20 Jahre neue Bundesrepublik: Kontinuitäten und Diskontinuitäten

The events of 1989 ended the Cold War, but the many issues left unresolved in Europe gave rise to new problems. For the countries of the former Soviet bloc, the problems loomed especially large as they sought to establish new political and economic systems, to forge new international alliances, and to gain entry into multilateral institutions (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union). For Western countries, the post–Cold War era was marked above all by a shift in attention away from Eastern Europe toward the Middle East, especially after September 2001. Yet one Western country confronted the problems of post-socialist transition not just in its backyard but in its living room: Germany. The reunification of Germany (some critics prefer to speak of annexation) meant that the challenges of structural adjustment and political transformation were handled mainly via the export of existing West German institutions and structures into the...