The Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification.

• Author: Reimann, Mathias

The Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification. By Peter E. Quint. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1997. Pp. xi, 482. $75.

My first personal experience with the unification of my home country was an unlikely encounter in an unlikely place. In July 1990, I was strolling across the Ponte Vecchio in Florence when I saw something so bizarre that it stopped me in my tracks. At the southern end of the bridge, deep in the pedestrian zone -- off limits to automobiles -- and right in the middle of the tourist crowd, was a lonely car, occupied by four obviously disoriented people. It was not just any car but a small, drab, and amusingly antiquated vehicle puffing bluish smoke from a whining two-stroke engine. I barely trusted my eyes: it was a "Trabbi,"(1) the standard-issue East German automobile.

At this moment, I realized that the political landscape of Europe as I had known it no longer existed. In the world in which l grew up, citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) were not allowed to drive out of Eastern Europe, and they did not have the Western currency to pay for such an adventure. There were simply no "Trabbis" on this side of the iron curtain. But in the previous fall, the Berlin wall had come down suddenly and, just a few days before my encounter in Florence, West German currency had been introduced in the GDR. Apparently these East Germans grabbed the first Deutschmarks available, jammed into their tiny car, drove across the previously impassable border, and braved the high-speed race on Western freeways in their hopelessly underpowered vehicle to make a dream come true: to drive to Italy and see a world they knew only from postcards.

As I watched these visitors from another world struggling to find a way out of their predicament, I understood that complete unification would only be a matter of time. In the end, it came much more quickly than most people deemed possible.

1. A NATION REUNITED

   Peter Quint's The Imperfect Union(2) describes and analyzes how, after forty-one years of separation, the two Germanies became one again. The story began to unfold almost a decade ago and has since become part of history. In order to understand what the book is about, it will be helpful to summarize briefly the major events.(3)

   In the late 1980s, the economic and political crisis in Eastern Europe accelerated and deepened. As glasnost took hold and the USSR began to crumble, President Gorbachev informed the East German government that it could no longer depend on support from its mighty ally and would have to survive on its own. At this point, many GDR citizens sensed a historic opportunity to escape the communist regime. In late summer of 1989, in several Eastern European countries, East Germans attempted to break out by occupying West German embassies -- including the one in East Berlin -- requesting that they be taken to the West. On September 11, Hungary punched a hole in the iron curtain through which East Germans could escape when it broke rank with the Warsaw Pact states and opened its border with Austria. So many took advantage of the opportunity that the resulting hemorrhage threatened the very survival of the GDR.

   At the same time, within the country itself, opposition to the communist regime took to the streets. The official celebrations of the GDR's 40th anniversary in the fall of 1989 prompted mass demonstrations against the government. Without backing from the Soviet Union, the regime did not: dare quell the uprising and decided to yield. On October 18, long-time ruler Erich Honecker resigned and was replaced by the more moderate and reformist Egon Krenz. Yet, it turned out that all efforts to save the GDR -- mocked by English speakers as the "Gradually Disappearing Republic" -- in its current form had come too late. Desperately trying to relieve the mounting public pressure, the Krenz government opened the Berlin Wall late on the night of November 9, 1989. As East Germans flooded into the West, one huge celebration engulfed the whole city of Berlin.

   At this point, however, even among the Germans, few expected imminent reunification. In fact, it seemed likely that the GDR would survive for quite some time, albeit as a much more liberal and democratic state (pp. 19-20, 28). In December 1989, a "Round Table" of GDR leaders and public figures formed and began to work on constitutional reform, some members envisioning a completely new GDR constitution. Several measures gradually introducing democracy and pluralism were actually enacted in the following months (pp. 28-46).

   It was not until February and March 1990 that complete reunification was considered a serious possibility. This turning of the tide was supported by two generally parallel developments. One took place within the GDR. On March 18, the first free election of the Volkskammer, the East German parliament, was held. It was won by the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), which had governed the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) under Chancellor Helmut Kohl since 1982. This outcome demonstrated that the majority of the GDR population wanted unification with the FRG (p. 20). The new GDR government under Prime Minister Lothar de Maziere was a strangely ambivalent regime. On the one hand, it was the first -- and last -- freely elected GDR administration; on the other hand, it was largely dependent on its Western sister party, Kohl's CDU. Both parts of Germany were now essentially governed by the same party, the leadership of which pushed hard towards actual reunification.

   The second crucial development took place on the international level. In the spring of 1990, the Soviet leadership, itself under enormous economic and political pressure, indicated that it might tolerate German reunification. To be sure, such tolerance would come at a price. The Soviet government expected not only important political concessions but also considerable financial aid from Germany. Nevertheless, the path to unification was suddenly open and both German governments proceeded rapidly.

   On May 18, 1990, the FRG and the GDR signed the Treaty of Economic Union. When it took effect on July 1, the GDR began switching over to a Western capitalist market economy and introduced the Deutschmark as its official currency (pp. 56-64). Shops offering Western consumer goods sprang up almost overnight, and four adventurous GDR citizens embarked on a journey to Florence.

   Only a few weeks later, on August 23, 1990, the Volkskammer voted for the GDR to accede to the Federal Republic.(4) On August 31, representatives of both States signed the Unification Treaty. It was quickly ratified by both legislatures.

   In the meantime, the Two-Plus-Four negotiations, between the two German states and the four World War II allies, advanced toward the renunciation of the rights that the...