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Article: Being there. (West Germany)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 29, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Economist Newspaper 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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West Germany
Being there
Already Europe's dominant economic power, West Germany will look even mightier if weapons and other East-West barriers continue to disappear. It is responding to Gorbachev-inspired change with a new Ostpolitik
THE old Ostpolitik, started by the then chancellor, Mr Willy Brandt, two decades ago, put West Germany on talking terms with Eastern Europe. But the talking slowed amid the superpower tensions of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The natty new version seeks to exploit Mr Gorbachev's reforms to expand dramatically contacts of all kinds between West Germany and its eastern neighbours.
The West Germans are not ...