A5, key topic 4 - Ostpolitik and West German relations, 1969–87

Ostpolitik Aims

In this course, it mainly means West Germany's new approach to Eastern Europe and the GDR after Willy Brandt became chancellor in 1969. Brandt and his adviser Egon Bahr believed that refusing to deal with the communist East had not brought reunification closer. The Berlin Wall still stood, families were still divided, and West Germany's claim to speak for all Germans had not made the GDR disappear.

The older West German approach had included the Hallstein Doctrine. This meant the FRG tried to discourage other states from recognising the GDR. The logic was simple: if West Germany was the only legitimate German state, then East Germany should remain diplomatically isolated. By the late 1960s, this policy looked less useful. The GDR had survived, the Soviet Union still protected it, and European detente made negotiation more attractive.

Brandt's approach was often summed up as "change through rapprochement". Rapprochement means coming closer. The idea was not that West Germany suddenly approved of the SED dictatorship or accepted the Berlin Wall as morally right. It was that practical contact might reduce tension, help divided families, improve communication and make long-term change more possible.

The GDR leadership had mixed feelings. On one hand, Ostpolitik offered what East Germany had wanted for years: recognition as a real state. On the other hand, the SED feared that more contact with West Germany would weaken loyalty to socialism. The GDR wanted respect, money and international status, but it did not want its citizens freely comparing East German life with West German life.

The basic aims looked different from each side:

This tension is the key to the whole topic. Ostpolitik improved relations, but it did not remove the contradiction between two German states with rival political systems.

Misconception check: Ostpolitik was not reunification. It was a policy for managing division more peacefully and practically while the deeper German question remained unresolved.

Agreements 1970-72

The agreements of 1970-72 created the framework for better relations. They did not all deal only with the GDR, but together they changed the diplomatic atmosphere in which the FRG and GDR dealt with each other.

The Moscow Treaty of August 1970 was signed between West Germany and the Soviet Union. West Germany accepted that European borders should not be changed by force. This mattered for the GDR because the inner-German border was treated as part of the European post-war settlement. The treaty signalled that West Germany was now willing to deal with the reality of borders created after the Second World War.

The Warsaw Treaty of December 1970 was signed between West Germany and Poland. West Germany accepted the Oder-Neisse line as Poland's western border. This was not directly a GDR-FRG agreement, but it was important for Ostpolitik because it showed that West Germany was prepared to reduce old territorial disputes in Eastern Europe.

The Four Power Agreement on Berlin of September 1971 involved the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Berlin still had a special Allied status, so the superpowers had to be involved. The agreement improved access between West Germany and West Berlin and made travel and communication around Berlin less tense. It did not make West Berlin part of the FRG, but it made daily movement more workable.

Several practical transport and transit arrangements followed. These helped regulate movement between West Germany, West Berlin and the GDR. They mattered because Ostpolitik was not just about speeches. It had to solve concrete problems: roads, rail routes, border procedures, visiting rights, postal contact and telephone links.

The most important agreement for direct relations was the Basic Treaty, signed on 21 December 1972. In it, the FRG and GDR accepted that neither could represent the other internationally. They agreed to develop normal, good-neighbourly relations and to respect each other's territorial integrity. This gave the GDR de facto recognition: West Germany now treated it as a state in practical terms.

However, West Germany did not give up the idea of German unity. Instead of opening normal embassies, the two states later opened Permanent Missions. That phrase mattered. It showed that relations were now official and regular, but still not quite the same as relations between completely foreign countries.

Exam-answer thinking: if asked about the impact of the agreements, avoid listing them as isolated facts. Show the chain. The 1970 treaties reduced East-West tension; the Berlin and transit arrangements made communication more practical; the Basic Treaty changed the status of relations between the two German states.

Travel And Communication

Ostpolitik mattered most directly when it affected everyday contact. The Berlin Wall did not come down, and East Germans did not gain free movement. But travel and communication became easier than they had been in the years after the Wall was built.

The travel rules remained highly controlled. In 1972, the GDR allowed some of its citizens to travel to non-socialist countries and West Berlin in urgent family cases, such as births, marriages, life-threatening illness or deaths. Pensioners and disabled people had wider permission to visit relatives. Working-age East Germans still faced tight limits, needed official permission and could be refused.

For West Germans, visiting the GDR became more possible. FRG citizens could enter for private visits to relatives and acquaintances, and also for commercial, cultural, sporting, religious or approved public reasons. Tourist visits were possible through official channels. These rules did not create open borders, but they did increase the number of visits and made family contact more regular.

Communication also improved. Later agreements and practical arrangements expanded postal, telephone and transport links. Permanent Missions in Bonn and East Berlin provided regular channels between governments. More meetings could take place between officials, trade unions, churches, local authorities and cultural organisations.

The GDR tried to control the meaning of this contact. It wanted visitors, currency and recognition, but not uncontrolled influence. West German television, letters, phone calls and family stories could all remind East Germans of the gap between socialist claims and Western prosperity. The more the GDR opened small windows, the harder it became to stop people looking through them.

The impact can be weighed like this:

A useful judgement is that travel and communication improved enough to make division less harsh, but not enough to make East Germany an open society.