Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [22]
In 1963 Adenauer was eased out by Ludwig Erhard, by then also his vice-chancellor, but in 1966 a fluctuating economy was biting deeply into Erhard’s credibility, and Germany’s first grand coalition government of Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and SPD took office, with Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU; 1904–88) as chancellor and Willy Brandt (SPD; 1913–92) as vice-chancellor. The absence of parliamentary opposition fuelled radical demands by the student movement for social reform.
The turning point came in 1969 when the SPD under Willy Brandt formed a new government with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The Lübeck-born, 1971 Nobel Peace Prize winner spent the Hitler years working in exile as a journalist in Scandinavia, where he was stripped of his citizenship for anti-Nazi writings. Normalising relations with East Germany (his East-friendly policy was known as Ostpolitik) was his priority and in December 1972 the Basic Treaty was signed, paving the way for both countries to join the UN in 1973. The treaty guaranteed sovereignty in international and domestic affairs (but fudged formal recognition since it was precluded by the West German constitution).
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Behind-the-scene footage, interviews, an account of the Wall’s fall and shots of the 2500-brick wall rebuilt during the show is included on The Wall: Live in Berlin, the DVD of Pink Floyd’s electrifying concert in Berlin in 1990.
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Brandt was replaced by Helmut Schmidt (b 1918) in 1974 after a scandal (one of Brandt’s close advisers turned out to be a Stasi spy). The 1970s saw antinuclear and green issues move onto the agenda, opposed by Schmidt, and ultimately leading to the election of Greens party representatives to the Bonn parliament in 1979. In 1974 West Germany joined the G8 group of industrial nations. But the 1970s were also a time of terrorism in Germany, and several prominent business and political figures were assassinated by the anticapitalist Red Army Faction.
Brandt’s vision of East–West cordiality was continued by Chancellor Helmut Kohl (b 1930) who, with his conservative coalition government from 1982, groomed relations between the East and the West, while dismantling parts of the welfare state at home. In the West German capital in 1987, Kohl received East German counterpart Erich Honecker with full state honours.
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After the Wall by Marc Fisher is an account of German society, with emphasis on life after the Wende (fall of communism). Fisher was bureau chief for the Washington Post in Bonn and presents some perceptive social insights.
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REUNIFICATION
It was clear that the hearts and minds of Eastern Europeans had long been restless for change, but the events leading up to German reunification caught even the most knowledgeable political observers by surprise.
The so-called Wende (‘change’, ie the fall of communism) in Germany and reunification came about perhaps in the most German of ways: a gradual development that culminated in a big bang. Reminiscent of the situation in Berlin in the 1950s, East Germans began leaving their country in droves. They fled not across a no man’s land of concrete, weeds and death strips between East and West this time but through an open border between Hungary and Austria. The SED was helpless to stop the flow of people wanting to leave, some of whom sought refuge in the West German embassy in Prague. Around the same time, East Germans took to the streets in Monday demonstrations following services in Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche and other churches in East Germany, safe in the knowledge that the Church supported their demands for improved human rights.
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KEEN ON ‘GREEN’
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