Beasts and besties: German chancellors and US presidents through time

Euronews

05-06-2025

As Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets US President Donald Trump for the first time at the White House on Thursday, he'll be aware of how his predecessors have tackled the transatlantic relationship.
The stars don't augur well, however. During his first stint in office, Trump regularly made disparaging remarks about Germany and developed a non-relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel characterised by mutual personal dislike.
Trump's erratic trade policy, which has the EU and Germany specifically in its sights, as well as Trump's retreat from traditionally solid transatlantic positions on common defence and Russia, have challenged Merz before he even moved into the Chancellery.
How the mutual relationship between Merz and Trump develops in the future is likely to depend crucially on how the Chancellor completes his first visit to the Oval Office - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sends his regards!
Merz's basic problem is that Trump has taken an axe to German-US relations and is not particularly interested in good terms with Berlin.
This situation is a novelty for a German chancellor. Merz's predecessors since 1949 have experienced ups and downs in their relations with the respective US presidents, but the close friendship between the two countries has never been called into question.
So how did they get along?
Konrad Adenauer was 73 when he was elected the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. Four years after the end of World War II, however, the country was not yet a sovereign state.
Adenauer was only too aware of this. He sought a close and trusting relationship with the US and adheres very closely to instructions from Washington.
In 1953, Adenauer travelled to the US for the first time - it was the first ever visit by a German head of government to Washington! His talks with US President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-61) were friendly.
For Adenauer, the protection, aid and military presence of the United States were indispensable for the democratic development of Germany, as well as for peace and prosperity in Europe.
Adenauer developed close personal relations with Eisenhower and especially his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, which benefitted German-US relations as a whole.
In contrast, Adenauer's relationship with John F Kennedy (1961-63) was not without problems.
The two are far apart in terms of both age and politics. In 1963, his last year in office, Adenauer was already 87, and Kennedy, 41 years his junior, saw him as a man of the past.
Kennedy felt that the chancellor's stance on the German question was too rigid and lacked flexibility in the face of changing conditions in Europe.
Conversely, Adenauer harbours mistrust of US-Soviet negotiations. He believes that a rapprochement between the two superpowers could only take place at the expense of Germany and its political goal of reunification.
After the discord between Adenauer and JFK, relations between Chancellor Ludwig Erhard and Kennedy's successor Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69) became very friendly again.
German foreign policy was by now characterised by the conflict between 'Atlanticists' and 'Gaullists', with the latter wanting a close alliance with France, which Erhard rejects in favour of nuclear protection by the US.
Erhard and Johnson met sympathetically from the outset and came together five times during Erhard's short time in office. The first time was just one month after Johnson's inauguration, when the Texan invited the German to his ranch in Texas, a particular honour, especially for a foreigner.
Willy Brandt was the first Social Democrat to become Federal Chancellor in 1974. Brandt sees himself as a self-confident partner of the USA. However, his 'Ostpolitik', which sought an understanding with East Germany (GDR), Poland and the Soviet Union, was viewed with great suspicion in Washington.
US President Richard Nixon (1969-1974) distrusted Brandt, whom he considered to be a 'German nationalist'. Brandt, on the other hand, tried to maintain a good relationship with Nixon and avoided open criticism of the war in Vietnam.
Personally, the two had practically nothing to say to each other. Alluding to Brandt's illegitimate origins, Nixon occasionally calls him 'the bastard' behind closed doors.
In the mid-1970s, German-US relations were better than ever before. US President Gerald Ford (1974-1977) and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt knew and appreciated each other and were close friends in their private lives.
There was a great deal of agreement on key issues, as well as a trusting openness in discussing differences.
However, Ford lost the 1976 election to his challenger Jimmy Carter (1977-1981).
Carter was inexperienced in foreign policy and relied on a team of advisors disconnected from the think tanks of the East Coast, where Schmidt had been well-connected for decades and enjoyed a high reputation.
Schmidt, who had a tendency to lecture people, saw Carter as a novice who had only a limited understanding of the world's complex problems.
This does not go unnoticed by Carter - relations quickly hit rock bottom.
When it came to the deployment of the neutron bomb, there were serious disagreements. Schmidt, amid great domestic political difficulties, advocated the weapons system desired by Washington.
When Carter stopped its production at the last minute for domestic political reasons, Schmidt felt exposed and abandoned.
Unlike Schmidt, Helmut Kohl had no personal connection to the United States and did not speak English. Nevertheless, he showed transatlantic solidarity from the outset and endeavours to establish a personal relationship with every US president he deals with.
His relationship with Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) even had friendly traits that outlasted even the embarrassing Bitburg controversy.
In 1985, Kohl invited Reagan to visit the Bitburg military cemetery in the Eifel region during his stay in Germany - as a sign of reconciliation between former enemies.
When it was discovered that not only Wehrmacht soldiers but also members of the Waffen SS were buried at the cemetery, a storm of indignation broke out in Washington.
The White House wanted to cancel the visit, but Reagan remained stubborn and thus supported the German chancellor.
Kohl also developed a friendly and close relationship with Reagan's successor George HW Bush (1989-93), which facilitated communication between the two governments during the collapse of the GDR and the German reunification process.
In the 1990s, German-US relations were determined not least by the question of how much responsibility Germany should assume in the world.
US President Bill Clinton (1993-2001), with whom Kohl had an even better relationship than with Reagan, reacted positively to the German decision to send Bundeswehr soldiers to the Balkans as part of an international peacekeeping force.
In his memoirs, Clinton spoke almost affectionately and with great respect about his appreciation for Kohl. He was 'not only physically' the most impressive political leader in Europe for decades, according to Clinton.
The relationship between German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and US President George W. Bush developed quite differently. The atmosphere between Bonn (later Berlin) and Washington was probably never as icy as in those years.
The reason: the red-green government's no to the war in Iraq.
Mistrust, personal animus, blatant dislike - the rift between the two leaders was total.
This became apparent again years later, when both were no longer in office and both accused each other of lying on the occasion of the publication of Bush's memoirs in 2010.
Under Chancellor Angela Merkel, German-American relations relaxed again. Unlike with Schröder, Bush got on well with Merkel and called her 'a friend'.
In contrast, the chancellor's relationship with Barack Obama was slow to warm.
In 2008, she refused to allow the then-presidential candidate to give a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin - Obama had to make do with the Victory Column.
But after Obama's election, the relationship was increasingly characterised by mutual trust.
Both cultivated a sober and pragmatic political style and a liberal view of the world, which facilitated cooperation.
In a way, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was lucky: US President Joe Biden was probably the last great old-school US Atlanticist. This made cooperation easier.
Both liked each other, worked together in a spirit of trust and described each other as friends.
In fact, Scholz consulted with Biden more frequently and more closely than with his European colleagues.
When it comes to aid for Ukraine, Scholz did nothing without obtaining Biden's approval.
At their last meeting, both warned against ending military support to Ukraine. This is now a matter for their successors.