Publisher's Synopsis
Rather than a single political achievement fixed in time, German unification has proven to be a complex, multidimensional process. After four years, Germany continues to confront formidable economic, social, and cultural challenges resulting from the rushed marriage of disparate societies and political systems. This volume brings U.S. perspectives to bear on some of the economic, social, and legal aspects of unification in one of Europes most closely watched democracies.;Part One explores the economic ramifications of unification, especially the massive restructuring of eastern Germanys industrial base, which has caused profound unemployment and economic hardship. An enormous economic and political task in the best of times, the reconstruction was undertaken in a period of global recession and rapid political evolution in the entire region.Part Two considers social and cultural stresses of unification, as exemplified in the press, cultural organizations, and Germanys confrontation of its own past.Part Three explores legal issues, demonstrating how some of the peculiar social-philosophical postulates of German law are increasingly being questioned. These serve as reminders that German unification has occurred in the context of European integration and that the new Germany must come to terms not only with itself but with a wider political entity of which it is a part.
