DBWI: Faster German Reunification

After the Berlin Wall Fell in 1989 many advocated for an immediate reunification, ultimately Helmut Kohl and the Bundestag opted for a 10 year plan to equate the East German industry, economy and society to West Germany’s standards, ultimately the country was reunited at 00:00 January 01st 2000 and the New Millenium saw a united Germany.

But what if the country had been immediately united after the fall of the wall? What would be the economic and social implications?
 
Well, I doubt they would've had enough money to buy East Prussia back from Russia, all the money would've went straight to the former DDR; and without the German model as an example, who knows if Korea and Yemen would've merged as in OTL.
 
Germany would probably be weaker than it is OTL. With money going into the former DDR, Germany would not be able to economically dominate Europe as it does now.
 
I mean, if Germany was united in 1990 it could easily have butterflies for Britain. It had joined the ERM at a high exchange rate to the Deutschemark, and was obliged to shadow the Bundesbank's monetary policy. IOTL this was difficult but paid dividends - Kinnock brought Britain into the Euro with the rest of the EC and spearheaded the transition into a low-inflation, social market economy like Germany's. However, his lot would be made a lot more difficult if he had to shadow a Bundesbank saddled with reviving East Germany. It might even force an exit from the ERM, which would probably erode the wafer-thin majority he won in 1992 and prompt an election less than a year later - one the Tories could easily win. That means you have PM Heseltine come the War in Sudan, which knowing his OTL views is probably a bad sign.

Also, I imagine that a united Germany in 1990 would probably open the other Warsaw Pact states up to NATO and EC membership fairly quickly. As mentioned above, you also wouldn't have the Prussian poach to upset Poland. Since the Commonwealth of Independent States was a house of cards from the start, the allure of the West on their doorstep could very well prevent the reconsolidation of Russian influence in Eastern Europe, and lead to an EC that stretches possibly all the way to Ukraine (and "Belarus", which existed for about 5 seconds in the early '90s).
 
The CIS being a house of cards was why the USSR's collapse proved temporary in the end, of course.

The new USSR is rather different from the old one though - territorial losses aside (East Prussia to Germany, West Karelia to Finland, most of Moldova to Romania, the Baltic countries, Georgia and Armenia as independent states) it's basically state capitalist in all but name, due to Chairman Smirnov's reforms in the 1990s and 2000s. And now that Shoygu is Chairman, the USSR is at least trying to become the multiethnic and multilingual federation it's always claimed to be, unless you happen to be Chechen of course.

I wonder if Georgia would've brought the House of Bagrationi back had the USSR not reformed though.
 
The Chechens brought the USSR repressive on themselves after they crucified over 200 school children after militant Islamist Took control 1997.
 
multiethnic i suppose if you count only slavs. "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Serfdom" as the USSR's new national slogan doesn't seem very ah socialist or egalitarian. I'm sure the central asians and chechens having their organs sold might disagree slightly about how the ussr is run cmpared to your optimistic post
 
Do you think the cultural differences between East and West Germany would be greater, or smaller?
 
Do you think the cultural differences between East and West Germany would be greater, or smaller?

Smaller, most likely, if only because West German culture would've basically colonized the former DDR; 10 years as a booming and independent economy, added to the half century of Communist rule, have done much to preserve the East's culture - even though the Trabant is now a good enough economy car rather than a death sentence on wheels, for example.
 
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