The Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification

by Quint, Peter E.

• ISBN13: 9780691086569
• ISBN10: 0691086567
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-05-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

In the mid-summer of 1989 the German Democratic Republic-- known as the GDR or East Germany--was an autocratic state led by an entrenched Communist Party. A loyal member of the Warsaw Pact, it was a counterpart of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), which it confronted with a mixture of hostility and grudging accommodation across the divide created by the Cold War. Over the following year and a half, dramatic changes occurred in the political system of East Germany and culminated in the GDR's "accession" to the Federal Republic itself. Yet the end of Germany's division evoked its own new and very bitter constitutional problems.The Imperfect Uniondiscusses these issues and shows that they are at the core of a great event of political, economic, and social history. Part I analyzes the constitutional history of eastern Germany from 1945 through the constitutional changes of 1989-1990 and beyond to the constitutions of the re-created east German states. Part II analyzes the Unification Treaty and the numerous problems arising from it: the fate of expropriated property on unification; the unification of the disparate eastern and western abortion regimes; the transformation of East German institutions, such as the civil service, the universities, and the judiciary; prosecution of former GDR leaders and officials; the "rehabilitation" and compensation of GDR victims; and the issues raised by the fateful legacy of the files of the East German secret police. Part III examines the external aspects of unification.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	ix
CHAPTER 1 Introduction	3	(4)
PART I. FROM REVOLUTION TO ACCESSION: CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN EASTERN GERMANY	7	(94)
CHAPTER 2 The Background of German Unification	9	(6)
CHAPTER 3 Political Revolution in the GDR, 1989-1990	15	(7)
CHAPTER 4 Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Historical Background and the Round Table Draft	22	(13)
CHAPTER 5 Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Amending the Constitution	35	(12)
CHAPTER 6 Methods of Unification under the Basic Law	47	(9)
CHAPTER 7 The State Treaty: Currency and Economic Union	56	(9)
CHAPTER 8 The Final Months of the Volkskammer: Constitutional Problems of Accession and the First All-German Election	65	(8)
CHAPTER 9 Reconstitution of the Eastern Lander	73	(28)
PART II. THE UNIFICATION TREATY AND BEYOND	101	(144)
CHAPTER 10 The Unification Treaty and Amendment of the Basic Law	103	(21)
CHAPTER 11 The Fate of "Socialist Property": Restitution, Compensation, and the Work of the Treuhand	124	(30)
CHAPTER 12 The Unification of Abortion Law	154	(12)
CHAPTER 13 The Transformation of Eastern Institutions: The Civil Service, the Universities, and the Justice System	166	(28)
CHAPTER 14 Undoing the Past: Prosecution of GDR Leaders and Officials	194	(22)
CHAPTER 15 Undoing the Past: "Rehabilitation" and Compensation	216	(13)
CHAPTER 16 Confronting the Past: The Stasi Files	229	(16)
PART III. THE EXTERNAL CONSTITUTION	245	(72)
CHAPTER 17 The European Context of Unification and the Reserved Rights of the World War II Allies	247	(10)
CHAPTER 18 The Oder-NeiBe Line and the Map of Central Europe	257	(5)
CHAPTER 19 NATO and the Pact System	262	(6)
CHAPTER 20 The Two Plus Four Treaty and the Legal Status of Germany	268	(9)
CHAPTER 21 Sequels and Consequences of the Two Plus Four Treaty: Germany and the Structure of Central Europe	277	(9)
CHAPTER 22 United Germany and the Western Security System: The Future Role of German Armed Forces	286	(11)
CHAPTER 23 The Unification of Germany and the Unification of Europe: European Community and European Union	297	(14)
CHAPTER 24 Conclusion	311	(6)
NOTES	317	(148)
GLOSSARY OF FREQUENTLY USED TERMS	465	(2)
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS	467	(2)
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY	469	(6)
INDEX	475