100 Billion Deutschmarks

Apparently though Gorbachev didn't ask Germany was willing to pay 100 Billion Deutschmarks to reunite. What if Gorbachev had put a price tag on German reunification and got 100 Billion Deutschmarks? Effect on USSR and Germany are especially important.
 
Apparently though Gorbachev didn't ask Germany was willing to pay 100 Billion Deutschmarks to reunite. What if Gorbachev had put a price tag on German reunification and got 100 Billion Deutschmarks? Effect on USSR and Germany are especially important.

Hell for that price Gorby would have thrown in Silesia, Prussia, Kaliningrad and Pomerania.
 
Hell for that price Gorby would have thrown in Silesia, Prussia, Kaliningrad and Pomerania.

Poland might have disagreed with that. :D

I did hear something about Gorbachev offering Kaliningrad to the Germans but they didn't want it for some reason. I don't know how true that is though.
 
Poland might have disagreed with that. :D

I did hear something about Gorbachev offering Kaliningrad to the Germans but they didn't want it for some reason. I don't know how true that is though.
If true it might be because Kaliningrad had been thoroughly Russified, with most of the German inhabitants having been driven out at the end of WWII.
 
When life offers you free clay and a larger tax base, you don't ask questions.

I don't think the Germans want another expulsion that would ruin their reputation.....

By that time, East Prussia/Kaliningrad had basically been purged of Germans, except for a minority which makes up less than 1% of the current population of Kaliningrad, and was replaced with Russians.
 
kohl would have paid up, no questions asked. as it is the price tag for it is now around 2.5 trillion deutschmarks, a hundred billion more makes no difference.
 
But could Gorby have used that money to save the U.S.S.R. and its economy? And how would not having 100 Billion Deutschmarks affect early reunited Germany?
 
When life offers you free clay and a larger tax base, you don't ask questions.

And what is Germany supposed to do next with the free clay? This would mean that 4-5 Mio people not speaking a word of German would suddenly becoem German citizens. This in turn would require Russian to be come second official language of Germany, which would have interesting knock-on effects by itself. And a few years later Germany would have a significant amount of "oppressed Russian minority" for Putin to play on.
 
And what is Germany supposed to do next with the free clay? This would mean that 4-5 Mio people not speaking a word of German would suddenly becoem German citizens. This in turn would require Russian to be come second official language of Germany, which would have interesting knock-on effects by itself. And a few years later Germany would have a significant amount of "oppressed Russian minority" for Putin to play on.

Not sold. German Secrete Police is much more competent that was Ukraine service. Besides it could backfire ones everyone over there realize that they are much better of in German FEDERATION. I would expect that States constitution would be 2 language state and Federal offices in this territory would be bilingual. Nice point would be that Russians could see community of there nationality not run by Oligarchs, Tyrant or bunch of Crooks. It would be beacon for Russian to aspire too.
 
And what is Germany supposed to do next with the free clay? This would mean that 4-5 Mio people not speaking a word of German would suddenly becoem German citizens. This in turn would require Russian to be come second official language of Germany, which would have interesting knock-on effects by itself. And a few years later Germany would have a significant amount of "oppressed Russian minority" for Putin to play on.

Russia has no direct link to Königsberg, and in fact, it's much more profitable for Russia to sell this money sink to someone interested in paying for a prestigious object.
 
Russia has no direct link to Königsberg, and in fact, it's much more profitable for Russia to sell this money sink to someone interested in paying for a prestigious object.

Not really. The last years have shown that Russian leadership still thinks in 19th or early 20th century terms regarding military usefullness of an area. Königsberg is a fleet base that can threaten the entire Baltic much better than St Petersburg which is at an end of a fairly narrow inlet.

Think in 1940 terms of aviation performance and army mobility and it suddenly makes sense. Ridiculous and outdated but there it is. In the same vein, Russian control of Crimea means that Russian land based aviation (of 1940 vintage) can control the Black Sea and its airspace, this is even how the Crimean invasion is sold to Russian public - somehow forgetting both the fact that modern (Russian or Western) naval warplanes have far larger range and that modern ground to air missiles started in Bulgaria can shoot down planes in Novorossijsk and the other way around.

As to including Königsberg/Kaliningrad as a bilingual state in the federation, besides the fact that Poles would have kittens at the time (and Kohl had to take wishes of USA/UK/France in account at the time, who in turn took Polish wishes seriously), the amount of German tax money to be sunk into rebuilding the impoverished, corrupt hellhole from the ground up... would be completely unpalatable to the German taxpayer without actual Germans in the area to be reunited with Germany proper.
 
Russia has no direct link to Königsberg, and in fact, it's much more profitable for Russia to sell this money sink to someone interested in paying for a prestigious object.

It was attached by Lithuania. Gordy wouldn't be in charge after the union started collapsing and the Russians wouldn't allow it. As for handing over the vast swathes of Polish land someone mentioned earlier, might be better to just recognize the West German view on the Order-Neisse line. On a site note, those areas formerly German were filled with Poles who had been taken from the lands given to Belarus and Ukraine, as well as Ukrainians and Belarussians moved over and Polonized. They ain't moving,
 
Russia has no direct link to Königsberg, and in fact, it's much more profitable for Russia to sell this money sink to someone interested in paying for a prestigious object.

Do you think States assess territories just in terms of profitability ?

No country will ever accept Eastern Prussia to fall back into Germany's control. The say a german government would say Germany might be interested would see total isolation of Germany, sole kind of dissolution of the EU, ...etc.

This won't happen.
 
But could Gorby have used that money to save the U.S.S.R. and its economy? And how would not having 100 Billion Deutschmarks affect early reunited Germany?
 
But could Gorby have used that money to save the U.S.S.R. and its economy? And how would not having 100 Billion Deutschmarks affect early reunited Germany?

No. It'll all be stuffed into the pockets of corrupt officials hoping to tide over the changing order. It's already way too late to save the USSR's economy and a money boost isn't going to change how they invest or not invest in it.

As for Germany, having a hundred billion Deutschmark missing is a hundred billion Deutschmark that doesn't go into propping up the old DDR's economy. Though, I don't think the slowdown in development would be that paralyzing as a whole.
 
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