German Reconciliation

Report Outline
New Initiatives for European Detente
Rise of East Germany as Separate Power
Prospects of Ending German Deadlock

New Initiatives for European Detente

After almost a quarter-century of living apart, East Germans and West Germans are beginning to talk to each other officially about the possibility of formally recognizing this fact of life. The prospect of a reconciliation between the two Germanys—though not reunification—appeared brighter as the new decade began than perhaps at any time since the land was divided at the close of World War II by victorious Western and Russian armies.

A “regulated neighborliness” with East Germany is one aim of the new West German government of Chancellor Willy Brandt in its desire to establish normal relations with the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Bonn's “eastern policy” seems to coincide with Moscow's apparent desire for stability in Europe while there is anxiety along Russia's border with China and in the Middle East.

Brandt's Overtures and East German Reaction

But many obstacles remain in the quest for German reconciliation, as observers noted in the wording of Brandt's overtures to East Germany and the response of its head of state, Walter Ulbricht, Only a week after he became chancellor, Brandt said on Oct. 28, 1969, in a speech to the Bundestag, the West German lower house of parliament: “Twenty years after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany [West Germany] and the German Democratic Republic [East Germany], we must prevent a further growing apart of the German nation, so that we can come together in regulated neighborliness.”