I've been spending the last several weeks trying to come up with a scenario that allows the GDR to outlive the fall of communism(and the fall of the Soviet Union) in 1989. I think it would take a lot of breaks for this to happen, and the sheer pressure for unity with their Western breathren without the USSR holding them hostage to fraternal socialist unity would probably trump everything I've written here.
First off, lets have Brezhnev die earlier, let's say in 1981. Next, pass Chernyenko and Andropov and go directly to Gorbachev. Like Brezhnev, Honecker dies soon after in 1982. With the chance, Gorbachev decides to make the GDR a laboratory for his reforms. He appoints a reform minded communist (Hans Modrow?) to run East Germany.
With the GDR in debt, the new leadership embarks on an East German version of Perestroika which western journalists dub "Ostpolitik on Steroids".
The key elements of the new plan:
-GDR agrees to open borders to West Germans who wish to visit their friends and family in the East. They charge a 'tourism fee' of 50 DM per person in order to build up hard currency reserves.
-GDR lets hundreds of political dissidents emigrate to the West.
-In exchange for the opening of the borders, the West Germans agree to offer incentives to Western companies to build factories and supply jobs in the East.
-Stasi's domestic operations is massively downsized, as part of the leadership's "Socialism with a Human Soul" program. The money saved is put into economic development programs as part of it's "GDR for the 21st Century Program"
Admittedly can't think of much else, any further suggestions?
First off, lets have Brezhnev die earlier, let's say in 1981. Next, pass Chernyenko and Andropov and go directly to Gorbachev. Like Brezhnev, Honecker dies soon after in 1982. With the chance, Gorbachev decides to make the GDR a laboratory for his reforms. He appoints a reform minded communist (Hans Modrow?) to run East Germany.
With the GDR in debt, the new leadership embarks on an East German version of Perestroika which western journalists dub "Ostpolitik on Steroids".
The key elements of the new plan:
-GDR agrees to open borders to West Germans who wish to visit their friends and family in the East. They charge a 'tourism fee' of 50 DM per person in order to build up hard currency reserves.
-GDR lets hundreds of political dissidents emigrate to the West.
-In exchange for the opening of the borders, the West Germans agree to offer incentives to Western companies to build factories and supply jobs in the East.
-Stasi's domestic operations is massively downsized, as part of the leadership's "Socialism with a Human Soul" program. The money saved is put into economic development programs as part of it's "GDR for the 21st Century Program"
Admittedly can't think of much else, any further suggestions?