ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the changing attitudes and different positions of the major German parties in terms of Germany's relations with the Czech Republic and Poland. Like all main-stream German political parties it supported Czech and Polish accession to the EU, but unlike its erstwhile coalition partners, it does not suffer from the same constituency pressures as does the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/ Christian Social Union. In addition to changes in domestic policy, this entailed the modernization of foreign policy. Ostpolitik had run out of steam without having promoted any real systemic change in East-Central Europe. In effect, during the 1960s and into the late 1980s, no opportunity structure existed that the CDU's leadership could utilize in order to move away from positions that had been prepared in the 1950s. Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, the Social Democratic Party of Germany pursued a series of policies that were aimed, at promoting reconciliation between Germany and its eastern neighbours.
