Economic Relations Between the Two German States

Abstract

The economic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) have been strongly influenced and at times even determined by political factors since they began as interzonal trade between the three Western Zones of Occupation and the Soviet Zone of Occupation shortly after the end of the Second World War. The relative importance of either political or economic factors depends upon the different levels of East-West relations: at the level of the basic political and legal framework, the political elements clearly dominate (to be more exact, the elements of world politics, based upon the relations of the two superpowers in Europe and especially in Germany and in Berlin). These elements proved to be stable in a long-term view, as they could not be changed unilaterally by either superpower and in any case were far beyond the influence of German political decision-making. Furthermore, for West German politicians the limits for policy toward the GDR are even more restricted by the regulations of the federal constitution, which cannot be easily changed.KeywordsFederal RepublicForeign TradeEconomic RelationGerman Democratic RepublicGerman StateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.