Growth models and core–periphery interactions in European integration : the German–Greek special relationship in historical perspective

Abstract

This article investigates the history of the German–Greek relationship in the context of European integration and demonstrates that West Germany and German–Greek business networks played a crucial role in the shaping of Greece’s post-war growth model. The article challenges the assumption that the relationship between the two countries is overshadowed by the past. In contrast, it shows that post-war German–Greek relations were forged around European integration with an eye to the future and that it was the two countries’ early rapprochement and the mutual accommodation of their respective aims that laid the foundations of their asymmetrical interdependence. In doing so, the article argues that it was the success of Greece’s European strategy, rather than its failure, that lies at the heart of its recurring balance-of-payments problems: a lingering trade deficit with Germany, the country’s major trading partner, proved to be, as I will show, the price for growth and modernization.