Ostpolitik: Relations With the Federal Republic, 1969-87 » International Recognition and State Visits

Why recognition mattered

For its first twenty years the GDR was treated by most Western countries as if it did not properly exist. West Germany refused to deal with any country that recognised the GDR, a rule known as the Hallstein Doctrine, and many states followed its lead. The SED leaders wanted the opposite. If the world accepted the GDR as a normal, independent state, its rule would seem more secure and its leaders more respectable.

Key terms:

• Embassy: the official home and office of one country's representatives in another country.
• Helsinki Accords: the agreement signed in 1975 by 35 countries, including both German states, on security, co-operation and human rights in Europe.
• State visit: a formal visit by one country's leader to another country, with official ceremonies.

Recognition mattered because it was the GDR's best chance to gain trade, loans and prestige.

Recognition, embassies and the United Nations

The turning point came after the agreements between the two German states in the early 1970s, which ended West Germany's attempt to isolate the GDR. Soon many countries felt free to act. Britain and France recognised the GDR in February 1973, and the USA established relations in 1974. By the mid-1970s the GDR had embassies in dozens of countries, and foreign embassies opened in East Berlin.

The change was real, but it had limits. West Germany still did not treat the GDR as a foreign country, and it kept its own aim of German unity.

The Helsinki Accords, 1975

In August 1975 Honecker went to Helsinki, in Finland, and signed the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. He sat alongside the leaders of the USA, the Soviet Union and West Germany. The agreement accepted that European borders were fixed, which suited a GDR afraid of change, and it treated all signing states as equals.

It also had a risk for the SED. The Accords included promises to respect human rights, such as the freedom to travel and to meet family. East Germans soon quoted them when they applied to leave, as the GDR had signed its name to them.

State visits and Honecker in Bonn, 1987

A state visit showed that a country was accepted as a full partner. Helmut Schmidt invited Honecker to West Germany in 1981, but Soviet pressure made Honecker postpone the visit several times. It finally took place from 7 to 11 September 1987, after Gorbachev's approval.

Honecker was received in Bonn with most of the honours given to a head of state, including a guard of honour and the playing of the GDR's anthem. He met Chancellor Kohl and other leaders, and the two sides signed agreements on matters such as science, technology and the environment. He also travelled to Saarland, the region where he was born. For Honecker it was the high point of his career.

The visit was not a simple triumph. Kohl made it clear in public that West Germany still hoped for unity, and the speeches were shown on television in both German states.

Exam-style question

This is the style of Paper 2 Section A, question (c). Read the two sources and the extract, then answer the question.

Source A: From the joint communiqué issued by Erich Honecker and Helmut Kohl after their talks in Bonn, 8 September 1987 (translated).

'...irrespective of differences of opinion on fundamental questions, including the national question, it is the intention of both states, in the spirit of the Basic Treaty, to develop normal neighborly relations with each other on the basis of equality... both states respect the independence and autonomy of the other in domestic and foreign matters.'

Source B: From an interview with Rupert Scholz, a West Berlin senator, published in the journal Deutschland Archiv, 11 September 1987 (translated).

'...part of that reality is the sovereignty of the GDR, though not in the sense of full recognition under international law. ... the very, very clear words of the chancellor on the unresolved German question, on our unaltered goal of reunification. Honecker had to accept that.'

Extract C (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history book):

'By 1987 the GDR had won what it had always wanted. UN membership, embassies across the world and a red-carpet visit to Bonn showed that it was a respected state. Although West German leaders still spoke of unity, East Berlin had gained recognition and new confidence, and its future seemed secure.'

Extract C suggests that international recognition had made the GDR secure by 1987. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer. [16 marks]