The collapse of the Communist regime in East Germany and the
subsequent unification of East and West Germany were events of
extraordinary historical importance, the ramifications of which
will take years to unfold. A leading U.S. expert on West German
politics, Peter Merkl, had the good fortune to be a visiting
professor at the University of Gottingen in 1990 and was able to
witness this incredible transition firsthand. While teaching at the
Free University in Berlin in 1991, Merkl enlisted the cooperation
of a leading East German expert, Gert-Joachim Glaessner, to
contribute a chapter on the GDR. The result is a work that offers a
careful and comprehensive account of the process of unification and
its implications for the future of European and international
politics.
Merkl begins by laying out the historical German Question and
placing the divided state in the international context of the Cold
War and its consequences. He then analyzes the generational
differences between Germans over fifty who rallied to the challenge
with enthusiasm and the less nationalistic younger generation who
feared that the pursuit of unification would preempt such goals as
a better life for West Germans and a livable environment.
Gert-Joachim Glaessner describes in detail the spectacular
unraveling of the East German communist regime that ultimately led
to the fall of the Berlin Wall amidst the disintegration of the
other Communist regimes, arguing that they did not fall on their
own nor as a result of West German or Western initiatives
alone.
Merkl analyzes the process of political unification, the several
elections of the year 1990, and the agreements made between East
and West Germany. He also discusses the international objections to
German unification and the many obstacles that were and will need
to be overcome to make German unity a reality. He examines the
attitudes of East and West Germans towards each other and their
sense of national identity, the transformation of institutions and
constitutions, and the immense problems and expense of rebuilding
the East German infrastructure and economy and of privatizing
state-owned operations. Finally, he maps out the international
significance of the great changes of the post-Wall and
post-Communist world that will define the future role of united
Germany vis-a-vis Germany's neighbors, the European community, the
United States, and the world. The book ends with a glimpse of how
Germans envision themselves in the year 2000.
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