ABSTRACT
Having considered the separate developments of the two postwar German states, this final chapter studies their strained relations, and Willy Brandt’s attempts to forge better links between the Bundesrepublik and the GDR. While the two German states remained antagonistic to one another during the 1970s and 1980s, the collapse of socialist rule in the GDR during late 1989 demonstrated that the bonds between them had remained strong. East Germans naturally looked to their larger West German neighbour for help in reconstructing their country, while many West Germans saw their republic’s extension into the east as a natural development and the confirmation of the Bundesrepublik’s historical mission to embrace the entire German nation (excluding Austria) in a true democracy. The second part of this chapter shows how unification was managed in 1990, and how the enlarged Bundesrepublik met the challenges of its first decade. These included not only the enormous financial burden of restricting the east German economy to western standards, but also absorbing a population with very different traditions and expectations.
