alternatehistory.com

What if the East German socialist state that existed from around the end of the Allied occupation of Germany around the early 1950's till the fall of the Eastern Bloc around 1990 had, instead of claiming to be the legitimate government of all Germany (which resulted in tensions within European Cold War geopolitics), decided (or "decided") to form its own national identity separate from Bonn? After all, if Austria can claim to be an independent state, why couldn't East Germany claim an identity inherited from the Prussian state of old? This would likely butterfly away the Ulbricht Doctrine which regulated East-West German relations by, for example, labelling trade between both governments as internal trade within Germany. What other effects could this entail, especially if the Iron Curtain still erodes? If Bonn and East Berlin recognize each other as sovereign, what happens to the extradition mechanism that was a major factor behind the DDR's brain drain IOTL?
Top