West Germany and the Portuguese Revolution: an Introduction

Abstract

In this paper I will analyse how the Federal Republic followed the events in Portugal in the first months after the «Revolution of the Carnations». I will focus on the period from April 25, 1974 to September, 28, 1974, when the General Antonio de Spínola, President of the Republic, resigned from his post. From this moment on, the revolutionary process entered in a new phase. This paper is a reflection on the role FRG played on the Portuguese transition to democracy. In the next pages we will analyze the way the German government followed the political evolution in the first months of the Portuguese revolution. It is mostly the result of the research on the German Foreign Ministry. In addition, I will also use the sources already published in the Akten der Aussenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (AABRD) and the documents of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.