Introduction to IMG Semester Two Week Seven

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Introduction to IMGSemester Two Week Seven

• The FRG - Achievements and Failures at last, a
  successful German state?

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Germany Today Post-Unification
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The Berlin Republic and the old FRG Continuity?

• Unification in 1990 proceded according to article
  23 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law)
• Grundgesetz supposed to be provisional but
  remains for United Germany
• West German institutions (Bundestag, Bundesrat,
  Bundesbank, Bundeswehr) adopted by the former GDR
• West German political culture largely dominant
  liberal democracy, Marktwirtschaft, Nazi past
• The FRG proven the better state?

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The Berlin Republic and the old FRG
Discontinuity?

• The Berlin Republic (post-1990, more especially
  mid-1990s onwards)
• More assertive in foreign policy
• More assertive in EU policy
• But still a civilian power
• But now called upon to take larger responsibility
  in world affairs Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan,
  Iraq

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Nostalgia for the FRG

• Ja, und ein wenig traurig bin ich, wenn ich
  daran denke, daß es den faden, kleinen,
  ungeliebten, praktischen Staat Bundesrepublik
  Deutschland, in dem ich groß geworden bin,
  künftig nicht mehr geben wird
• Patrick Süskind (author)

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Reassessment of the FRG

• This nostalgia for the old FRG implies a
  reassessment of the pre-1990 West Germany
• Seen as dull, uninspiring, not having confronted
  the Nazi past, obsessed with economic success
  (the Wirtschaftswunder), conservative, spiessig
  this was the assessment of the West German Left
• A half-sovereign nation, americanised,
  lacking ambition, provincial this was the
  assessment of the West German Right

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So time to Reassess

• We can now historicise the FRG
• Assess what it achieved and what it failed to
  achieve
• Come to a more balanced view about this period in
  German history a forty year period (1949-1989)
  in which there were no wars, no political
  instability, no rampant inflation, no mass
  unemployment

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What did the FRG get wrong?

• The Wirtschaftswunder?
• Too much focus on economic success, especially in
  the 1950s and 1960s
• The emergence of a consumer-obsessed society
• The emergence of a work-obsessed society
• The emergence of a society in which success is
  defined by purely material terms

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The Nazi Past

• Wirtschaftswunder allowed people not to focus too
  much on the Nazi past
• Or, if they did, they often worried more about
  what they had suffered bombing, expulsion, loss
  of Heimat than on German crimes
• Continuity of personnel at the highest levels of
  politics, economy and even the legal system
• This went right into the late 1960s and 1970s

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Discrimination against Foreigner Workers
(Gastarbeiter)

• From the late 1950s, Gastarbeiter begin to come
  from Italy, Spain and Greece and later from
  Turkey. Anwerbestopp in 1973.
• Reluctance to be a Einwanderungsland
• Social and political discrimination against
  Gastarbeiter - particularly Turks
• Only recently have the naturalisation laws been
  changed to make it easier for Turks to take up
  German passports and to vote

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Terrorism and the States Reaction

• In the 1970s, and especially in the late 1970s,
  the FRG faced the problem of terrorism
• The Rote Armee Fraktion
• Disillusionment of West German youth following
  1968 and the student protests
• Murders, kidnappings and damage to property
• But state overreaction Berufsverbot,
  surveillance (Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina
  Blum), and strong police action also the
  Springer Verlag newspapers

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But what about the FRGs achievements?

• The reassessment of the FRG stresses the
  following
• DEMOCRACY
• ECONOMIC SECURITY
• LESSONS OF THE PAST
• ENVIRONMENTALISM AND PACIFICISM
• PEACEFUL UNIFICATION

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Democracy

• After National Socialism, a democratic order

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The Grundgesetz

• I. Die Grundrechte
• Artikel 1(1) Die Würde des Menschen ist
  unantastbar. Sie zu achten und zu schützen ist
  Verpflichtung aller staatlichen Gewalt.(2) Das
  Deutsche Volk bekennt sich darum zu
  unverletzlichen und unveräußerlichen
  Menschenrechten als Grundlage jeder menschlichen
  Gemeinschaft, des Friedens und der Gerechtigkeit
  in der Welt.

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Economic Security

• Forty years (1959-1989) of economic security
  contrast this with the Weimar Republic

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Coming to terms with the Nazi Past

• From the late 1960s, especially from the
  mid-1980s, greater emphasis on the Nazi past
• In schools, public debates, and politics
• Richard von Weizsäcker, May 8 1945, on fortieth
  anniversary of the end of war
• Wir gedenken heute in Trauer aller Toten des
  Krieges und der Gewaltherrschaft. Wir gedenken
  insbesondere der sechs Millionen Juden, die in
  deutschen Konzentrationslagern ermordet wurden.
• Wir gedenken aller Völker, die im Krieg gelitten
  haben, vor allem der unsäglich vielen Bürger der
  Sowjetunion und der Polen, die ihr Leben verloren
  haben.
• Wir gedenken der ermordeten Sinti und Roma, der
  getöteten Homosexuellen, der umgebrachten
  Geisteskranken, der Menschen, die um ihrer
  religiösen oder politischen Überzeugung willen
  sterben mußten.
• Wir gedenken der erschossenen Geiseln. Wir denken
  an die Opfer des Widerstandes in allen von uns
  besetzten Staaten. Als Deutsche ehren wir das
  Andenken der Opfer des deutschen Widerstandes,
  des bürgerlichen, des militärischen und
  glaubensbegründeten, des Widerstandes in der
  Arbeiterschaft und bei Gewerkschaften, des
  Widerstandes der Kommunisten.

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Environmentalism and Pacificism

• The Buergerbewegungen grass-roots democracy
• The Green party
• German Pacificism

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Peaceful Unification

• In 1870, the first German unification came about
  after a war against France
• In 1989/90

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Deutschland Quiz

• Click on icon below