Plausibility Check: Democratic East Germany?

Now the idea is that the West Germans think of the economic burden of East Germany instead of rushing into re-unification. Just wondering idf this is at all realistic.
 
Hmmm

Thats a question with a Yes and No answer.

Yes East Germany was capable of becoming democratic, there was a democratic movement in place that largerly disintegrated with reunification (the West Germans had money and political experience as opposed to the Easterners who were very naive).
Yes a slow integration would have been better for German in the long run.
But Im inlclined towards No for was it likely that the West Germans allow that. It was an important electoral boast for certain West German parties at the time and reunification was ver, very popular.
Your best POD is the US or USSR putting reunification on hold a little longer till the East has something in place to match the Western electoral machine. (I still find that unlikely)
 
Your best POD is the US or USSR putting reunification on hold a little longer till the East has something in place to match the Western electoral machine. (I still find that unlikely)

I think this wouldn't be sufficient. Reunification was not only popular in the West, but also in the East. I think the feelings of a large part of Eastern Germans is well put in the following slogan:

Kommt die D-Mark, bleiben wir, kommt sie nicht, geh'n wir zu ihr!

(If we get the Deutschmark, we'll stay. If we do not get it, we'll go and get it.)

The implicit threat of the users of this slogan therefore was that they want economic benefits West Germany was able to provide. And they wanted it immediately, Only reunification was able to provide these economic benefits in time. If reunification were delayed, millions would have used their new freedom of movement and resettled to Western Germany - what happened anyway IOTL.

Nevertheless, I think many more would have left Eastern Germany for the Western part if there were no early reunification. In particular, the younger and better-educated would have gone. Anybody could earn significantly more in Western Germany, there's no language barrier, you could buy whatever you wanted in the West, everything is so modern and free, housing is better, polution is significantly less...

Now, to avoid this mass-exodus of the most productive part of the population of Eastern Germany, your only chance is that West Germany denies them entry. And that would be political suicide for any politician who proposed it - Western or Eastern - as it essentially rebuilds the wall.
 
Yes. Two Democratic German states is not only a plausible, but the most likely option from a 1989 perspective.

There was appreciable international resistance against re-unification.
Moreover, it plays a crucial role that Kohl pursued this so strongly because he believed this necessary.
 
So if its possible where would East Germany end up? Can anyone think of an East German Democratic President? Also would a Democratic East Germany be like Belarus or Poland?
 

Valdemar II

Banned
So if its possible where would East Germany end up? Can anyone think of an East German Democratic President? Also would a Democratic East Germany be like Belarus or Poland?

More like the a 20 million strong Czech Republic or Slovenia. But yes East Germany would suffer a big brain drain, but the exodus to the west would be limited by the lack of potential work. More likely we would see East Germany become a major target of West German outsourcing, and East Germans would likely replace the Polish guest workers to West Europe in the 00es.
 
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