Author: Martin McCauleyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Berlin (Germany)
Languages : en
Pages : 30
Book Description
[2] p. inserted.
East Germany, the Dilemmas of Division
Author: Martin McCauleyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Berlin (Germany)
Languages : en
Pages : 30
Book Description
[2] p. inserted.
Between Containment and Rollback
Author: Christian F. OstermannPublisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503607631
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 566
Book Description
In the aftermath of World War II, American policymakers turned to the task of rebuilding Europe while keeping communism at bay. In Germany, formally divided since 1949,the United States prioritized the political, economic, and, eventually, military integration of the fledgling Federal Republic with the West. The extraordinary success story of forging this alliance has dominated our historical under-standing of the American-German relationship. Largely left out of the grand narrative of U.S.–German relations were most East Germans who found themselves caught under Soviet and then communist control by the post-1945 geo-political fallout of the war that Nazi Germany had launched. They were the ones who most dearly paid the price for the country's division. This book writes the East Germans—both leadership and general populace—back into that history as objects of American policy and as historical agents in their own right Based on recently declassified documents from American, Russian, and German archives, this book demonstrates that U.S. efforts from 1945 to 1953 went beyond building a prosperous democracy in western Germany and "containing" Soviet-Communist power to the east. Under the Truman and then the Eisenhower administrations, American policy also included efforts to undermine and "roll back" Soviet and German communist control in the eastern part of the country. This story sheds light on a dark-er side to the American Cold War in Germany: propaganda, covert operations, economic pressure, and psychological warfare. Christian F. Ostermann takes an international history approach, capturing Soviet and East German responses and actions, and drawing a rich and complex picture of the early East–West confrontation in the heart of Europe.
East Germany and the dilemmas fo detente
Author: Michael Joseph SodardoGermany and the Cold War
Author: Charles River Charles River EditorsPublisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781720606666
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 184
Book Description
*Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an 'Iron Curtain' has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow." - Winston Churchill, 1946 In the wake of World War II, the European continent was devastated, and the conflict left the Soviet Union and the United States as uncontested superpowers. This ushered in over 45 years of the Cold War, and a political alignment of Western democracies against the Communist Soviet bloc that produced conflicts pitting allies on each sides fighting, even as the American and Soviet militaries never engaged each other. Though it never got "hot," the Cold War was a tense era until the dissolution of the USSR, and nothing symbolized the split more than the Berlin Wall, which literally divided the city. Berlin had been a flashpoint even before World War II ended, and the city was occupied by the different Allies even as the close of the war turned them into adversaries. After the Soviets' blockade of West Berlin was prevented by the Berlin Airlift, the Eastern Bloc and the Western powers continued to control different sections of the city, and by the 1960s, East Germany was pushing for a solution to the problem of an enclave of freedom within its borders. West Berlin was a haven for highly-educated East Germans who wanted freedom and a better life in the West, and this "brain drain" was threatening the survival of the East German economy. The history of East Germany was a remarkable one, from its chaotic origins through its ossification as a Stalinist regime, until the country collapsed along with the Berlin Wall. Conversely, West Germany became one of the most stable and prosperous states in Europe during the Cold War. In many ways, the legacy of the split is still around today. The West Germans honestly confronted its brutal past and competently absorbed the far poorer Soviet satellite East Germany upon the reunification of Germany in 1990. This, of course, was not at all certain or obvious when the Allies beat back the Nazis at the end of the war in 1945, but far from making the same mistakes the Allied Powers made after World War I, the Allies opted to mold West Germany as a liberal, democratic state that would achieve prosperity and renounce war. With that said, Germany is still marked by the division, and in some respects, the old frontier still represents different expectations, social conditions, and worldviews. Germany and the Cold War: The History and Legacy of the Divide between East Germany and West Germany examines how the country was split, and how both countries marked the epicenter of the Cold War in the wake of World War II. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about Germany during the Cold War like never before.
East Germany and the Dilemmas of Detente
Author: Michael J. SodaroPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Germany (East)
Languages : en
Pages : 1618
Book Description
The Legacy of Division
Author: Ferenc LaczóPublisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9633863759
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Book Description
This volume examines the legacy of the East–West divide since the implosion of the communist regimes in Europe. The ideals of 1989 have largely been frustrated by the crises and turmoil of the past decade. The liberal consensus was first challenged as early as the mid-2000s. In Eastern Europe, grievances were directed against the prevailing narratives of transition and ever sharper ethnic-racial antipathies surfaced in opposition to a supposedly postnational and multicultural West. In Western Europe, voices regretting the European Union's supposedly careless and premature expansion eastward began to appear on both sides of the left–right and liberal–conservative divides. The possibility of convergence between Europe's two halves has been reconceived as a threat to the European project. In a series of original essays and conversations, thirty-three contributors from the fields of European and global history, politics and culture address questions fundamental to our understanding of Europe today: How have perceptions and misperceptions between the two halves of the continent changed over the last three decades? Can one speak of a new East–West split? If so, what characterizes it and why has it reemerged? The contributions demonstrate a great variety of approaches, perspectives, emphases, and arguments in addressing the daunting dilemma of Europe's assumed East–West divide.
Wartime Origins of the East-West Dilemma Over Germany
Author: John L. SnellPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
Study of wartime and postwar policy of the Allies and Russia concerning the future of Germany, with analysis of the Morgenthau plan, and the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
East Germany, a Country Study
Author: Eugene K. KeefePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Germany (East)
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
Author: Feiwel KupferbergPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138516830
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Most public debate on reunited Germany has emphasized economic issues such as the collapse of East German industry, mass unemployment, career difficulties, and differences in wages and living standards. The overwhelming difficulty resulting from reunification, however, is not persisting economic differences but the internal cultural divide between East and West Germans, one based upon different moral values in the two Germanies. The invisible wall that has replaced the previous, highly visible territorial division of the German nation is rooted in issues of the past-the Nazi past as well as the German Democratic Republic past. In emphasizing economic differences, the media and academics have avoided dealing with typically German cultural traits. These include the psychological posture of West Germany, which emphasized not differences between East and West but the break with Germany's Nazi past. The adversarial posture of certain professional groups in East Germany towards the liberal and democratic values of West Germany have also been an obstacle. Reviewing the problems accompanying reunification, chapter 1 explores German culture and history and the moral lessons evolved from the Nazi past. Chapter 2 focuses on the East-West mindset and how differences in attitude affect efforts to adapt to reunification. Chapter 3 discusses the simulated break with Nazi Germany in the German Democratic Republic. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 analyze the roots of the adversary posture of the professional groups in East Germany towards the values of the Berlin Republic. Chapter 7 demonstrates the strong presence of inherited, typically German cultural traits among East Germans, such as a lack of individualism, suspicion of strangers, and obedience to authority. Chapter 8 documents the extent to which a right-wing extremist culture has remained latent in Eastern Germany. Chapter 9 documents the extent to which moral reasoning in the GDR relieves the individual of any kind of responsibility for the actions of the state, reproducing the way ordinary Germans rationalized their participation in the Nazi regime immediately after World War II. Chapter 10 concludes with an overview of the historical and sociological factors revolving around the discussion of Nazi Germany, the GDR and inner unification.This volume will be important for historians, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, and a general public interested in Germany's reunification.
East Germany
Author: Ian WallacePublisher: Oxford, England ; Santa Barbara, Calif. : Clio Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description