ABSTRACT
The whole 1950 to 1997 periods was the only moment in Germany’s history in which the government could wholeheartedly concentrate on the civilian economy. The second half of the twentieth century was a period in which government expenditure in West Germany as a share of gross domestic product reached huge proportions. With all the privatization, liberalization, deregulation, sound monetary policies, and adequate management of the budget that was undertaken, most economists predicted that Eastern Germany would grow at an impressive pace in the years immediately after reunification. Economic recovery was seen by Washington as the best mechanism to contain communism in Germany and the rest of Europe, because it was poverty and material hardship that were increasing the number of communist sympathizers. There was a comprehensive effort to clear up property claims that originated in the postwar years when the communists nationalized everything without compensation.
