Essays on GDR

The German reunification was preceded by a deep social, economic and political crises in the GDR, which had been developing for the last 4 years before 1990 and led to a rapid pace of uniting East and West Germany during one year, from October 1989 to October 1990, when on the political map of Europe, a new joint Germany with 78 million population emerged. Difficulties of the unification process revealed very soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as the political, economic, social and psychological differences of East and West Germany, which proved to be more persistent than ...

Essay for Lesson 11: German Reunification

Introduction The division of Germany into West Germany and East Germany emerged as a stopgap solution for the woeful state of the nation following its defeat in the Second World War. With the United States (US) ultimately gaining full control over West Germany, East Germany increasingly became alienated towards it, as it went under the influence of the Soviet Union (USSR). West Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), rapidly grew into one of the most politically and economically influential nations in Europe representing the democratic interests of the US in the region, while East Germany, officially the ...

1. The Honecker joke scene presents Wiesler and his boss Grubitz in a conversation. Grubitz scorns Wiesler, who responds by stating that “Socialism must start somewhere.” This shows how the two different individuals view the issue on socialism after the joke on Erich. Erich was the East Germany leader, and during that time, making jokes about the political figures was classically prohibited. Those who made jokes about the leaders were jailed. Grubitz after the joke informs Stigler that he has committed political litigation, and that would cost his career. After a moment of silence, he bursts out laughing and states ...

Abstract

Otto von Bismarck in the nineteenth century formed the only German state that three quarters of a century later, has been killed by his own unbridled audacity (Rose, 2013). Bismarck as the founder of the Reich announced that created new Germany is satisfied in its aspirations. But the successors of the first chancellor, and especially Kaiser Wilhelm II considered the Bismarck’s opinion modest and unworthy of a nation that costs more. Dissatisfied ambitions were the cause of both world wars, and that had brought to the German people nothing but misery and suffering. In 1945, the Germans were again forced ...

The history of Germany had a great impact on its current economic and political life. During the past century Germany was an active player in the international relations, which makes it difficult to track down all impacts and consequences of its policy in the past. In order to find out the impact of historical past we need to review its history from Bismarck’s unification of Germany. The unification of Germany was carried out by anti-democratic means on the Prussian militaristic basis. Its most important stages are: creation (after the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866) of the ...

Life in East Berlin was quite different from that of West Berlin. Most of the citizens of East Berlin saw the state as being illegitimate, it was artificial and as a puppet of the Stalin regime. They were very opposed to the enforcement of a single party state of the ruling Socialist Unity Party. They viewed the state of West Germany as being more attractive. Most of the East Germans commonly viewed the Socialist Unity Party as the Russian party not as a German party (Ross 25). However this was not the only aspect of life in East Germany, in fact life ...