The Imperfect Union : : Constitutional Structures of German Unification / / Peter E. Quint.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Quint, Peter E.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2012]; ©1997
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (496 p.) :; 1 map

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 Union discusses 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

Frontmatter -- Contents -- PREFACE -- CHAPTER 1. Introduction -- PART I. From Revolution to Accession: Constitutional Change in Eastern Germany -- CHAPTER 2. The Background of German Unification -- CHAPTER 3. Political Revolution in the GDR, 1989-1990 -- CHAPTER 4. Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Historical Background and the Round Table Draft -- CHAPTER 5. Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Amending the Constitution -- CHAPTER 6. Methods of Unification under the Basic Law -- CHAPTER 7. The State Treaty: Currency and Economic Union -- CHAPTER 8. The Final Months of the Volkskammer: Constitutional Problems of Accession and the First All-German Election -- CHAPTER 9. Reconstitution of the Eastern Länder -- PART II. The Unification Treaty and Beyond -- CHAPTER 10. The Unification Treaty and Amendment of the Basic Law -- CHAPTER 11. The Fate of "Socialist Property": Restitution, Compensation, and the Work of the Treuhand -- CHAPTER 12. The Unification of Abortion Law -- CHAPTER 13. The Transformation of Eastern Institutions: The Civil Service, the Universities, and the Justice System -- CHAPTER 14. Undoing the Past: Prosecution of GDR Leaders and Officials -- CHAPTER 15. Undoing the Past: "Rehabilitation" and Compensation -- CHAPTER 16. Confronting the Past: The Stasi Files -- PART III. The External Constitution -- CHAPTER 17. The European Context of Unification and the Reserved Rights of the World War II Allies -- CHAPTER 18. The Oder-Neiße Line and the Map of Central Europe -- CHAPTER 19. NATO and the Pact System -- CHAPTER 20. The Two Plus Four Treaty and the Legal Status of Germany -- CHAPTER 21. Sequels and Consequences of the Two Plus Four Treaty: Germany and the Structure of Central Europe -- CHAPTER 22. United Germany and the Western Security System: The Future Role of German Armed Forces -- CHAPTER 23. The Unification of Germany and the Unification of Europe: European Community and European Union -- CHAPTER 24. Conclusion -- NOTES -- GLOSSARY OF FREQUENTLY USED TERMS -- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX