German Reunification: Unfinished Business / Edition 1

by Joyce E. Bromley

Overview

In 1945, German families with more than 100 hectares (247 acres) of land were forced from their homes in the eastern sector by the Soviets, now in control of that area. These families were brutally evicted from their property and had their land expropriated. In the next 45 years, the GDR government would come to control all of the agricultural land. At reunification in 1990, the earlier abuse of these farmers was compounded when the German government would not restore any of this expropriated land to these families. The German government falsely accused the Soviet Union of insisting on non-restitution as a condition of reunification. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev unequivocally denies this claim and insists that land issues are a German problem to resolve.

The temporary land-trust agency, established by the German government in 1990 to dispose of land it inherited from the GDR, continues to exist. After 25 years, this agency still holds almost 20 percent of this expropriated land. Its agents, most of whom were reared in GDR, decide who may (or may not) lease land, the conditions of the lease, and if and when a farmer may buy land – circumstances that remain deeply controversial. Joyce Bromley draws on extensive field research, and previously untapped sources, to explore the reliability of the government’s version of these important events. Is the German government once again, without shame, discriminating against a group of its own citizens?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367275280
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/11/2019
Series:	Routledge Studies in Modern European History
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Joyce E. Bromley has been Visiting Researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Part I: Chaos

1. The Disaster of the Peace

2. Revolution Without the Resistance

3. Completing Collectivization

Part II: Coping

4. Creating Homo sovieticus germania

5. A World Without The Wall

6. Roadblocks to Restitution

7. Are They One People?

8. This Land is Whose Land?

Part III. Epilogue

Elusive and Unfinished Reunification

Afterword

Appendix

Image Directory

Agreement Form

Interviews

Glossary