APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1
A Place in the Sun (c)
With the conclusion in late 1972 of the General Relations Treaty between the two German states, the Federal Republic of Germany gave its blessing to having its friends and allies proceed at their own pace to establish relations with the German Democratic Republic. The dam burst, and a literal wave of new diplomatic relationships engulfed the East Germans. This, coupled with its simultaneous entry into the world of international organizations, has brought the GDR the acceptance which it vainly sought since its founding. (U/OU)
The demise of Nazi Germany left the Third Reich dismembered. Some of its eastern area was transferred to Polish or Soviet rule. The old capital city of Berlin was separated into sectors under Four-Power administration. The remaining German territory was divided into zones of occupation—later merged, in the West, to create the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviets countered by declaring East Germany a separate state. To Bonn and its allies the move was a hypocritical attempt to provide a facade for continued manipulation of East Germany by Moscow. (U/OU)
At that time, in the wake of World War II, East German assertions of separate statehood and sovereign status clearly lacked credibility. The Germany of recent memory had been a large, independent, prosperous, and powerful nations. The new East Germany, by contrast, was a mere fragment of that territory, economically deprived and dependent on Moscow's mailed fist for its political muscle. After more than two decades, the expenditure of mountainous effort, and continued Soviet backing, East Germany still stands—and now stands much stronger. (U/OU)
The international acceptance East Germany has gained has not come easily. For 20 years West Germany, with the aid of the Western Allies and by weight of its own political dynamics and surging economic strength, kept its eastern neighbor isolated from the non-Communist world. East Germany tried with dogged determination to win favors where it could—by exchanging trade missions with emerging African states, for example—but its successes were few. Finally, in April 1969, East Berlin's persistence and some fumbling by Bonn in the Middle East broke the ice. Iraq established formal ties with East Germany, and then a number of other Afro-Asian states followed suit. When West Germany's Government, led by Chancellor Willy Brandt, concluded the reconciliation treaty with East Germany in late 1972, broad international diplomatic acknowledgement of East Germany began to follow in due course. (U/OU)
In its campaign for international acceptance, East Germany has held one major trump card: it is an integral part of the German Problem, a major source of Cold War tensions which stood as a massive stumbling block to the realization of an enduring peace in Europe. It would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible to resolve the problem without Western acceptance of East Germany. Over the years East Germany and its Soviet sponsor have reinforced that point by various means, including the instigation of periodic crises over control of the movement of goods and persons across the autobahn between West Germany and West Berlin. The aura of East-West confrontation there was finally cleared away by the laboriously negotiated Berlin Agreement of 1971, which guaranteed access to isolated West Berlin. In subsequent accords West Germany formally conceded the existence of an East German state, albeit as a part of one German nation. East German political theorists make no such proviso: they claim a completely sovereign existence for their country, a claim which has been unwavering under the late Walter Ulbricht and his successor Erich Honecker. (U/OU)
Well before the East German regime gained non-Communist acceptance abroad it began to win the grudging respect, if not the support, of the native population. Along the way, the regime was favored by an assortment of traditions that allowed for a measure of popular approval. By and large, the populace found nothing strange in a prideful nationalism, a strong socialist movement, a highly developed social welfare system, a Russianized view of state dominance and citizen conformity, and a certain scorn for those Germans living to the west or south. The authorities needed only to exploit this endowment. (C)
For years the Leipzig Industrial Fair has symbolized East Germany's striving for international stature.
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1
