Authors

Discussion

In September 1998, Germany had a new red-green government. It was the first left government since 1982. Namely, CDU, CSU, and FDP governed the country for sixteen years. In autumn 1998, Gerhard Schröder from the SPD became Chancellor, and Joschka Fischer from the Grünen party was appointed Foreign Minister. The research reconstructs the genesis of German foreign policy towards Serbia. It explains the positions on Milošević, the possibility of NATO intervention, the situation in Kosovo in 1999, and relations with the Serbian opposition. Therefore, the work discusses German foreign policy towards Serbia in 1999 and 2000. The research question is: What was Germany’s role in NATO military action against Serbia? Additionally, the research will be conducted at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich at the Institute for Southeast European History. Prof. Marie-Janine Calic, an expert on Balkan history and German foreign policy, will coordinate and monitor the work. The research is divided into two parts. The first part examines Germany’s military involvement, and the second part deals with Berlin’s relations with the Serbian opposition after the Kosovo War. Moreover, the research activities include semi-structured interviews with the following German and Serbian decision-makers: Eva Quistorp (Die Grünen), Ambassador Michael Steiner, Hans Gert Pöttering (CDU), Gert Weisskirchen (SPD), Yugoslav Foreign Affairs Minister Goran Svilanović, Ambassador Ivo Visković, and Ambassador Aleksandra Joksimović. The historical-analytical method underpins the work, drawing from a rich array of primary sources. These include archival documents from esteemed institutions such as the Dr. Zoran Đinđić Archive at the State Archives of Serbia in Belgrade, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Archive (Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik) in Sankt Augustin, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Archive (Archiv der sozialen Demokratie) in Bonn, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Archive (Grünes Gedächtnis Archiv) in Berlin, Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung Archive (Archiv des Liberalismus) in Gummersbach, and Hans-Seidel-Stiftung Archive (Archiv für Christlich-Soziale Politik) in Munich. Besides, the work utilizes texts from the Bayernkurier Archive, memoirs, and monographs by German politicians.