Germany's Division and Reunification: A Historical Analysis

Germany's Division After World War II

In protest, the Soviets closed the entrances to Berlin, except by air, a means by which the U.S. supplied the population for eleven months. That operation swayed much of the population in favor of the Western model. On May 23, a Parliamentary Council endorsed the Bonn Basic Law, following the authorization of the Allies. Thus, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was born. On October 7, a provisional People's House declared the birth of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The RFA would be organized as a parliamentary democracy. The Basic Law combined the information marked by the victorious powers, the recent experience of the Weimar Republic and Nazism, and divided the territory into two parts.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR)

On the other hand, the GDR was organized as a socialist democracy, multi-party but with a single electoral list, and where power actually belonged to the only authorized Marxist-Leninist party, the German Socialist Unity Party, a result of the forced merger in 1946 in the Soviet occupation zone of the SPD and the German Communist Party. The GDR had a deficit of legitimacy shortly after birth. In 1953, there were uprisings in much of its territory, where workers demanded better working conditions and wages, and greater democracy. The uprising was harshly repressed.

The GDR's Legitimacy Crisis

The legitimacy of the GDR failed in the four areas where legitimacy was set in the European area of Western tradition, i.e., it was unable to achieve the consent of its citizens:

• Neither as a nation-state, national issues were the same that had always affected Germany, with the aggravating circumstance that it now had to justify its existence as a separate state.
• Neither as a rule of law, it was broken from the moment that there was a division of powers and party levels overlapped with similar levels of the State, being really the party's decision-making bodies.
• Nor as a democratic state, the actual forms of participation were undermined by the de facto monopoly of the SED (Socialist Unity Party).
• Neither as a social state. While their standard of living was the highest in the Eastern countries, two factors undermined their legitimate potential: since the mid-seventies that standard of living was possible thanks to loans from the West, and citizens compared with its neighbors in Germany and not the other countries. Soviet tutelage also felt in the mood let citizen, constantly monitored. The popular response was to build a society of niches where people took refuge in their private lives.

The Path to Reunification

In October 1990, the GDR would disappear, joining the RFA, building on the mechanisms provided for that purpose by the Basic Law. The process happened so fast. From 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev held the position of the CPSU General Secretary, a reformer who knew the exhaustion of the Soviet model and made changes in the interest of trying to save socialism. When perestroika (restructuring) offered the possibility of change, and glasnost (openness) allowed to rename the existing reality, the lack of legitimacy in the GDR was translated into collective action opposing the regime. The three elements to achieve stability in the GDR (welfare, indoctrination, and repression) had lost power in 1989, especially the latter. In August of that year, voice and exit mechanisms were launched in response to dissatisfaction that produced the regime. The flight took shape out of the country and the occupation of embassies in East Germany, while the voice did increase the number of attendees for illegal demonstrations called by opposition groups and the Evangelical Church.

The Turning Point: Rosa Luxemburg's Legacy

The absence of repression and neglect of the main demands increased the number of those attending the demonstrations. A turning point had occurred in 1988, on the occasion of the official event held annually on January 17 in memory of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1918. Apart from the authorities, many banners with a forgotten phrase of Rosa officially unleashed the storm: "Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently." Arrest, detention, exile, ostracism, and so on ensued. The popular response was swift, with the solidarity of the East and West, artists, and all groups.