ABSTRACT
Until their reunification, the two Germanies not only had diametrically opposed social and economic orders, there was also a considerable difference in the care they took of their natural environment. The reasons for this are mainly to be sought in their respective ideologies, the outcome being that the united Germany now finds itself confronted with environmental conditions in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) for which ‘catastrophic’ is the only fitting description. The first part of this paper will therefore be devoted to reappraising in retrospect some of the major environmental deficits that prevailed under the socialist system, before taking stock of the miserable environmental conditions that presently exist in the new federal states. With the special situation due to the collapse of the social and economic order there in mind, the next point will be a discussion of the problem of introducing a ‘western German’ type of environmental policy into eastern Germany. This policy will have to be ‘western German’ for two main reasons: first, given the desperate state of its economy, strict adherence to the polluterpays-principle will just not be feasible there, so that the huge investments urgently required in the environmental sector will have to be paid for by the taxpayer in the ‘old’ Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Second, one can assume, and official publications clearly bear this out, that western German-type environmental targets will also be adopted in the east, irrespective of whether the people there, stricken by unemployment and social deprivation, consider this to be one of their priorities. Finally, this interdependence of economic, social and ecological aspects will form the basis for speculation about possible future scenarios for socioeconomic development in eastern Germany and their probable influence on the future demand for a ‘better environment’ there. The latter will then permit a conclusion as to whether the kind of environmental policy offered by western Germany does in fact meet demands or what chances
there are that it might do so in future, for an ‘Environmental Union’ will also have to be economically efficient.1 That is to say, at an individual-or in this case regional-level, marginal utility must be proportional to what is offered (i.e. the marginal costs of achieving various degrees of environmental quality).
