Nixon and Adenauer at the Berlin Wall, 1969 |
The constant stream of East Germans fleeing to West Germany placed great strains on East German-West German
relations in the 1950s. East Germany sealed the borders to
West Germany in 1952, but people continued to
flee from East Berlin to West Berlin. On 13. August 1961, East Germany began building the
Berlin Wall around West Berlin to slow the flood of refugees to
a trickle, effectively cutting the city in half and making West Berlin an exclave of the Western world in
communist territory. The Wall became the symbol of the
Cold War and the division of Europe. Shortly afterwards,
the main border between the two Germanys was fortified.
Ostpolitik
In 1969, Chancellor Willy Brandt announced that West Germany
would remain firmly rooted in the Atlantic alliance but
would intensify efforts to normalize relations with Eastern European nations including East Germany.
West Germany commenced this Ostpolitik, initially under fierce opposition from the
conservatives, by negotiating nonaggression treaties with the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
and Hungary. The policy of West Germany before had solely relied on intrgration into the west and was
pushed by Konrad Adenauer, who was the first Chancellor
of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Among the elements of Ostpolitik was abandonment of the Hallstein Doctrine and recognition of the Oder-Neisse
line as the border between Poland and East Germany. Also important was closer trading relations with Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union. This helped shore up the faltering communist economies, but it also made visible
to the citizens of Eastern Europe the contrast between the wealth and high quality consumer goods of the west
and the relative poverty of the east.
Discussions between Brandt and East German leader Willi Stoph began quickly, but no formal settlement
was reached as Brandt was unwilling to recognize the East as a sovereign state. In 1970 the Treaty of
Moscow was signed between West Germany and the Soviets and quickly afterwards treaties with Poland and
other Eastern Bloc states were signed.
Normalisation of Relations
The most controversial agreement was the Basic Treaty of 1972 that created mutual recognition between
the FRG and GDR as two separate states (though explicitly not as two separate nations). This was staunchly
opposed by German conservatives who felt the policy would result in a permanent division of Germany. This
agreement also made it possible for the two states to become members of the United Nations soon afterwards.
The two Germanys exchanged permanent representatives in 1974, and the East German head of state
Erich Honecker paid an official visit to West Germany in 1987.
During the summer of 1989, rapid changes took place in East Germany, which ultimately led to German reunification.
Growing numbers of East Germans emigrated to West Germany via Hungary after the Hungarians decided not
to use force to stop them. The exodus generated demands within East Germany for political change, and mass
demonstrations with eventually hundreds of thousands of people continued to grow.
On 9. November 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and East Germans were allowed to travel freely. Thousands
poured through the wall into the western sectors of Berlin, and on 12. November East Germany began dismantling it.
Please have a look at some sample banknotes from West Germany and from
East Germany.
|
