Abstract

One basic aim of German foreign policy since reunification has been a fundamental reform of the United Nations, leading to a permanent seat for Germany in the Security Council. In the current debate about the recent attempts by the Federal government to realize this aim, some criticism has emerged concerning Germany’s legal status as a vanquished country of World War II being a main handicap for German ambitions in the U.N. This paper gives a short review of the arguments and their relevance from an international law and political science point of view.