Collapse of a Closed Society: The End of East Germany

Zusatztext

Scientific Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - Political Systems - History, Hong Kong Baptist Universitiy, language: English, abstract: The paper was addressed to an East-Asian audience conscious of national unification demands in their own region, familiar with life in an authoritarian system, and aware of criticism of Western political freedoms. Against this backdrop, it interprets the collapse of the German Democratic Republic in summer/fall 1989 within the framework of Karl Poppers and Ralf Dahrendorfs closed society paradigm. It concludes that the East German system imploded because of pervasive popular disillusion in light of growing contradictions between official rhetoric and actual economic failure. It was not in the interest of the East German population to reform the existing structures but to pursue a quick path towards reunification with the West. Reunification demands were thus not primarily based on patriotic (or nationalist) discourse but on rational political choice.

Weitere Details