The East European revolutions of 1989 led to momentous changes throughout the region. Nowhere were they felt more dramatically than in Germany, where unification unexpectedly became reality, unfolding with breathtaking speed, unhindered by major obstacles. However, joy over the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the borders was soon dampene

Preface -- Introduction -- Background and Impetus -- The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the GDR: Evolution, Revolution, and Diffusion -- West German Policy Toward East Germany: A Motor of Unification? -- Process and Outcomes -- Delegitimation of the Old Regime: Reforming and Transforming Ideas in the Last Years of the GDR -- Steps Toward Union: The Collapse of the GDR and the Unification of Germany -- Exiting the GDR: Political Movements and Parties Between Democratization and Westernization -- Parties and the Problems of Governance During Unification -- An Unwelcome Enlargement? The European Community and German Unification -- Consequences and Problematics -- An Impossible Dream? Privatizing Collective Property in Eastern Germany -- Social Policies at a Crossroads -- Economic and Political Performance: Patterns and Prospects -- German Security Policy In Post-Yalta Europe -- Germany in Transition: The Challenge of Coping with Unification -- Conclusion -- Appendixes -- Chronology of German Unification -- A Ten-Point Program for Overcoming the Division of Germany and Europe -- Treaty of 18 May 1990 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic Establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union -- Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on the Establishment of German Unity -- German Elections, 1949-1993