UCSB Hist 133C, L 26:
Issues of Unification
by Prof. Marcuse, March 8, 2004

What were the costs & benefits of the particular process of unification?

• Administrative
• periodization
• Unification issues: stasi, …

Administrative

• Wed: student presentations? (extra credit)
• Final exam: what kind? (handout Wed.) [word-limited take-home]
• Papers back … when?
• Q10 Wed. [actually Friday]

Periodization of Revolution

• Fulbrook:
  Aug 26-Oct. 9-Nov. 9 -- "gentle revolution"
  Nov. 9-Dec. 31-Mar. 18 -- "deflected rev."
• Goals:
  May-Oct. 9: reform within existing system
  Oct. 9-Dec.11: democratic socialism ("3rd way")
  Dec. 11-Mar. 18: union with West

The Stasi Files: Building democracy after dictatorship

• 85,000 official employees
• 100,000s of "inofficial coworkers"
• files on 4 mio. East Germans + 2mio. West
• Jan. 15, 1990: occupation of E. Berlin office
• March 1990: East-CDU candidate implicated
• August-Sept. 1990: where do the files go?
• Who should get to see what??
• Consequences for employees & coworkers?

Steps to Unification

• top-level decision: 4+2 talks
  Feb. 13: Ottawa "roadmap"
  May 5: Bonn (May 18: German-German treaty)
  June 22: Berlin (June 21: guarantee Poland border)
  July 17: Paris (with Poland; Germany in NATO)
  Sept. 12: Moscow (sovereignty treaty signed)
• March 18: national election (W. German infl.)
  May 6: local
• July 1: currency reform
• Aug. 23: GDR chamber: Art. 23 vs. Art. 146
• Oct. 3; Oct. 14: new state-level elections

Unification:Two Models

Issues

• Abortion rights (paragraph 218)
• West: by "indication" only (medical, social)
• East: on demand during first 3 months
• Economic consequences (textbook p. 343):
• investment (property rights)
• women in labor force
• tourism
• Immigration & citizenship: two models
• ius soli: law of the land (US, Canada)
• ius sanguinis: law of the blood (Germany)

Issues: Immigration

• Immigration & citizenship
• 1999 statistics (foreign+German)
• to Germany: 674,000+200,000
• from: 556,000+116,000
• net into: 118,000+ 84,000
• "dynamic" pension system needs:
• 2000: 100 workers to 40 retirees
• 2050: 100 workers to 75 retirees
• total population: 82 mio. shrinking to 65 mio.
• needed: 140,000/year til 2020; or 600,000 /2050