ABSTRACT
The view of all Soviet and East European leaders, the Federal Republic of Germany is the most influential political factor in Western Europe. The variety of problems the USSR has had to face within its own orbit developed to such an extent that some analysts even spoke of a "communist encirclement" of the Soviet Union. The East Germany started an extensive campaign propagating a worldwide "coalition of reason and realism," a conception which has become the centerpiece of the German Democratic Republic's Westpolitik. The other issue is reflectes by the discussion over what precisely "Proletarian Internationalism" means with respect to the "revolutionary process" in the Third World. The Soviet Union consequently stands up for the reunification of Korea by peaceful means on a democratic basis, after the withdrawal of American forces from South Korea. The importance and the role of the German Democratic Republic have increased in the last decade, both worldwide and within the Eastern bloc.
