Abstract
The fall of the
Berlin Wall November 9, 1989, resulted from a complex pattern of
causes, including historical contingencies. One of these was Günter
Schabowski´s ill-phrased announcement of free travel for GDR
citizens, another Mikhail Gorbachev´s access to power in1985 and
his promise of perestroika. - At the core of the matter lies
„the German question“ as the key issue of controversies, in the
early phase of the Cold War. Even after 1955, when the two post-war
German states had been integrated into the military blocs, the
German question remained on the diplomatic agenda. The erection of
the Berlin Wall in 1961, however, signified that the „German
problem“ had been shelved. After the Cuban crisis in October 1962,
when the two superpowers refrained from nuclear confrontation, they
appeared to enter into an era of détente.
Facing up to these
facts, West Berlin´s Mayor Willy Brandt and, foremost, his adviser
Egon Bahr developped their concept of „Ostpolitik“. Its long-term
perspective was to change the status quo of German division by
accepting the status quo, i.e. the consequences of WW II, the
Oder-Neisse border to Poland, the reality of the blocs, and the East
German state under Communist rule. It was based on the assumption a)
that détente was an irreversible process and b) that the GDR,
displaying economic stability at that time, while remaining an
indispensable element in the Soviet bloc, would be disposed to forms
of cooperation.
The dialectics of
history proved otherwise. Geopolitical rivalries between the
superpowers continued to exist. In 1979 Soviet Union´s military
intervention in Afghanistan coincided with its opening another round
in the arms race focussing on intermediate-range missiles in Central
Europe. Both decisions propitiated the interior crisis of the Soviet
Union, due to technological backwardness and military overburdening
of its state-run economy. Gorbachev´s attempts at reform proved
ineffective, his proclamation of glasnost encouraged dissident
movements in Eastern Central Europe, e.g. the independent peace
movement in the GDR, to resist their regimes. Gorbachev´s
renunciation of the „Brezhnev doctrine“ motivated reform-minded
governments in Poland and Hungary to test the limits of Soviet
hegemony.
The decisive
factor was the comprehensive crisis in the GDR: an unproductive
economy based on external debts, a decrepit infrastructure,
ecological damage, an oppressive dictatorship rejecting reform,
dissident activists challenging the regime. All this, in the autumn
of 1989, led to the mass exodus of East Germans fleeing across
Hungary´s open border to Austria. The upshot of this course of
events was the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
Germany´s
reunification in 1990 entailed the creation of the European Union, an
in-between of a confederation and a federal union of states. Its
raison d´être is to a) provide a structure of peace in
Europe b) to avert German hegemony on the Continent based on its
power potential. Nonetheless, apprehensions concerning Germany´s
future role in Europe have not altogether vanished. With regard to
its immigration policy, some observers speak of a new type of „moral
hegemony“. Last but not least, Merkel´s decision in 2015 to admit
millions of migrants to Europe, tipped the scale in favour of Brexit.
Keywords:
„the German
question“
„Ostpolitik“
crisis of the
Soviet empire
perestroika
the future of
Europe
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