Since the attempt to unite two parts of a country divided for four decades yielded contradictory results, this volume provides a balance sheet of the successes and failures of German unification during the first quarter century after the fall of the Wall. Five themes, ranging from the transfer of political institutions to the economic crisis, from the social upheaval for women’s movements to the cultural efforts at interpretation and the changes in foreign policy have been chosen to illustrate the complexity of the process. The contributors represent a broad interdisciplinary mix of political scientists, historians, and literary scholars. Because personal experiences tend to color scholarly judgments, they are drawn from West Germany, East Germany, and the United States. This collection is the most up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of the political, social, and intellectual consequences of the efforts to regain German unity.

Since the attempt to unite two parts of a country divided for four decades yielded contradictory results, this volume provides a balance sheet of the successes and failures of German unification during the first quarter century after the fall of the Wall. Five themes, ranging from the transfer of political institutions to the economic crisis, from the social upheaval for women’s movements to the cultural efforts at interpretation and the changes in foreign policy have been chosen to illustrate the complexity of the process. The contributors represent a broad interdisciplinary mix of political scientists, historians, and literary scholars. Because personal experiences tend to color scholarly judgments, they are drawn from West Germany, East Germany, and the United States. This collection is the most up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of the political, social, and intellectual consequences of the efforts to regain German unity.

Preface

Introduction: Growing Together? A Tentative Balance Sheet of German Unification
Konrad H. Jarausch

PART I: POLITICAL PROCESSES

Chapter 1.Two Decades of Unity: Continuity and Change in Political Institutions
Gero Neugebauer

Chapter 2. United, Yet Separate: A View from the East
Heinrich Bortfeld

Chapter 3.Debates and Perceptions about Unification: The Centrality of Discourse
Helga Welsh

PART II: ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Chapter 4. Institutional Coping: The Collapse of the East German Economy and the Role of the Treuhandanstalt 1989-1990
Wolfgang Seibel

Chapter 5. East Germany 1989 to 2010:  A Fragmented Development
Rainer Land

Chapter 6. Getting Even: East German Economic Underperformance after Unification
Jonathan Zatlin

PART III: SOCIAL UPHEAVAL

Chapter 7. 1989 and the Crisis of Feminist Politics
Ute Gerhard

Chapter 8. Womens' Movements in East Germany: Are We in Europe Yet?
Ingrid Miethe

Chapter 9. Feminist Encounters: Germany, the EU and Beyond
Myra Marx Ferree

PART IV: CULTURAL CONFLICT

Chapter 10.After the GDR? Restoring Literature’s Standing
Klaus Scherpe

Chapter 11. Unity and Difference: Some Reflections on a Disparate Field
Frank Hörnigk

Chapter 12. The Painful Exit from the Cold War: East German Writers and the Demise of the Reading Culture
Frank Trommler

PART V: INTERNATIONAL NORMALIZATION

Chapter 13. The 'Normalization' of Humanitarian and Military Missions Abroad
Beate Neuss

Chapter 14. German Foreign Policy after 1990: Some Critical Remarks
Erhard Crome

Chapter 15. 'To Deploy or not to Deploy:' The Erratic Evolution of German Foreign Policy since Unification
Andrew Port

Notes on Contributors
Bibliography
Index