“RULE OF LAW” AND “SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY”

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE GERMAN UNIFICATION AND THE TRANSITION PROCESSES IN THE WESTERN BALKAN STATES

Abstract

As the title of my keynote indicates, I will attempt, firstly, to retrace, in a few moves, the
integration of the German Democratic Republic (hereafter referred to as DDR, the German
abbreviation of Deutsche Demokratische Republik) into the Federal Republic of Germany after
the fall of the Berlin Wall, and secondly, to compare, as summing up as it is, the development of
East Germany to the transition processes in the post-socialist states of Central, Eastern and
South-Eastern Europe.
In order to make my presentation comprehensible – despite its unavoidable details, I will begin
by anticipating three main conclusions of my analysis:
1° Regarding the rule of law
In comparison with the other post-socialist countries, the transition processes in East Germany
represent a special case: the integration of the DDR into the Federal Republic in 1990
implements the systematic take-over of the Constitution − the "basic law" (Grundgesetz) − and
all other laws of the Federal Republic. This evolution includes automatic accession to the
European Community / (since 2009) the European Union − without accession negotiations,
without preconditions, without treaty amendments.
2° Regarding the leadership of the transition processes
The Unification is characterized by a large transfer of the elites from West to East Germany: at
all political, economic and social levels, East German cadres are replaced by politicians,
officials, managers and other experts from the old Länder.
In the other former socialist states, there is no comparable impact from the “outside": the
transition processes depend largely on the national elites.
Therefore, these countries have to master the post-socialist transformation of values and
structures to a great extent on their own. Their situation is similar to Germany after the Second
World War and the overcoming of the National Socialist (NS) Regime. Comparing the turning
points of 1945-1949 and 1989/1990, historians consider the substitution of elites after the fall of
the Berlin Wall as more radical than during the changeover from National Socialisme to
democracy in West and East Germany.

The five East German Länder − reestablished in the federal system just before the Unification −
benefit from a transfer of huge funds from the Federal Republic and the European Union.
Despite these investments, there is still today no equivalence of economic growth, employment,
working and living conditions in the two parts of Germany. Similar phenomena as in East
Germany can be observed in the other post-socialist countries. Here and there, above all, the
massive emigration of qualified (young) people prevent a sustainable economic and social
development.
To be understandable, my conclusions require more detailed explanations of the different
transitional processes. Therefore, we will firstly focus on the phenomenon of German
Unification.