Dealing with the Devil by M. E. Sarotte

Author:M. E. Sarotte [Sarotte, M. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780807849156
Publisher: UNC Press
Published: 2001-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

The Caesura of 1973

For all of these reasons, by the end of June 1973 it was possible to resolve the controversy over emigration blockage (although it would hardly be the last one). Only a handful of open cases remained. Bahr informed Kohl of the transfer of DM 10 million of the “child support” money.193 Moreover, the Bavarian legal challenge to the Basic Treaty failed in the summer of 1973, and the accord went into force as a result. Also that summer, a Cold War chapter closed with the death of Walter Ulbricht, and another chapter began with the formal opening of CSCE. In the second half of 1973, the FRG negotiated a treaty with Prague similar to the Warsaw accord.194 Given the momentum produced by these events, the entry of the two Germanies into the UN proceeded with less difficulty than the contentious nature of previous talks about it had suggested it would. In September of 1973, East and West Germany became respectively the 133rd and 134th members of the United Nations.195 Soon thereafter, questions of German-German relations would take a back seat to dramatic domestic developments in both West Germany and the United States. Brandt would face the exposure of a Stasi agent, Günter Guillaume, on his personal staff; Nixon would endure the revelations of Watergate. In yet another parallel, both leaders would find themselves forced to resign.

Both Michael Kohl and Egon Bahr took advantage of the caesura of 1973 to resign from the wearying task of normalizing German-German relations.196 Under Michael Kohl, the SED delegation had managed to fulfill its goals of securing payment in return for human rights concessions and of gaining recognition both from the FRG and the world community. It also achieved its priority of avoiding any direct acknowledgment of “Germany” as a united nation. This priority mirrored that of the Soviet Union. The GDR had pushed quite hard to get the Eastern treaties ratified precisely because, in Soviet thinking, they precluded changes to the Cold War status quo, achieved arduously via the Second World War and subsequent superpower confrontation. Under Bahr, the FRG delegation also achieved one of its top priority goals, namely, obtaining some kind of reference to the nation. It also avoided any definite signs that the accord established the division as permanent. Given the difficulties and many points of contention involved, it is not surprising that the Basic Treaty was limited in its achievement. Countless issues remained open, such as questions of citizenship and property ownership. Kohl and Bahr had not reached a resolution, but rather the beginning of a more intense exchange about the issues that divided the Germanies.

Throughout their talks, both Bahr and Kohl had had to take into account the concerns of each other’s respective superpower ally. East Berlin in particular had endured micromanagement by Moscow in nearly every aspect of negotiating and implementing the treaty. The Basic Treaty, which regulated German-German local and even individual controversies, thereby became intimately linked to the global Cold War concerns of the Soviet superpower.

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