ABSTRACT
The collapse of an East German one-party state that had existed for forty years followed from a chain of events specific to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) but was also the result of a long-term evolution. West German assent to grants to the Soviet Union in 1990 supplied Bonn's key quid pro quo for removal of the Soviet military's presence in the GDR and of Moscow's veto over German reunification. The successful launch of a reunification program in the presence of a disintegrating GDR required flexibility but was ultimately capable of attainment at a fairly brisk pace, even though this second assumption was far from clear at the time. The durability of inner-German ties was often obscured by the frequent willingness of West German governments or politicians to consider various Socialist Unity Party demands that GDR status needs be met or customary All-German standards revised.
