Iranian Hostage Crisis: West Germany's Secret Role in Ending the Drama

In 1981, Jimmy Carter said the world could never know West Germany's role in the negotations for the release of 52 hostages from the US Embassy in Tehran. New research sheds light on the important part the country played in ending the crisis. By Klaus Wiegrefe more... 

The day after the last day of his presidency, Jimmy Carter flew to Frankfurt to greet 52 American diplomats who had been held as hostages for about a year by radical students in United States Embassy in Tehran. Now they were being attended to in a US Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt, and Carter wanted to express his sympathy.

On Jan. 21, 1981, the ex-president had warm, but mysterious, words for his German hosts. At the time, Helmut Schmidt, a member of the center-left Social Democrats, and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, of the liberal FDP, were leading West Germany in the former capital city of Bonn. The Germans, Carter said, "helped us in a way I can never reveal publicly to the world." - Read More at Spiegel

West Germany's Secret Role in Ending the Drama

How Many Refugees Can Germany Handle?