A History of Germany 1918-2014 by Mary Fulbrook

Author:Mary Fulbrook [Fulbrook, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781118776131
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Ostpolitik and Mutual Recognition

The relations between the two Germanies were transformed by the so-called Ostpolitik of Willy Brandt’s SPD-led government after 1969. Against strong conservative opposition, Brandt pushed through negotiations which regularized relations between the two Germanies, entailing mutual recognition and an amelioration of conditions for furthering human contacts between the two parts of the divided nation. These efforts were criticized, both at the time and subsequently, as a form of ‘appeasement’ towards communists, from which the latter benefited while giving very little, if anything, in return. The argument ran that the boundaries produced by aggression were being accepted, that money was being sent which in improving people’s conditions merely served to prop up an illegitimate state, and that supposed concessions on the human rights front were basically ignored in practice. Against this, supporters of the policy saw it as merely a realistic acceptance of an essentially unalterable situation, and as a means to improve relations and make the borders more permeable for individual human contacts, by a policy of ‘little steps’.

The groundwork had already been laid when Brandt was Foreign Minister in Kiesinger’s government. In the West German elections of September 1969 the CDU/CSU won a total of 242 seats, the SPD 224 and the FDP 30. The FDP had taken a somewhat leftwards move when at the end of 1967 Walter Scheel had replaced Erich Mende as leader. After three weeks of bargaining, in 1969 a coalition was formed between the SPD and the FDP, with Willy Brandt as West German Chancellor. This marked a major step in West German political history: after two decades of conservative dominance, a Social Democrat was in charge of government in a social–liberal coalition.

Brandt was also in many respects a unique individual for West Germany to have as Chancellor. Born illegitimate, as a young man Brandt had opposed Nazism, fled Nazi Germany and fought in the Norwegian resistance. With his modest social origins and anti-Nazi record he marked a real break with the compromised pasts of the former NSDAP member, Chancellor Kiesinger, and of President Lübke (who resigned early and did not stand for a second term of office because of stories about his role in the construction of Nazi concentration camps, or slave labour barracks). A former Mayor of Berlin, Brandt also had experience of divided Germany’s position in the front line of Europe, and had been forced to witness the construction of the Berlin Wall. A man of strong moral convictions, Brandt was arguably more successful in his foreign policies than he was on the domestic front. Whatever the controversies surrounding the end of his chancellorship in 1974, as well as the end of his period chairing the SPD (in 1987), Brandt’s moral stature introduced a new chord to the difficult politics of post-Nazi democracy.

Brandt’s period in office is chiefly noted for his drive to achieve some sort of ‘normalization’ of relations between the two states in divided Germany. This initiative coincided with a period of détente between the superpowers,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.