ABSTRACT
The former German Democratic Republic (GDR), now referred to as the ‘new Länder’ of reunified Germany, occupies an anomalous position within Europe (Figure 7.1). After the Second World War, the division of Germany split the country between the ‘communist east’ and ‘capitalist west’. The GDR was a key player in the development of the socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for forty years, while West Germany was a founder member of the European Economic Community (now the European Union or EU). Since German reunification in 1990, however, the former GDR has become a member of the EU. Thus, while the environmental problems facing the former GDR have many similarities with those of other CEE states, the policies to solve them are now formulated both by the federal government of Germany and the EU. The former GDR must therefore be seen as a ‘special case’ in the context of this edited collection.
