Transcript German Reunification

German Reunification
Bundestag elections 18.Sept 2005
Party
% of votes
No of seats
CDU/CSU
35.2
226
SPD
34.3
222
FDP
9.8
61
Left Party
8.7
54
Greens
8.1
51
Kanzlerin Merkel?
Economic problems today
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2001 – 2004 GDP increase of 0.6 %/year
(eurozone’s combined average of 1.3%)
5 Mill unemployed = 10% of the work force
(eurozone average is 8.7%) East Germany:
20%.
Exports grown by 57 % since 1999.
Eastern Germany remains a major problem
for the country
Division of Germany after
WW2
Founding of two German
States
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Proclamation of the Federal Republic of
Germany (FRG- BRD): 23. May 1949
Chancellor: Konrad Adenauer
Proclamation of the Democratic
Republic of Germany (GDR – DDR): 7.
October 1949
Head of State of the GDR: Walter
Ulbricht
Alliances
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FRG:
Member of Western
European Union
1955: Nato
Recognition of OderNeisse Border
Alliances
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GDR
1955: Member of
Warsaw Pact
Both countries
become members of
the UN in 1973
GDR: Policy of demarcation
1949-1989
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1952: closing of the borders
1961: building of the Berlin Wall
1967: separate citizenship
Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz – Law of State
Citizenship
1970: proclamation of the ‘socialist nation’
1974: removal of the word German from the
constitution
State Security Apparatus
(Staatsicherheit – Stasi)
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Ministerium für Staatssicherheit –
Ministry for State Security
Role of the Stasi
Factors leading to
Reunification
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International factors:
Decline of Eastern block states:
Gorbachev’s reforms of Glasnost
(openess) and perestroika
(restructuring)
Economic success of the Federal
Republic
Factors leading to
Reunification
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National factors:
Dissatisfaction with socialism
2. The economic situation in the GDR
3. The majority of West-Germans wanted
to be reunited with the East Germans.
1.
On the road to reunification
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Effect of glasnost and perestroika: noncommunist governments in Hungary,
Polen and Czechoslovakia.
Opening of borders to the West
1000s of GDR citizens flee to FRG
embassies in Hungary
National factors
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Monday demonstrations:
discontent of the people
Wir sind das Volk – we
are the people
Wir sind ein Volk – we are
one people
4. November 1989:
Demonstrations:
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GDR economy 1970 - 1989
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1971: economic problems
Honecker’s solutions:
Cheap housing, higher basic wages,
better pensions, better maternity
provisions, better health care in order to
have a better work force.
Problem: how to finance this?
Economic problems
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Export deficit of 390 million DM
Import deficits of 100 million DM: solution:
1972: nationalisation of 11500 private firms
(Volkseigene Betriebe - VEB)
Increase of economic production, but
factories old. No investment in industry
1983: production half that of BRD
Debt
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State subsidies: rent, food, health =
1980’s: quarter of state budget
1981: debt of 24.2 thousand million DM
Raising foreign currency: selling of
antiquities, art and people
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Fall der Berliner Mauer
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9th November 1989: Fall of the Wall
18th March 1990: first free democratic
elections in the GDR
1st July 1990: Treaty for the creation of
a Union of the Currency, Economy and
Society
3rd October 1990: Date of reunification
– Tag der deutschen Einheit
Fall of the Berlin Wall
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Maueröffnung 1989:
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Basic Law
Grundgesetz der BRD
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New Preamble im Grundgesetz:
‘Die Deutschen haben in freier
Selbstbestimmung die Einheit und
Freiheit Deutschlands vollendet.’
‘In free self-determination, the
Germans have brought to completion
the unity and freedom of Germany.’
Germany today
Problems of unification
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For ex-GDR citizens:
Economic: transition from a planned
economy to a free market economy
High unemployment
Rise of xenophobia
Opportunities
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Large market in the East
Zonenrandgebiete (areas near the
former border)
Improvement of the
infrastructure:transport,
telecomunications, culture
15 years on
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Still high unemployment (5 million –
10% in the West, ~20 % in the East)
‘Ostalgie’ e.g Good Bye Lenin
15 years on…
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Die Mauer in den
Köpfen?
Wall in the heads of
the people?
Germany and the EU