AHC: Germany isn't re-unified after Cold War

BigBlueBox

Banned
With a Cold War that ends with the peaceful collapse of the Warsaw Pact (but not necessarily the USSR itself), how could the unification of West Germany and East Germany be prevented?
 
With a Cold War that ends with the peaceful collapse of the Warsaw Pact (but not necessarily the USSR itself), how could the unification of West Germany and East Germany be prevented?

If USSR is still around, they could possibly reject the idea of reunification...
OTL, both France and UK weren't keen on reunification (UK more so than France), but they eventually agreed due to USSR and US agreeing, the fall of Communism in East Germany and the people there wanting reunification, and West Germany under Kohl willing to make concessions regarding European integration with France (agreeing with monetary union/euro).
Another thing that could prevent is that somehow East Germans don't want reunification...maybe no 1:1 exchange rate?
 

Deleted member 1487

With a Cold War that ends with the peaceful collapse of the Warsaw Pact (but not necessarily the USSR itself), how could the unification of West Germany and East Germany be prevented?
East Germany can't be utterly bankrupt and without the USSR to prop up their economy. Unless the GDR can stand on it's own in a market economy driven world they will collapse and need West Germany to take them on and the FRG will NEED to take them on because of the resulting refugee crisis and huge problems then connecting with the rest of Europe as East Germany turns into a wasteland that just happens to sit on the rail links with Poland and Czechoslovakia.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
With a Cold War that ends with the peaceful collapse of the Warsaw Pact (but not necessarily the USSR itself), how could the unification of West Germany and East Germany be prevented?
The "warsaw Pact" (the military part) might fall, but ... maybe the Comecon stays (more or less) intact, evolving into something like the EU ?

Could give the GDR a chance to stay economically afloat.
 
The "warsaw Pact" (the military part) might fall, but ... maybe the Comecon stays (more or less) intact, evolving into something like the EU ?

Could give the GDR a chance to stay economically afloat.

Eastern Europe would really appreciate using economic resources to keep the GDR afloat even as they all have their own problems over transitioning to a free market yeah the poles Hungarians, Romanian, Czechs, and Slovaks would really appreciate keeping the GDR afloat from their own pockets all because the East and West can't be bothered to hammer out a deal
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Is it possible that East Germany could stay independent but be brought into the EU/EEC before the turn of the century, thus curtailing the desire for re-unification?
 
Thing is, I don't really see how the EU/EEC would want to be even associating with a failed, autocratic crapshoot like East Germany. Unless there is some POD to make East Germany into an actually functional state come 1989, there really is no viable way to prevent reunification barring outside military intervention to force the two Germanies apart(And I really don't see this happening ever).
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Eastern Europe would really appreciate using economic resources to keep the GDR afloat even as they all have their own problems over transitioning to a free market yeah the poles Hungarians, Romanian, Czechs, and Slovaks would really appreciate keeping the GDR afloat from their own pockets all because the East and West can't be bothered to hammer out a deal
I thought it was the other way around. Didn't East Germany pay tribute to the Soviet Union?
 
My understanding is that South Korea doesn't want to unify with North Korea because it would cost too much to build the infrastructure in North Korea up to their standards. If the price tag to reunify Germany gets too big, there is going to be political resistance.
 
Hmm Korea might be our answer actually: Have a just as poor, but politically much more ramshackle than OTL DPRK collapse a few years before the GDR, the peninsula getting reunified under Southern auspices and then the price tag become clear to West Germany.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
Of interest, there was a murder in 1990 / 1991 - I forget the details - of the head of the West German organization to transform the East German economy. The Red Army Faction assassinated the man in charge of closing state industries. Therefore, there was some opposition to unification away from West German official concerns over just costs. In the immediate years following unification too, there was trouble - arson and murder - where foreign workers brought to the GDR before the collapse and who didn't return home, were targeted by neo-nazis.
 

Nebogipfel

Monthly Donor
Of interest, there was a murder in 1990 / 1991 - I forget the details - of the head of the West German organization to transform the East German economy. The Red Army Faction assassinated the man in charge of closing state industries. Therefore, there was some opposition to unification away from West German official concerns over just costs. In the immediate years following unification too, there was trouble - arson and murder - where foreign workers brought to the GDR before the collapse and who didn't return home, were targeted by neo-nazis.
That was the assassination of Detlev Rohwedder, Manager of the Treuhand. While there was increasing anger about the handling of the economic transition, the murder of Rohwedder actually resulted in a backlash against the growing movement, which saw itself somehow suddenly associated with political radicalism.
 
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