German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was absolutely revealing on Thursday in stressing that Greece’s debt was not viable, on the one hand, while rejecting an IMF-backed “haircut”, on the other.
Even more telling was the fact that the German politician, and probably Europe’s leading finance minister, opined that a debt write-off for WWII instigator and defeated power Germany in 1953 — West Germany, at the time — was “not compatible” to Greece in 2015.
West Germany had its debts wiped out in 1953 by creditors during the London conference in 1953 (as seen from the image). Creditors included Greece, a WWII victor that was ravaged by a Nazi occupation from April 1941 to October 1944 (Crete until May 1945), fought a civil war from 1946 to 1949 and then served on the front line of the Cold War.
The debt forgiveness fueled the West German economic “miracle” in the subsequent decades until the unification with East Germany in 1990.
Beyond saying the situations were not compatible, Herr Schaeuble also said the comparison was “misleading,” responding to a question in Frankfurt.
Earlier, Schaeuble stressed that the possibility of some kind of debt relief for Greece would be discussed over coming days, but he doesn’t see much room for maneuver.
