Word: ostpolitiking
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Actually if one looks back, "turning points" seem to abound in the past half century of German history. From the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in 1933 to the initiation of Chancellor; Brandt's Ostpolitik in 1970. Germans have time and again confronted radical shifts and new beginnings in national policies...
...ignore the military coup in Poland. Until his meeting with President Reagan on Tuesday, Chancellor Schmidt had never publicly acknowledged a Soviet hand in the crisis. Schmidt has a crucial stake in good relations with the Eastern bloc. His Social Democratic party got where it is by advocating Ostpolitik, a policy that views trade with the East as the basis for an eventual normalization of relations--if not outright reunification--with East Germany. In fact, Schmidt--who was visiting East German leader Erich Honecker at the moment of the crackdown against Solidarity--did not bother to cut short their talks...
...three-day meeting was the first formal conclave on East German soil between East and West German leaders since Chancellor Willy Brandt helped launch his Ostpolitik in 1970 by meeting with East German Premier Willi Stoph in Erfurt, 40 miles east of the frontier. Initiated by the East Germans, the weekend summit had been twice postponed because of East-West friction over the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the continuing crisis in Poland. A further irritant was provided last year by the Honecker government's new currency regulations, which greatly increased the cost of travel from West...
...Schmidt government, in its pursuit of Ostpolitik, is anxious to resume negotiations with East Germany, in the hope of easing ultra-German relations and perhaps achieving a larger measure of detente between East and West. Bonn's long-range concerns have already produced windfalls for the East, which reaps benefits from credits, deutsche marks and other hard currency from the West. Lagging behind West Germany in virtually every aspect of economic life, East Germany has vastly gained from interest-free credits extended by Bonn. These credits, amounting to $383 million annually, made possible last year an 18.7% rise...
Since Brandt launched his Ostpolitik (policy looking to the East) in 1970, West Germany has become more closely involved with the U.S.S.R. Says Countess Marion Donhoff, publisher of the liberal Hamburg weekly Die Zeit: "We once again assumed our traditional place in the center of Europe. As a result, Bonn must to a certain extent take into account the reactions of the East...