The Imperfect Union (ebook)

Argumento de The Imperfect Union (ebook)

In the mid-summer of 1989 the German Democratic Republic-- known as the GDR or East Germany--was an autocratic state led by an entrenched Communist Party. A loyal member of the Warsaw Pact, it was a counterpart of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), which it confronted with a mixture of hostility and grudging accommodation across the divide created by the Cold War. Over the following year and a half, dramatic changes occurred in the political system of East Germany and culminated in the GDR's "accession" to the Federal Republic itself. Yet the end of Germany's division evoked its own new and very bitter constitutional problems. The Imperfect Union discusses these issues and shows that they are at the core of a great event of political, economic, and social history.

Part I analyzes the constitutional history of eastern Germany from 1945 through the constitutional changes of 1989-1990 and beyond to the constitutions of the re-created east German states. Part II analyzes the Unification Treaty and the numerous problems arising from it: the fate of expropriated property on unification; the unification of the disparate eastern and western abortion regimes; the transformation of East German institutions, such as the civil service, the universities, and the judiciary; prosecution of former GDR leaders and officials; the "rehabilitation" and compensation of GDR victims; and the issues raised by the fateful legacy of the files of the East German secret police. Part III examines the external aspects of unification.

"Quint has written a book that will surely rank as the definitive work on the constitutional issues arising from German reunification."--Choice

"We need a new literature to understand this new Germany, and Mr. Quint's book rightfully takes a prominent place among these works."--Walter Laqueur, The Wall Street Journal0PREFACE ix
CHAPTER I Introduction 3
PART I. FROM REVOLUTION TO ACCESSION: CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN EASTERN GERMANY 7
CHAPTER 2 The Background of German Unification 9
CHAPTER 3 Political Revolution in the GDR, 1989-1990 15
CHAPTER 4 Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Historical Background and the Round Table Draft 22
CHAPTER 5 Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Amending the Constitution 35
CHAPTER 6 Methods of Unification under the Basic Law 47
CHAPTER 7 The State Treaty: Currency and Economic Union 56
CHAPTER 8 The Final Months of the Volkskammer: Constitutional Problems of Accession and the First All-German Election 65
CHAPTER 9 Reconstitution of the Eastern Lander 73
PART H. THE UNIFICATION TREATY AND BEYOND
CHAPTER 10 The Unification Treaty and Amendment of the Basic Law 103
CHAPTER 11 The Fate of "Socialist Property": Restitution, Compensation, and the Work of the Treuhand 124
CHAPTER 12 The Unification of Abortion Law 154
CHAPTER 13 The Transformation of Eastern Institutions: The Civil Service, the Universities, and the Justice System 166
CHAPTER 14 Undoing the Past: Prosecution of GDR Leaders and Officials 194
CHAPTER 15 Undoing the Past: "Rehabilitation" and Compensation 216
CHAPTER 16 Confronting the Past: The Stasi Files 229
PART III. THE EXTERNAL CONSTITUTION 245
CHAPTER 17 The European Context of Unification and the Reserved Rights of the World War II Allies 247
CHAPTER 18 The Oder-Neisse Line and the Map of Central Europe 257
CHAPTER 19 NATO and the Pact System 262
CHAPTER 20 The Two Plus Four Treaty and the Legal Status of Germany 268
CHAPTER 21 Sequels and Consequences of the Two Plus Four Treaty: Germany and the Structure of Central Europe 277
CHAPTER 22 United Germany and the Western Security System: The Future Role of German Armed Forces 286
CHAPTER 23 The Unification of Germany and the Unification of Europe: European Community and European Union 297
CHAPTER 24 Conclusion 311
NOTES 317
GLOSSARY OF FREQUENTLY USED TERMS 465
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 467
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 469
INDEX 475