The Rush To German Unity

Download or read book The Rush to German Unity written by Konrad Hugo Jarausch and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bringing down of the Berlin Wall is one of the most vivid images and historic events of the late twentieth century. The reunification of Germany has transformed the face of Europe. In one stunning year, two separate states with clashing ideologies, hostile armies, competing economies, and incompatible social systems merged into one. The speed and extent of the reunification was so great that many people are still trying to understand the events. Initial elation has given way to the realities and problems posed in reuniting two such different systems.The Rush to German Unity presents a clear historical reconstruction of the confusing events. It focuses on the dramatic experiences of the East German people but also explores the decisions of the West German elite. Konrad H. Jarausch draws on the rich sources produced by the collapse of the GDR and on the public debate in the FRG. Beginning with vivid media images, the text probes the background of a problem, traces its treatment and resolution and then reflects on its implications.Combining an insider's insights with an outsider's detachment, the interpretation balances the celebratory and the catastrophic views. The unification process was democratic, peaceful and negotiated. But the merger was also bureaucratic, capitalistic and one-sided. Popular pressures and political manipulation combined to create a rush to unity that threatened to escape control. The revolution moved from a civic rising to a national movement and ended up as reconstruction from the outside. An ideal source for general readers and students, The Rush to German Unity explores whether solving the old German problem has merely created new difficulties.

Download or read book The Rush to German Unity written by Konrad H. Jarausch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994-02-24 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bringing down of the Berlin Wall is one of the most vivid images and historic events of the late twentieth century. The reunification of Germany has transformed the face of Europe. In one stunning year, two separate states with clashing ideologies, hostile armies, competing economies, and incompatible social systems merged into one. The speed and extent of the reunification was so great that many people are still trying to understand the events. Initial elation has given way to the realities and problems posed in reuniting two such different systems. The Rush to German Unity presents a clear historical reconstruction of the confusing events. It focuses on the dramatic experiences of the East German people but also explores the decisions of the West German elite. Konrad H. Jarausch draws on the rich sources produced by the collapse of the GDR and on the public debate in the FRG. Beginning with vivid media images, the text probes the background of a problem, traces its treatment and resolution and then reflects on its implications. Combining an insider's insights with an outsider's detachment, the interpretation balances the celebratory and the catastrophic views. The unification process was democratic, peaceful and negotiated. But the merger was also bureaucratic, capitalistic and one-sided. Popular pressures and political manipulation combined to create a rush to unity that threatened to escape control. The revolution moved from a civic rising to a national movement and ended up as reconstruction from the outside. An ideal source for general readers and students, The Rush to German Unity explores whether solving the old German problem has merely created new difficulties.

Download or read book Uniting Germany written by Konrad Hugo Jarausch and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1994 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unification of Germany is the most important change in Central Europe in the last four decades. Understanding this rapid and unforeseen development has raised old fears as well as inspired new hopes. In order to make sense out of the bewildering process and to help both expert and lay readers understand the changes and consequences, an American historian and a German social scientist put together this collection of central texts on German unification, the first of its kind. An invaluable reference tool.

Download or read book Shattered Past written by Konrad H. Jarausch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-24 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Broken glass, twisted beams, piles of debris--these are the early memories of the children who grew up amidst the ruins of the Third Reich. More than five decades later, German youth inhabit manicured suburbs and stroll along prosperous pedestrian malls. Shattered Past is a bold reconsideration of the perplexing pattern of Germany's twentieth-century history. Konrad Jarausch and Michael Geyer explore the staggering gap between the country's role in the terrors of war and its subsequent success as a democracy. They argue that the collapse of Communism, national reunification, and the postmodern shift call for a new reading of the country's turbulent development, one that no longer suggests continuity but rupture and conflict. Comprising original essays, the book begins by reexamining the nationalist, socialist, and liberal master narratives that have dominated the presentation of German history but are now losing their hold. Treated next are major issues of recent debate that suggest how new kinds of German history might be written: annihilationist warfare, complicity with dictatorship, the taming of power, the impact of migration, the struggle over national identity, redefinitions of womanhood, and the development of consumption as well as popular culture. The concluding chapters reflect on the country's gradual transition from chaos to civility. This penetrating study will spark a fresh debate about the meaning of the German past during the last century. There is no single master narrative, no Weltgeist, to be discovered. But there is a fascinating story to be told in many different ways.

Download or read book After The Wall written by John Borneman and published by . This book was released on 1991-03-18 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the disorientation and dissolution caused by German reunification, describing how democratic reform has become consumer frenzy and offering portraits of individuals that are both exhilarating and tragic.

Download or read book Germany's New Politics written by David P. Conradt and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four years after unification, in the so called 'super election year' of 1994, there were no less than nineteen elections in Germany, culminating in the Bundestag vote on October 16th. This book analyzes the elections, which reveal the state of German unity and the interplay of new forces in post-Cold War Europe, placing them in the wider context of political and economic developments in Germany in the 1990s. (Modern German Studies vol.1).

Download or read book German Unification and the Union of Europe written by Jeffrey Anderson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-06-10 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the effects of Germany's unification in 1990 on its policies toward the European Union.