ABSTRACT
The unification of Germany, the external aspects of which were codified in the "two-plus-four" agreement signed by the four original occupying powers in September 1990, ends an important period in East-West relations — and in Soviet diplomacy. Strictly speaking, the German Question arose as the result of the inability of the anti-Hitler coalition to agree upon a common policy towards Germany after the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945. Yet in assessing post-war Soviet policy towards Germany, it would be well to bear in mind the historical dimension of the problem. In the post-war period, Germany again played a central role in Soviet policy. Indeed, more than anything else the Cold War was about the fate and future of Germany. As Pierre Hassner has aptly put it, Germany was "the prize, the pivot, the problem of European politics." To a large degree the breakdown of allied cooperation over Germany paved the way for the onset of the Cold War.
