Abstract
In early 1989 Germany comprised two republics and a battered, divided former capital, part of which was a western enclave deep in the heart of the German Democratic Republic. Large contingents of American, British, French and Soviet troops were quartered in Berlin and also throughout the territories of the two states. The GDR was headed by the 76-year-old General Secretary Erich Honecker of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), who had been at the top for nearly 18 years. His counterpart in the Federal Republic of Germany was Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a man of 58 who had then been in office for over six years but had, dare one say it, bigger aspirations.
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Notes and References
For example, H. Joas and M. Kohli (eds), Der Zusammenbruch der DDR: Soziologische Analysen (Frankfurt am Main, 1993) pp. 9 and 49–50.
See their respective memoirs: E. Krenz, Wenn Mauern fallen: Die friedliche Revolution: Vorgeschichte-Ablauf-Auswirkungen (Vienna, 1990);
G. Schabowski, Der Absturz (Berlin, 1991).
The Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: East Germany 4 (London, 1988), pp. 3–4.
The Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Report: East Germany 1 (London, 1989), pp. 3–4.
G. Schabowksi, Das Politbüro: Ende eines Mythos: Eine Befragung, F. Sieren and L. Koehne (eds) (Reinbek, 1990);
H. Modrow, Aufbruch und Ende (Hamburg, 1991);
H. Modrow, Ich wollte ein neues Deutschland (Munich, 1999).
More recalcitrant are: G. Mittag, Um Jeden Preis: Im Spannungsfeld zweier Systeme (Berlin, 1991)
A. Mitter and S. Wolle (eds.), Ich liebe euch doch alle! Befehle und Lageberichte des MfS Januar-November 1989 (Berlin, 1990).
J. Kopstein, The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945–1989 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1997), pp. 78, 87–8;
See further comments in J. Osmond, ‘The End of the GDR: Revolution and Voluntary Annexation’ in M. Fulbrook (ed.), German History since 1800 (London, 1997), pp. 456–7.
Probably the best currently in English are: K. H. Jarausch, The Rush to German Unity (Oxford, 1994);
and C. S. Maier, Dissolution: the Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany (Princeton, 1997).
For overviews of the literature, see: J. Osmond, ‘From Tubby and Biffy to Honecker and Kohl’, Times Higher Education Supplement, 1220 (22 March 1996), 26–7;
M. Fulbrook, ‘Re-Reading Recent (East) German History’, German History, 17 (1999), pp. 271–84.
For a chronology, a directory of people, places and organisations, and political and economic tables, see J. Osmond, German Reunification: a Reference Guide and Commentary (Harlow, 1992), pp. 3–14 and 201–55.
A few of many are: S. Meuschel, Legitimation und Parteiherrschaft: Zum Paradox von Stabilität und Revolution in der DDR (Frankfurt am Main, 1992);
M. D. Hancock and H. A. Welsh (eds), German Unification: Process and Outcomes (Boulder, 1994);
J. Habermas, A Berlin Republic: Writings on Germany (Lincoln, 1997).
For example H.-J. Maaz, Behind the Wall: the Inner Life of Communist Germany (New York, 1995);
G. Rein, Die protestantische Revolution 1987–1990: Ein deutsches Lesebuch (Berlin, 1990).
Maaz, Behind the Wall and Das Gestürzte Volk: Die Verunglückte Einheit (Berlin, 1991).
J. Gauck, Die Stasi-Akten: Das unheimliche Erbe der DDR (Reinbek, 1991), p. 25.
A. Mitter and S. Wolle, Untergang auf Raten: Unbekannte Kapitel der DDR-Geschichte (Munich, 1993).
See for example, Bärbel Bohley’s distrust of Wolfgang Schnur and Rainer Eppelmann as conveyed in D. Philipsen, We Were the People: Voices from East Germany’s Revolutionary Autumn of 1989 (Durham, NC, 1993), pp. 297–9.
P. Robinson, Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 77–8.
This is a process under investigation in local studies. The issue is discussed in the review article by J. Grix, ‘1989 Revisited: Getting to the Bottom of the GDR’s Demise’, German Politics, 6, 2 (1997), pp. 190–8.
For a detailed account of the meetings of the round table, see U. Thaysen, Der Runde Tisch. Oder: Wo blieb das Volk? (Opladen, 1990).
Malcolm Lowry to Downie Kirk, 13 December 1950, quoted in G. Bowker, Pursued by Furies: a Life of Malcolm Lowry (London, 1993), p. 477.
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© 2001 Jonathan Osmond
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Osmond, J. (2001). Yet Another Failed German Revolution? The German Democratic Republic 1989–90. In: Donald, M., Rees, T. (eds) Reinterpreting Revolution in Twentieth-Century Europe. Themes in Focus. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-4026-1_8
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