Research Catalog

Title

The imperfect union : constitutional structures of German unification / Peter E. Quint.

Author

Quint, Peter E.

Publication

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1997], ©1997.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xi, 482 pages : map; 25 cm

Summary

• In the mid-summer of 1989 the German Democratic Republicknown as the GDR of East Germany - was an autocratic state led by an entrenched Communist Party. A loyal member of the Warsaw Pact, it was a counterpart of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), which it confronted with a mixture of hostility and grudging accommodation across the divide created by the Cold War.
• Over the following year and a half, dramatic changes occurred in the political system of East Germany and culminated in the GDR's "accession" to the Federal Republic itself. Yet the end of Germany's division evoked its own new and very bitter constitutional problems. The Imperfect Union discusses these issues and shows that they are at the core of a great event of political, economic, and social history.

Subjects

• Constitutional law > Germany (East)
• Constitutional law > Germany (West)
• Germany > History > Unification, 1990
• German reunification question (1949-1990)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-473) and index.

Contents

• Ch. 1. Introduction -- Ch. 2. The Background of German Unification -- Ch. 3. Political Revolution in the GDR, 1989-1990 -- Ch. 4. Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Historical Background and the Round Table Draft -- Ch. 5. Constitutional Reform in the GDR, 1989-1990: Amending the Constitution -- Ch. 6. Methods of Unification under the Basic Law -- Ch. 7. The State Treaty: Currency and Economic Union -- Ch. 8. The Final Months of the Volkskammer: Constitutional Problems of Accession and the First All-German Election -- Ch. 9. Reconstitution of the Eastern Lander -- Ch. 10. The Unification Treaty and Amendment of the Basic Law -- Ch. 11. The Fate of "Socialist Property": Restitution, Compensation, and the Work of the Treuhand -- Ch. 12. The Unification of Abortion Law -- Ch. 13. The Transformation of Eastern Institutions: The Civil Service, the Universities, and the Justice System -- Ch. 14. Undoing the Past: Prosecution of GDR Leaders and Officials --
• Ch. 15. Undoing the Past: "Rehabilitation" and Compensation -- Ch. 16. Confronting the Past: The Stasi Files -- Ch. 17. The European Context of Unification and the Reserved Rights of the World War II Allies -- Ch. 18. The Oder-Neisse Line and the Map of Central Europe -- Ch. 19. NATO and the Pact System -- Ch. 20. The Two Plus Four Treaty and the Legal Status of Germany -- Ch. 21. Sequels and Consequences of the Two Plus Four Treaty: Germany and the Structure of Central Europe -- Ch. 22. United Germany and the Western Security System: The Future Role of German Armed Forces -- Ch. 23. The Unification of Germany and the Unification of Europe: European Community and European Union -- Ch. 24. Conclusion.

ISBN

0691086567 (alk. paper)

LCCN

96039367

OCLC

ocm35808303

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries