West Germany and Namibia’s Path to Independence, 1969-1990

Namibia’s main liberation movement, the South
West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), relied heavily on outside
support for its armed struggle against South Africa’s occupation of what
it called South West Africa. While East Germany’s solidarity with
Namibia’s struggle for national self-determination has received
attention, little research has been done on West Germany’s policy
towards Namibia, which must be seen against the backdrop of inter-German
rivalry. The impact of the wider realities of the Cold War on Namibia’s
rocky path to independence leaves ample room for research and new
interpretations. In West Germany and Namibia’s Path to Independence, 1969-1990: Foreign Policy and Rivalry with East Germany,
Thorsten Kern shows that German division played a vital role in West
Germany’s position towards Namibia during the Cold War. West German
foreign policy towards Namibia, at the height of the Namibian liberation
struggle, is investigated and discussed against the backdrop of rivalry
with East Germany. The two states’ deeply diverging policies,
characterised in this context by competition for infuence over SWAPO,
were strongly affected by the Cold War rivalry between the capitalist
West and the communist East. Yet ultimately the dynamics of
rapprochement helped to bring about Namibia’s independence.

This
book is based upon a doctoral dissertation presented to the University
of Cape Town in 2016. Kern conducted research in the National Archives
of Namibia and in German archives and his work draws on interviews with
contemporary witnesses.