Reunification of Germany

By July of 1990 the two Germanies, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) of the eastern regions and the western Federal Republic of Germany, were united monetarily; in October 1990, less than a year after the Berlin Wall was attacked by "Ossi" hands wielding hammers and bouquets of flowers, the country was reunited under one federal government. The East Germany's communist system, in place since the Soviet occupation began in 1945, ceased to exist. The "Wessi" juggernaut of economic might, the "West German miracle"-child of the Marshall Plan and European Community programs, was expected to set her eastern sister up on her own two feet in short order.

Celebrations were few on the day of official reunification: unemployment in the former DDR had skyrocketed from virtually nil to almost 30% - and climbing; inflation in the former West Germany had

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conomy. It says something for the industriousness of the East German people that, given this type of belated, backhanded encouragement, by the late 1960s they were to build their economy into the most prosperous within the Soviet sphere of influence. Which is not to say that the DDR's economy was strong by Western standards. They were not given the chance, primarily as a result of the very weaknesses in Soviet-style communist economics that eventually undermined the U.S.S.R.'s economy. There were two culprits involved, both institutional, both debilitating to an economy when administered with the best of intentions - and there was never a question of "good intentions" being the prominent characteristic of Soviet-dominated communism. Those two destroyers of the East German economy were "central planning" and the vulnerability of the communist ideal itself. "Central planning," as imposed upon the Soviet Union and its East European satellite states from Moscow, involved the concept of controlling every aspect of the society's economic activity from the top down. The ultimate bureaucratic system, central planning in theory is often compared to the efforts utilized in producing a modern, successful, manufacturing operation: g
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4452
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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