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Article: The Bonn Republic: West German Democracy 1945-1950.
(book reviews)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- January 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Bonn Republic -- West Germany's post-war state -- began on August 14th, 1949 and ended on October 3rd, 1990. Such chronological tidiness is rare in history, as is the `end' of a country (though the turbulent years after 1989 have seen a few examples, and even more of new beginnings). The temptation for historians is all the greater for the fact that between the first Bundestag elections, which brought Konrad Adenauer to power, and the Day of German Unity something extraordinary had happened: the emergence of a new Germany from the graves and the debris of the war, a democratic Germany with a social market economy envied (and emulated) by others, a peaceful Germany ...