation of West Germany, give it full sovereignty and admit it as an ally in the Cold War, both in the WEU and NATO. Italy was also admitted in these organisations. From this point defence aims had shifted to the Soviet Union.
   BULLET::::- Heuser, Beatrice. "NATO, Britain, France & the FRG: Nuclear Strategies & Forces for Europe, 1949-2000" (1997) 256pp
  
  BULLET::::- Hewitson, Mark. "Germany and France before the First World War: a reassessment of Wilhelmine foreign policy." "English Historical Review" 115.462 (2000): 570-606. in JSTOR
  
  BULLET::::- Junker, Detlef, ed. "The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War" (2 vol 2004), 150 short essays by scholars covering 1945–1990 excerpt and text search vol 1; excerpt and text search vol 2
  
raw_presuppositions: The world trusted Germany not to start another world war.
raw_corrections: The world made sure that Germany could not develop weapons.