Description
Book Synopsis The system transformation after German unification in 1990 constituted an experiment on an unprecedented scale. At no point in history had one state attempted to redesign another without conquest, bloodshed or coercion but by treaties, public policy and bureaucratic processes. Unification was achieved by erasing the eastern political and economic model. However, in the meantime it has become clear that the same cannot be said about social transformation. On the contrary, social and cultural attitudes and differentiation have continued and resulted in deep divisions between West and East Germany. After unification, the injustices of politics seemed to have been replaced, in the eyes of most former GDR citizens, by unexpected injustices in the personal spheres of ordinary people who lost their jobs and faced unknown realities of deprivation and social exclusion.
These are the main concerns of the contributors to this volume. Incorporating new research findings and published data, they focus on key aspects of economic, political, and social transformation in eastern Germany and compare, through case studies, each area with developments in the west.
Trade Review "this book illuminates successfully the flawed unification process by stringing together a variety of different aspects of society, making the divided nature of Germany today unambiguously clear."
H-Net Reviews
Table of Contents List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
United and Divided: Germany since 1990: An Introduction
Mike Dennis and Eva Kolinsky
Chapter 1. Constructing East Germany: Interpretations of GDR History since Unification
Mike Dennis
Chapter 2. Financing German Unity: Challenges, Methods and Longer-term Consequences
Christopher Flockton
Chapter 3. The Party of Democratic Socialism as Political Voice of East Germany
Peter Barker
Chapter 4. Challenges to Rechtsstaatlichkeit in the Berlin Republic: The Kohl Affair and the Stasi Legacy
Anthony Glees
Chapter 5. Economic Restructuring from Below? The Role of Small and Medium-sized Business in East Germany since 1990
Christopher Flockton
Chapter 6. Challenges of Participation in German Higher Education – an East-West Comparison
Rosalind M.O. Pritchard
Chapter 7. Transformation and Injustice: Women in East German Universities
Marianne Kriszio
Chapter 8. Meanings of Migration in East Germany and the West German Model
Eva Kolinsky
Chapter 9. Between Integration and Exclusion: Jewish Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Germany
Karin Weiss
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Glossary
Index
