Inner German relations (German: Innerdeutsche Beziehungen), also known as the FRG–GDR relations, East Germany–West Germany relations or German–German relations (German: deutsch-deutsche Beziehungen), were the political, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and personal contacts between the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany or FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany or GDR) during the period of the West–East division in German history from the founding of East Germany on 7 October 1949 to Germany's reunification on 3 October 1990.
History
Postwar period
After the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht in May 1945, the anti-Hitler coalition between the United States and the Soviet Union broke up, and the idea of dividing the defeated country was from then on determined by the emerging East-West conflict (Cold War), which made the inner-German division part of the Iron Curtain dividing the world.
Important milestones of the gradual demarcation were the US-led Marshall Plan in 1947 as well as the Western currency reform and the Berlin blockade in 1948. The integration of the western occupation zones into the community of the Western powers and that of the eastern part into the system of the USSR finally accompanied the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany and that of the GDR in 1949.
Intensification of the Cold War
The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 led to an intensive debate in West Germany about German rearmament as a contribution to the defense of Western Europe within the framework of a European Defense Community (EDC). In 1955, the discussion culminated in Germany's accession to the Western military alliance NATO and the establishment of a defensive military, the Bundeswehr.
Economically, the young Federal Republic was bound to the Western powers on the basis of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which led to membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the predecessors of today's European Union (EU). Meanwhile, the GDR was incorporated into the Eastern Bloc: The GDR joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) and, with its newly formed National People's Army, the Warsaw Pact.
While Chancellor Konrad Adenauer succeeded in gradually bringing the Federal Republic of Germany closer to the West, reconciling the country with its European neighbors and finding a close partner in France, the citizens of the Federal Republic benefited from the Wirtschaftswunder, the upswing brought about by the market economy and integration in the Western European economy. The GDR government, on the other hand, relied on five-year plans and was slow to stabilize the economic situation. Due to the lack of free elections, the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) also lacked legitimacy, which led, among other things, to the popular uprising on June 17, 1953, which was ended with Soviet military help.
On August 13, 1961, the communist regime de facto separated Berlin into East and West Berlin by building the Berlin Wall. In this way, the GDR put a temporary end to the increasing exodus of its highly educated population and to any lingering hopes of reunification in the near future. The GDR was stabilized in this way. The people who remained in the GDR no longer had the option of going to the West via West Berlin and had to come to terms with the regime.
West German policy of détente
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the world was on the brink of nuclear war, marked the turning point of the Cold War, towards a policy of cooperation and détente, which also affected inner German relations through a changed political climate.
Nevertheless, the last time there was an all-German team was at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. At the same time, the GDR began to release political prisoners from its prisons.
The new Ostpolitik of the social-liberal government under Chancellor Willy Brandt played a decisive role in political rapprochement. Even in the period before the grand coalition that ended the Adenauer era in 1966, Brandt, together with his press spokesman Egon Bahr, had prepared these foreign policy guiding principles of the "policy of small steps," "change through rapprochement" and "human facilitation." Within just three years, after the symbolic prelude with the Erfurt summit in 1970, the Eastern treaties with Moscow, Warsaw and Prague, the four-power agreement on Berlin, the declaration of renunciation of force vis-à-vis the Eastern European states and the Basic Treaty with the GDR were concluded. For the first time, these treaties recognized that the sovereignty of each of the two states was limited to its national territory. Moreover, the independence and autonomy of each of the two states in its internal and external affairs were respected. Strategies such as the Hallstein Doctrine, which the GDR had responded to with the Ulbricht Doctrine, were overcome with Article 4 of the Basic Treaty, in which both sides assumed "that neither state can represent the other internationally or act on its behalf." Nevertheless, the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR did not recognize each other as independent states in the sense of international law. Therefore, no ambassadors were sent, but permanent representatives based with the respective governments in Bonn and East Berlin were exchanged, to whom the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations applied accordingly. On March 14, 1974, the Protocol on the Establishment was signed in Bonn. The Federal Chancellery, rather than the Foreign Office, was responsible for the Permanent Mission of the GDR in Bonn, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR was responsible for matters concerning the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany in East Berlin.
On May 7, 1974, Willy Brandt resigned after the Guillaume affair.
The policy of normalization nevertheless served to defuse the international East-West conflict and set the stage for the 1975 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and the talks on troop limitations. However, the "regulated coexistence" achieved cemented the status quo to such an extent that after more than 20 years in both German states, few still believed in the feasibility of reunification.
In the GDR, people reacted to the new developments in détente with a new demarcation in order to find their own state identity. With its willingness to engage in dialogue, the state had gained international recognition. In 1973, the Federal Republic and the GDR became members of the UN. Increasing economic performance also raised the nation's self-confidence, which led the Volkskammer in 1974 to delete the terms German nation and reunification from the constitution of the German Democratic Republic. The fact that too much independence could also lead to conflict with the Soviet Union had already been felt in 1971 by Walter Ulbricht, who had been replaced in his position as first secretary of the SED by Erich Honecker because of his refusal to reform.
1970 to 1988
Meanwhile, the two oil crises in the 1970s had a devastating effect on the GDR's economic development and led to discontent among the population, but not to structural reforms. Emerging opposition groups were repressed by the state security's tightly meshed network of informers in order to maintain political stability in the country.
A disruption of Inner German relations followed the Spiegel publication of the manifesto of the League of Democratic Communists of Germany (an alleged opposition group within the East German state party SED) in January 1978.
In the meantime, Inner German relations were strained by a new wave of international rearmament, culminating in the NATO Double-Track Decision and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Domestically, the government under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was no longer able to cope with these pressures and eventually paved the way for a CDU/CSU-FDP coalition under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. This coalition tried to maintain contact with the neighboring German state, which had been strengthened by Schmidt's visit to the GDR in 1981. It was also only possible to save the GDR from financial ruin solely through billions in loans from West Germany. The SED's refusal to apply to the GDR the reforms introduced by Soviet state and party leader Mikhail Gorbachev isolated the SED dictatorship to some extent even within the communist camp.
In 1986, Eisenhüttenstadt and Saarlouis established the first German-German town twinning.
Erich Honecker's visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987, which had been planned for years, was seen by both states as an important step in the development of German-German relations. The GDR leadership saw the event as the culmination of (de facto) recognition.
1989–90
Gorbachev's reform policy of Perestroika and Glasnost, along with the noticeable defusing of the international East-West conflict through binding disarmament agreements between the USSR and the USA, ultimately led to the revolutions in 1989 in the individual states of the Eastern Bloc as well.
Under Gorbachev's Sinatra Doctrine, Moscow no longer stood in the way of gradual democratization. Thus, Hungary was able to open its border with Austria in August 1989. With the onset of mass exodus, opposition movements within the GDR also gained new momentum, resulting in nationwide Monday demonstrations. On November 9, 1989, Günter Schabowski, a member of the Politburo of the SED, declared at a press conference that East German citizens were free to travel, whereupon all inner-German border crossings were opened. The fall of the Berlin Wall represented a high point in the course of the peaceful revolution.
The "window of history" that was now open for reunification moved all parties to act quickly: The SED offered the opposition roundtable talks, and Helmut Kohl single-handedly presented his ten-point program for overcoming the division of Germany. On May 18, 1990, the East German government under Lothar de Maizière, which had emerged from the People's Chamber elections on March 18, 1990, concluded the Treaty on the Creation of a Monetary, Economic and Social Union.
Taking into account the agreements and decisions of the victorious powers from the wartime and postwar periods, the Two-plus-Four Treaty of September 12, 1990, made final arrangements with regard to Germany. Accordingly, the united Germany comprises the territories of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and the whole of Berlin. It does not make any territorial claims over and above these against other states. Since then, the German question has been regarded as settled in political terms and under international law.
On August 23, 1990, the People's Chamber decided on the East German's accession to the Federal Republic of Germany in accordance with Article 23 of the Basic Law. On September 20, 1990, the German Bundestag and the Volkskammer (People's Chamber) approved the Unification Treaty with the required two-thirds majority. Effective October 3, 1990, the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia became states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since then, this day has been a public holiday in place of June 17 as German Unity Day.
On the night of October 2 to 3, 1990, the German federal flag was hoisted at the Reichstag building in Berlin.
The Federal Ministry for Internal German Relations was dissolved on January 1, 1991.
By organizational decree of the Federal Chancellor of October 27, 1998, a Federal Government Commissioner for the New States of Germany was appointed.
Even 30 years after the establishment of German unity, there are significant differences in the living conditions of the western and eastern states of Germany.
Treaties between West Germany and East Germany
Germany policy since the Grand Coalition of 1966 consisted primarily of seeking negotiations and treaties with the GDR. Since 1969, numerous treaties, agreements and arrangements have been concluded by SPD-led federal governments. Article 7 of the Basic Treaty provided for agreements in the fields of economics, science and technology, transportation, legal relations, postal and telecommunications services, health care, culture, sports, environmental protection and other areas.
These included: