Ostpolitik
Neue Ostpolitik (German for "new eastern policy"), or Ostpolitik (German: [ˈɔstpoliˌtiːk] ⓘ) for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and
Ostpolitik was an effort to break with the policies of the
The term Ostpolitik has since been applied to Pope Paul VI's efforts to engage Eastern European countries during the same period. The term Nordpolitik was also coined to describe similar rapprochement policies between North and South Korea beginning in the 1980s.
Intention
Following the end of World War II in 1945, Allied-occupied Germany was split into two states: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany). Initially, both governments claimed that they represented the entire German nation. However, the Federal Republic saw itself as the only German government with democratic legitimacy. Later, at the end of the 1960s, the communist government of the GDR claimed that there was no longer a common German nation as the GDR had established a socialist nation.
The
Even before his election as Chancellor, Willy Brandt, the Social Democratic mayor of West Berlin, argued for and pursued policies that would ease tensions between the two German states, generally in the interest of cross-border commerce. His proposed new Ostpolitik held that the Hallstein Doctrine did not help to undermine the communist government or even lighten the situation of the Germans in the GDR. Brandt believed that collaboration with the communists would foster German-German encounters and trade that would undermine the communist government over the long term.
Nonetheless, he stressed that his new Ostpolitik did not neglect the close ties of the Federal Republic with Western Europe and the United States or its membership in NATO. Indeed, by the late 1960s, the unwavering stance of the Hallstein Doctrine was actually considered[by whom?] detrimental to US interests; numerous American advisors and policymakers, most notably Henry Kissinger, urged Bonn to be more flexible. At the same time, other West European countries entered a period of more daring policy directed to the East.[4] When Brandt became Chancellor in 1969, the same politicians now feared a more independent German Ostpolitik, a new "Rapallo". France feared that West Germany would become more powerful after détente; Brandt ultimately resorted to pressuring the French government into endorsing his policy by holding out German financial contributions to the European Common Agricultural Policy.[5]
Realisation
The easing of tensions with the East envisioned by Ostpolitik necessarily began with the
The most controversial agreement was the Basic Treaty of 1972 with East Germany, establishing formal relations between the two German states for the first time since partition. The situation was complicated by the Federal Republic's longstanding claim to represent the entire German nation; Chancellor Brandt sought to smooth over this point by repeating his 1969 statement that although two states exist in Germany, they cannot regard one another as foreign countries.
The conservative
The Brandt government, a coalition of Social Democrats and Free Democrats, lost a number of MPs to the CDU opposition in protest over the Basic Treaty. In April 1972 it even seemed that opposition leader Rainer Barzel had enough support to become the new Chancellor, but in the parliamentary constructive vote of no confidence in April 1972 he came two votes short. It later emerged that the GDR had paid the two CDU deputies to vote against Barzel.[7] New general elections in November 1972 gave the Brandt government a victory, and on 11 May 1973 the Federal Parliament approved the Basic Treaty.
According to the Basic Treaty the Federal Republic and GDR accepted each other's de facto ambassadors, termed "permanent representatives" for political reasons. The mutual recognition opened the door for both states to join the United Nations, as the Federal Republic's claim to representing the entire German nation was essentially dropped by the act of recognizing its Eastern counterpart.
The CDU/CSU persuaded the FDP to defect from its coalition with the SPD in 1982, and thus CDU leader
Efflorescence
Policies similar to Ostpolitik
Pre-WW2 diplomacy
German states (Prussia and Saxony as well as unified Germany) have long faced the issues of co-existing with their eastern neighbours, whatever the differences in culture, beliefs and outlook.
Bismarck's complex foreign-policy balances included the 1887 Reinsurance Treaty with the German Empire's eastern neighbour, the Russian Empire.
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 defied ideological differences and established trade and geopolitical agreements between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Vatican diplomacy
Ostpolitik is also the name given to the policies of
South Korea
South Korea's 1980s policy of Nordpolitik was named in allusion to Ostpolitik.
A similar concept is Sunshine Policy, which is the main North Korea policies of the Democratic Party of Korea.
List of treaties
These are West German treaties that have Ostpolitik as a primary or secondary policy goal:
- Permit Agreement from 17 December 1963
- Treaty of Moscow from 12 August 1970
- Treaty of Warsaw from 7 December 1970
- Four Power Agreement on Berlin from 3 September 1971
- Transit Agreement from 17 December 1971
- Basic Treaty from 21 December 1972
- Treaty of Prague from 11 December 1973
Later agreements in the period of Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl (from 1982 through German reunification in 1990), although dealing with similar issues and having similar goals, are not considered to be Ostpolitik.
See also
- Détente
- Inner German relations
- Sunshine policy
- Territorial evolution of Germany
References
- ^ Schättle, Horst (December 1988). "Willy Brandt explains Egon Bahr's formula "Wandel durch Annäherung" of 1963". Zeugen des Jahrhunderts. Den norsk-tyske Willy Brandt-stiftelsen.
- ^ "Weltinnenpolitik der Wirtschaft". Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. December 2021.
- ^ "50 years Nobel Peace Prize". Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung d.ö.R. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
- ^ Helga Haftendorn: Deutsche Außenpolitik zwischen Selbstbeschränkung und Selbstbehauptung 1945–2000. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart / München 2001, p. 173–174.
- ^ Helga Haftendorn: Deutsche Außenpolitik zwischen Selbstbeschränkung und Selbstbehauptung 1945–2000. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart / München 2001, p. 181.
- ^ Helga Haftendorn: Deutsche Außenpolitik zwischen Selbstbeschränkung und Selbstbehauptung 1945–2000. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart / München 2001, p. 183–184.
- ^ Helga Haftendorn: Deutsche Außenpolitik zwischen Selbstbeschränkung und Selbstbehauptung 1945–2000. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt: Stuttgart / München 2001, p. 193.
- ^ "The Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Power of Individuals, and the Unpredictability of History". Foreign Policy Research Institute. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ Franzen 427.
Bibliography
- Clemens, Clay. Reluctant Realists: The CDU/CSU and West German Ostpolitik (1989)
- Fink, Carol, Bernd Schaefer: Ostpolitik, 1969–1974, European and Global Responses, (Cambridge University Press, 2009), ISBN 978-0-521-89970-3. excerpt
- Hofmann, Arne. The emergence of détente in Europe: Brandt, Kennedy and the formation of Ostpolitik. (Routledge, 2007).
- McAdams, A. James. "The New Diplomacy of the West German Ostpolitik." in The Diplomats, 1939-1979 (Princeton University Press, 2019) pp. 537–563. online