German Unification Research Articles

Ost vs. West, Nord vs. Süd, Stadt vs. Land? Regionale Spezifika des Wahlverhaltens bei der Bundestagswahl 2021

Following five hypotheses derived from the research literature, the results of the 2021 Ger- man federal election are analyzed on several dimensions: The voting behavior of East and West Germans differs in particular with regard to CDU/CSU and the Green Party, both with electoral strongholds in the West, and the AfD (right-wing populist party) as well as Die Linke (socialist party), both with above-average shares of vote in the East . In this respect, “two German electorates” (Dalton / Bürklin) still exist more than three decades after German reunification . Within those regions, however, clear geographic patterns on a larger scale (e .g ., between the north and the south) are not discernible . The situation chang- es at the city and district levels where considerable differences, especially for the Green Party and the AfD, can be found . These can be interpreted as an indication of conflict between urban areas and rural regions .

Germany and Israel: White Washing and State Building by Daniel Marwecki

Reviewed by: Germany and Israel: White Washing and State Building by Daniel Marwecki Lorena De Vita Germany and Israel: White Washing and State Building. By Daniel Marwecki. London: Hurst, 2020. Pp. vii + 274. Cloth £30.00. ISBN 9781787383180. "Germany stands unconditionally by our friendship with Israel," declared German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on May 20, 2021. "And," he added, "our support for the Palestinians, too, has always been dependable, even in challenging times." With these words, Maas set off for his visit to the region at a time in which Israel and Hamas were engaged in the heaviest round of fighting in the past few years. But the 2021 events were not just a matter of foreign policy concern for Germany, and the conflict quickly found an echo in German streets, too. In Bonn and Münster, protesters burnt Israeli flags in the street. Others, in Gelsenkirchen, chanted antisemitic slogans while heading towards the local synagogue. "Our democracy will not tolerate antisemitic protests," stressed Angela Merkel's spokesperson, while condemning Hamas' rockets against Israel "in the strongest possible terms." In this context, a book that offers a critical reinterpretation of seven decades of relations between Germany and Israel is particularly timely. Daniel Marwecki's Germany and Israel: White Washing and State Building argues that "the history of German economic, financial, military and political support to Israel is highly underappreciated" (4) and aims to provide a corrective of sorts. The book analyzes German policy vis-à-vis Israel and the Palestinians by drawing from files of the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) as well as "cabinet protocols, parliamentary debates and interviews with experts" (8). The book, which stems from a PhD thesis defended at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, is inspired by but also critical of two main strands of literature: on the one hand, the historiography analyzing "specific periods of German-Israeli relations" and, on the other, "works [written] from a political science perspective" (6). The work is articulated in thirteen chapters divided into four parts. Part 1 focuses on the reparations (Wiedergutmachung/Shilumim) agreement signed in September 1952 between the then very young Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel. Part 2 ("The Military Alliance"), covering the years from 1956 to 1967, focuses on the expanding security ties between the two countries. Part 3 ("Normalisation and the Palestinian Question in Germany's Israel Policy") takes a step back to 1965, examining the metamorphosis of German-Israeli relations after the two countries exchanged diplomatic relations. This section also considers how the relationship held as tension in the Middle East escalated further, mapping how Germany attempted to handle the difficulties that followed, including the 1972 Black September terror attack against the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Part 4 ("New Commitments and Failing Prospects") examines the years after German unification, mapping Germany's support for the Oslo Agreements. The final section also investigates the implications of Angela Merkel's 2008 declaration, in the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) [End Page 190] that "Germany's special historical responsibility for Israel's security … is part of my country's raison d'être" and examines whether and to what extent Germany is involved in "perpetuating the occupation" of the Palestinian Territories by financing Palestinian state-building efforts (205). It is clear that Germany has long been a key player in the region, and this book makes a convincing case for the importance of focusing on actors other than the United States when analyzing the international relations of the Middle East. Marwecki also rightly points out the enduring relevance of the early history of the GermanIsraeli relationship—those distant decades left enduring marks that are not yet fully understood. The attempt to shed further light on the complex, intertwined dynamics of German-Israeli and German-Palestinian relations is an important feature of this book, one that has not yet been fully explored in the existing literature. The book's main argument revolves around the claim that the repeated German material support for Israeli or Palestinian state-building was, in fact, connected to the "whitewashing" of Germany's dark past. It is not completely clear, however, to what extent the two...

Mediterranean Troubles and European Security: at the Regional Roots of the Barcelona Process

28 November 2020 marked 25 years since the European Union (EU) launched the so-called Barcelona Process. What was known as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) is, to date, the most ambitious attempt launched by the EU to cope with the challenges emanating from its Southern neighbourhood. This article aims to shed light on the Mediterranean dynamics at play in the years before the formal launch of the EMP, and consider them the crucial drivers in pushing the EC/EU to promote a more comprehensive approach to the Mediterranean. Developments in Europe, notably the German reunification, clearly played a significant role in pushing countries such as Spain, France and Italy to promote a more significant European role in the Mediterranean to partially rebalance the impact of a united Germany. However, in this work, it is argued that security problems arising from the Maghreb and a number of structural changes in the Arab Israeli confrontation created the actual momentum for the establishment of the EMP. The primary focus is thus on those regional dynamics that pushed the EU to adopt a new and more comprehensive Mediterranean policy, at least in its intentions.

Lessons from German Reunification for Irish Unity

Lessons from German Reunification for Irish Unity

A transitory phenomenon: German commanders and chiefs of staff, 1866–1918

This article examines the relationship between commanders and chiefs of staff during the period of the Wars of German Unification and the entirety of the Kaiserreich. The practice of pairing up a commander and a chief of staff was one that was specific to Germany. Traditional scholarship holds that in many cases, it was really the chief of staff who did all the thinking, while the commander was nothing more than a front man. The primary example of this was the relationship between Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. The problem is that unthinking historians have projected relationship of this particular duo on the rest of the imperial German army. One of the reasons for this was the presence of members of German royal families in high command positions. This article suggests that first, commanders, including royal family members, were far more influential than their chiefs of staff. In addition, the power wielded by chiefs of staff also reflected the nagging problem of battlefield communications, especially given the limitations of telephone and early wireless radio. Once these difficulties were eliminated by the collapse of the imperial regime, and the development of radio, the power of chiefs of staff was severely curbed by 1939. Thus, the relationship between commanders and chiefs of staff was at best a transitory phenomenon.

On Certain Aspects of the Studies of the Greater German Idea of 1848–1866

A new interest in the era of the emergence of the German Empire is growing in Russian historiography. In this context, it is once again relevant to look at alternatives to the victorious Lesser German path of 1848–1866, above all at the Greater German Idea. The author attempts to outline some aspects of this historical phenomenon in the works of Russian and German scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, analysing the period of 1848–1866 from a predominantly Lesser German perspective: the history of Prussia, its conflict with Austria and the politics of Otto von Bismarck came to the fore. Highlighting the ambiguity of the term “Greater German” as well as the dual discrediting of the idea of the Greater German idea (first following Austria's defeat in the nineteenth century and then under the influence of the aggressive ideology of the Third Reich in the twentieth century), the author offers a new approach to the established understanding of the Greater German Path in Russian historical scholarship. In particular, he suggests that attention should be paid to the new wave of interest in the federalist aspect of the Greater German idea, which manifested itself in the policies of the “Third Germany” states, as well as to the legitimate and evolutionary nature of the Greater German path, which envisaged German unification as a progressive development of the German Confederation instead of the Bismarckian unification by “iron and blood”. By looking directly at the German research experience, the author aims to demonstrate the significance of the 1848–1866 Greater German Idea for modern scholarship as a foundation for the study of national and supranational federal state models.

The Russian Direction of the Prussian Kingdom's Foreign Policy. 1851—1871. The Historiographical Aspect

The author of this article offers his assessment of the state of Russian/Soviet and German historiography devoted to Prussian-Russian political relations, the Russian direction of the Prussian Kingdom's foreign policy. Analyzing the works of Russian and German historians, the author comes to the conclusion that in German historiography, as well as in Russian historical science, there is still no special comprehensive study of the Russian direction of Bismarck's foreign policy in the long period of 1851—1871, on the eve and during the years of German unification.

Новая монография Б.В. Петелина о канцлере германского единства. Рецензия на: Петелин Б.В. Гельмут Коль: быть немцем. Страницы биографии. Санкт-Петербург: Владимир Даль, 2021. 399 с.

The monograph under review examines the pages of life and political activities of Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of German unity. The source base of the book includes materials from Russian and German archives, documentary collections, memoirs, and publications on the subject under research. Thanks to this, the author was able to show that the solution of the German question was possible not only due to the external and internal factors but also due to the political will of Helmut Kohl.

Reception of the Theme of the German Empire in the Anniversary Historical Narratives of the XX Century

The article examines the reception of the subject of the German Empire by Russian/Soviet and German historians in the twentieth century as part of its anniversary celebrations. In 1921 both Russian and German historical journals discussed the resignation of Bismarck as a critical step for the fortunes of the empire and openly criticised Wilhelm IIIn the Russian narrative, the revolution that led the empire to its collapse was harshly critiqued. After the defeat of Germany in the Second World War, the subject of the creation and fortunes of the empire was radically reconsidered by historians in the FRG. In the year of its centenary, 1971, Germany was debating the “second foundation of the empire”, imperial ceremonies and rituals were being studied, the Second Empire was being called the “Bismarck State”, and the chancellor was being accused of absolutism. The historical narratives in the GDR were represented by the Marxist conception of nineteenth-century German history, above all by the ideas of F. Engels. The creation of the empire was assessed in a mixed manner, it was noted that 'the German people found their unity in the Prussian barracks', and Bismarck's rule was described as a “Bonapartist monarchy”. A similar attitude can be traced in the historical narrative in the USSR: the empire was declared a “Prussian-German militarist state”. The problem of ethnicity and the long-awaited German unity was significant for German narratives of 1921. In the twenty-first century, historians of a united Germany warn against idealising the Second Reich and debate the synthesis of the collective and the individual in the phenomenon of memory-identity.

Discussion on the Change of Nationalism in German Gymnastics in the 19th Century: Focusing on Two Nationalists

PURPOSE This study examined the process and cause of change in nationalism in German gymnastics in the 19th century.METHODS The study used a literature study method and analyzed data from previous studies. Eleven articles related to the research topic were chosen for domestic research data by searching RISS for "German gymnastics," "Turnen," and "German nationalism." Overseas research data involved seven articles related to this study and were found by searching for "German gymnastics" and "Turnen" in Google Scholar.RESULTS First, German nationalism was originally divided into liberal nationalism and nationalistic nationalism, resulting in nationalistic nationalism after German reunification. Second, Jahn as a liberal nationalist and Spiess as a nationalist attempted to spread their ideas through German gymnastics. Finally, German gymnastics change from Jahn's liberal nationalism to Spiess' nationalistic nationalism was inevitable due to German gymnastics' external background and inherent limitations.CONCLUSIONS This study illustrated the process and cause of the change in the nationalistic characteristics of German gymnastics in the 19th century. Various historical cases that have not yet received attention but are worthy of investigation must be studied.

The Pension Crisis and the ‘Demographic Time Bomb’: Perceptions and Misperceptions in Great Britain and Germany at the Turn of the Millennium

Abstract At the turn of the millennium, Germany and the United Kingdom experienced the most severe crises of their pension systems since the Second World War. In both cases, politicians reacted with extensive reforms. The political debates in each country revolved around the notion that demographic ageing was at the root of the crises. Hence, the call for greater intergenerational equity became the key justification of fundamental pension-system reform. But a comparative historical analysis reveals that it is a vast oversimplification to blame the pension crises entirely on demographic ageing. In fact, a combination of other factors—which varied widely between the UK and Germany—far overshadowed the ‘demographic time-bomb’ as the driving force behind the crises. A prime factor in the UK was the declining value of the Basic State Pension and the growing importance of means-tested benefits, along with the decline of company pension schemes. By contrast, the problems facing the pension system in Germany primarily arose from rising unemployment, the systematic early retirement of millions of eastern Germans and the high costs of German unity, which were largely borne by the social-security system. Furthermore, in the debate on Germany’s ability to remain a thriving centre for business and industry, rising pension contributions were widely held responsible for declining competitiveness. In both countries, politicians seized upon the explanatory model of demographic ageing because it made sweeping reforms of the pension system appear the consequence of a quasi-natural process, and created a welcome opportunity to divert attention from socio-political blunders.

‘독일’적 자유: 니콜라우스 베커의 ‘라인강의 노래’ 바이럴리티의 문학적, 역사적 설명

Why, in the fall of 1840, did a banal poem written by an undistinguished amateur poet in the Rhineland become wildly popular - or in twenty-first century parlance - “go viral”? In answering that question, this article traces how Nikolaus Becker’s “Rheinlied” temporarily gave the illusion of German unity through the anti-French sentiment provoked by the Rhine Crisis of 1840. Historical contextualization through primary archival material in the press of the time, as well as a close formal literary analysis of the poem itself and a collection of its poetic replies, complicates the assumption that 1840 marked “the breakthrough of modern German nationalism.” Becker’s song personified Germany through the notion of a timeless Rhine and suggested, by virtue of an aesthetic withdrawal from politics, a concept of freedom in the German identity. The Becker text clearly shows how a negative formulation of the “false” freedom of the French buttressed a German moral concept consistent with the existing order. Given the deep political divisions in the German lands in 1840 - which were neither technically “free” nor “German” - this was a seductive vision.(Yonsei University)

Dogmatyka prawa wobec politycznej opresji. Czy historia myśli prawnej może nas czegoś nauczyć?

One of the contemporary views formulated and popularized mainly by authors from the socalled critical theory of law is the belief in the inevitable, mutual relationship of law (theory of law and dogmatics of law) and legal practice (adjudication) with politics and the political. This position is strengthened by the observation of contemporary disputes — especially visible in Poland — with the participation of politicians and lawyers: politicians accuse lawyers of political motivation of actions taken to defend the judiciary and the rule of law, while lawyers defend themselves by arguing the need for autonomy of their professional practice, including its apolitical nature. In this text, I explain the arguments of the latter party to the dispute. I choose the dogmatics of law as the field of illustrating the issues raised, since it occupies a special place in the continental legal scholarship, acting as an intermediary between the jurisprudence and legal decision-making practice. I am trying to show — by referring to two examples from general history, i.e. the eleventh-century investiture controversy and the nineteenth-century debate in the background of the German reunification idea — that law and politics (lawyers and politicians) have always been forced to compete and cooperate with each other. Thus, it confirms the thesis of the critical theory of law. At the same time, however, I try to show that the legal community had the ability to “learn” from the political disputes of the past, which led to the formation of independent jurisprudence and legal practice in the face of current politics, and thus also to apoliticality. What is more, I argue that such an apolitical nature is a condition for the survival of legal culture in its present shape — and here, my path diverges from the critical legal theory claims. However, in my opinion, the contemporary arguments made within this theory about the political science of law and jurisprudence should be treated with all seriousness — as another experience from which our community, as one can hope, will be able to draw informative conclusions.

Legislative Democracy in the Bundestag After Reunification

ABSTRACT This article assesses the impact of reunification on the Bundestag from a historical institutionalist perspective. Accordingly, it focuses on procedural development and parties’ behaviour. More specifically, it analyses parties’ control of the legislative agenda and their willingness to obstruct this agenda. Prior to reunification, the Bundestag emerged as a working legislature with decentralised agenda control. Even though the Bundestag was vulnerable to obstruction, especially by questioning the quorum, obstructive behaviour virtually ceased after 1951. After reunification, the Bundestag’s vulnerability was increased when a plenary ‘core time’ was introduced in 1995. However, all parties, including the one most directly related to reunification, the Left Party, continued to abstain from exploiting procedural loopholes. Only the AfD as the other post-1990 newcomer (albeit less directly related to reunification) did so by questioning the quorum to an unprecedented extent after it entered the Bundestag in 2017. So far, this systematic obstruction has only led to a path-dependent procedural reform. If, however, the AfD continues with this behaviour, it can be regarded as a threat to legislative democracy at least indirectly related to German reunification.

The Role of Reunified Germany in Poland’s Accession to NATO and the European Union

The study is devoted to Poland’s accession to NATO and the European Union (EU) and describes Germany’s stance on Poland’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations after 1989, which, despite various assessments, was not explicit and enthusiastic. However, it evolved gradually and was determined by a difficult internal situation after the reunification of Germany and its new geopolitics and geoeconomics. For Germany that reunified on 3 October 1990, an issue of greater importance than Polish accession to NATO and the EU was the presence of Soviet troops on the territory of the former GDR and normalization of relations with neighbors, particularly with France, Poland, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Both France and the United Kingdom, as well as the Soviet Union, and to a lesser extent, the United States initially were afraid of a reunified Germany and opposed Polish membership in Euro-Atlantic structures. At the time, hopes and fears were rife about the future of Europe. A common question was being asked in Paris, London, Moscow, Washington, and Warsaw – would reunified Germany remain a European state, or would Europe become German? Should Germany stay in NATO or leave after the reunification? There were questions also about Moscow’s policy towards reunified Germany and its position on Poland’s accession to Euro-Atlantic structures. Unfortunately, for a long time, it was negative. Today, thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, we can see that the black scenarios that were outlined in 1989-1990 did not actually come true. Despite the fears, those events opened the way for Poland to “return to Europe” and to gain membership in Euro-Atlantic structures, i.e., NATO and the European Union (EU). The path was not at all simple and it was not easy for Poland to make it through. In the study the author analyses subjective and objective difficulties related to Poland's accession to NATO and the EU and describes the evolution and role of Germany in this process.

Judging as Crime: A Transatlantic Perspective on Criminalizing Excesses of Judicial Discretion

Abstract Drawing on over a century and a half of Germany’s experience with a statute that criminalizes (mis)judging, this Article seeks to substantiate that criminal penalties for judges were largely ineffectual, and that courts proved ill-suited to police themselves even with a judiciary-specific criminal statute in place. To reach this conclusion, this post hoc longitudinal study examines German statutory foundations for the crime of “law bending” (Rechtsbeugung), related legal history, and jurisprudence during three distinct periods: (1) the codification of Rechtsbeugung in 1851 through the end of World War II; (2) Rechtsbeugung jurisprudence in postwar Germany, particularly as related to Nazi-era judicial actions; and (3) Rechtsbeugung legislative changes and jurisprudence leading up to and following Germany’s reunification. The German experience with Rechtsbeugung provides a cautionary tale of judges’ unwillingness to hold other judges criminally responsible, even for the worst of judicial transgressions, such as those committed by judges in Nazi Germany. Following German reunification, the court was less lenient in cases of East German judges. In this context, the court came to renounce its postwar Rechtsbeugung jurisprudence in clear and decisive terms, and affirmed convictions of East German judges. Yet, German high court jurisprudence remains elusive to this day.

International aspects of the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

This article analyses the international conditions during the disintegration of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It is an outline of a broad research problem, a historical analysis from the perspective of the decades-long evolution of Yugoslavia’s international position. After its expulsion from the Eastern Bloc in 1948, the country balanced between East and West, becoming one of the founders and leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement. The author focuses on the aspect of Yugoslavia’s role in the politics of the West, especially the US and the EEC, during and at the end of the Cold War. It was the West that could, possibly, have played a role in preventing the disintegration of the country in the early 1990s, in contrast to the USSR, which had its own internal problems at that time. What factors influenced Western support for the SFRY during the Cold War? How did Yugoslavia’s position in Western politics change when the Cold War rivalry ended? The author points out the temporal connection between the disintegration of the SFRY and, among other things, the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union, the democratisation process in Eastern Europe, German reunification, European integration, and the crisis in the Middle East. In the end, there was a lack of real and coherent action by Western countries to bring about a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Balkans. The consequence of this would be the disintegration of the SFRY and several years of war in the former Yugoslavia.

European integration and the Germany Issue: the simultaneous formation of Economic and Monetary Union and German Unification

이 글에서는 독일문제의 성격을 유럽사의 맥락에서 고찰하였다. 특히 역사적으로 독일문제에 대한 하나의 해결책으로 독일통일을 거론하는 관점을 소개하면서, 이 시기 논의되었던 유럽 경제통화동맹 창설에 대해 설명하였다. 독일문제에 대한 해결책으로서 독일통일이 독일을 제외한 유럽국가들에게 우려를 낳게 한다는 점과 이러한 이웃국가들의 염려를 불식시키면서 독일통일을 달성하는 과제를 성공적으로 완수하였다는 점을 설명하였다. 또한 유럽경제통화동맹 창설과 관련하여 독일 내에서는 유로화 도입을 위한 마르크화의 포기가 독일통일을 위한 길을 열기 위한 대가로 지급되었다는 견해와 독일 통일을 위해 마르크화를 포기한 거래는 없었고, 통화동맹 문제는 독일통일 결정 과정에서 작은 역할을 했다는 시각이 대치하고 있었다는 내용을 소개하였다. 결론적으로 경제통화동맹 창설과 독일통일의 문제는 동시적으로 프랑스와 서독 양국 이해관계에 따라 전개되었고, 서독은 독일통일을, 프랑스는 유럽통화를 얻게 되는 역사적 거래가 성사되었던 것이다. 따라서 마르크화가 독일통일을 위해 유럽통합의 제단에 희생되었다는 견해도 과장된 미사여구로만 흘려들을 수는 없을 것이다.

Internal Migration and Mental Health - Relevant Factors 20 and 30 years after Unification: Results of a Longitudinal Study in German

Aim The aim of the present study was to determine the relevant factors in the mental health of people who experienced internal migration in comparison with people who did not. Methods Data from a longitudinal study in Saxony were used to compare the psychological distress of individuals who migrated internally with that of those who did not in 2010 and 2020. Bootstrapping-based mediation analysis was applied to examine possible mediators between internal migration and mental health.Results Individuals who experienced internal migration reported less mental distress compared to those who did not in 2010, but not in 2020, but these effects disappeared after including covariates and mediators. Important mediators in 2010 were life situation, political solidarity with FRG, winner of German Unification and job security; in 2020, these were threat of old-age poverty and experiences with system.Discussion Internal migration influences mental distress through different factors. Especially the current life circumstances play a crucial role.

"Honecker's Vassal" or a Prehistorian in the Service of Science? The Evaluation of Former East German Scholarship and the Concept of the Scholar in the Debate on Joachim Herrmann in Reunified Germany.

The evaluation and transformation process of the GDR research system in the wake of German reunification 1989/90 was immediately accompanied not only by debates within the scientific community, but also by an extensive discussion about the value and future perspectives of East German scholarship and its protagonists in the nationally circulated press. In 1990, the focus turned temporarily to the prominent East German prehistorian Joachim Herrmann after his election to the board of an international historical association. The article uses the example of Herrmann and the public discussion about him as a case study to examine the status of, and changes in, the authority of scholarship and the scholar in the context of the evaluation and restructuring of the East German research landscape in the early 1990s. A selection of press articles from nationwide German newspapers and newsmagazines, as well as archival letters exchanged between different participants in the debate serve as prisms carving out the central arguments and subjacent structures of the discussion. Therefore, Herrmann's case exposes generic characteristics of (different concepts of) scientific authority and the close connection between its negotiation and the search for identity in the newly reunited German academic sphere.