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German Politics: Patterns of Continuity and Change

Any national narrative has breaking points whose penetrating political, social and economic ramifications are felt and analysed until the next one emerges; no path leads back to the previous status quo. German unification posed one of those breaking points for both parts of Germany, even though the farreaching political and socio-economic transformation in the former German Democratic Republic at first appeared to be accompanied by West Germany’s political continuity. In fact, the radical transition in the East first delayed but then accelerated the need for change for the country as a whole. Soon, however, unification as a major focus of analysis receded into the background, symbolically closed by anniversary events, such as the 50-year celebration of the German Basic Law in 1999 and ten years of German unity in 2000. Scholarly attention shifted back to a no less urgent but more gradual transition that is driven by the interdependence of domestic, European and global developments that started in the 1980s and was briefly interrupted by the urgency of tasks associated with German unification.