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Shift of definition of Normalcy
Shift in definition of “normalcy” (215)
1) Postwar Period- Regular life free from economic crisis, war, and occupation.
2) Ostpolitik (1970s)- “Normal relationships between the Federal Republic and GDR (acceptance of division).”
3) Collapse of Communism- “Overcome German division and resume being a normal nation-state in Europe. -
Period: to
Recivilization
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Collapse of Political Parties in the West
Western Parties began to fall in mid- 1980s
The Greens: valued peace over reunification- wanted neutrality
SPD (Egon Bahr & Jurgen Schmunde)- close Satzgitter office and recognize East Germany as a separate citizenship. “unity does not mean reunification” -
Democratic Awakening
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Opening of Berlin Wall
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Chancellor Kohl's Ten Point Plan
Chancellor Kohl’s “Ten Point Plan” included unification- France and Britain were not in favor of this
Fear of a “Fourth Reich”: “A German nation-state was immoral, because it had been discredited by Auschwitz; anti-Semitic, since racism still lingered.” (225) -
First Free Election
¾ favored unity -
“Two- Plus- Four- Treaty” (228)
1) Established that unified Germany will encompass the territories of the FRG, GDR, and all of Berlin.
2) Reaffirmed Bonn’s peace policy…drastic reduction in the size of the Bundeswehr to 370000 troops.
3) Soviet Union promised to withdraw its troops from East Germany by 1994.
4) Germany retained its right to choose alliances and stay in NATO.
5) Victorious powers dissolved ‘their rights and responsibilities,’ returning to unified Germany ‘full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs. -
Unification Day
Problem Areas of 1989-1990 (186-187)
1) “Protective function”- Totalitarianism theory- “’limits of dictatorship’ on ‘self-will’ of the governed”2) “Community function of civil society points to the implications of reconstitution the nation-state”- Possible ‘renationalization” &Responsibility of joining European Union and providing military aid 3) “Socialization functfunction’ of civil society- "one important measuring stick for the liberality of a democracy is how it deals with ‘others." -
Unification Celebration
“symbolized the transition from ‘normalization for normality.’” (229)