German Unification and the Political Order - Thirty Years Later

• Main Author: Kocka, Jürgen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: DEU 2022
• Subjects: Geschichte; History; East Germany; German unification; NATO; collapse of communism in Eastern Europe; non-violent revolution; question of German sovereignty; allgemeine Geschichte; General History; Wiedervereinigung; DDR; Demokratisierung; politischer Wandel; politisches System; reunification; German Democratic Republic (GDR); democratization; political change; political system; Wandel; Nordpol*
• Online Access: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/77204; https://doi.org/10.48770/ker.2021.no1.6; http://hdl.handle.net/10419/248573

The history of the post-war division of Germany marks an important point of reference for inter-Korean politics. Both, South Korean president Roh Tae-woo’s Nordpolitik starting in 1988 and South Korean president Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy (The Reconciliation and Cooperation Policy Towards the North) of 1998 seem to have been directly inspired by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s so-called Neue Ostpolitik (New Eastern Policy) based on Egon Bahr’s concept of Wandel durch Annäherung (change through rapproachment), an early and perhaps decisive step in the de-escalation of the Cold War. Today, the peaceful transition of East Germany toward democracy and the subsequent German unification continue to provide a hopeful historical example that peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula may be attainable.