ABSTRACT
The political crisis in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) is more complex than those in other Eastern European countries. The GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany have forty years of separate experience and development behind them. They are two states but one nation, with one past and a shared National Socialist legacy. The sense of national cohesion in the GDR is complicated by the existence of the other Germany which also offers automatic citizenship to those who arrive from the East. The crisis in the GDR is not simply one of democracy, but one of national legitimacy. Never before in the history of mankind has a state been plunged into crisis in such a ridiculous fashion as the GDR. This acute crisis has arisen as a result of the population running away; instead of barricades, a mass exodus; instead of strikes and demonstrations, the occupation of embassies; instead of clashes with the police, trips to Hungary.
