20 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Transitions, State Break-up and Democratic Politics in Central Europe and Germany

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, signalling the beginning of the end of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. By 1990, free elections had been held in most countries in the region. Forty - and in some cases fifty - years of communism had come to an end. However, the 'revolutions' of 1989 were not uniform processes: the starting points were different, the trajectories were different, and, outside Central Europe, even the outcomes of the transitions from communism were different. The fall of communism also caused the Soviet empire to crumble, and the Soviet Union itself fell apart in December 1991, as did Czechoslovakia in 1993, and Yugoslavia in a gradual process that was to last from 1991 to 2008. This book originated at an Oslo conference held in November 2009, which was arranged by the E.ON Ruhrgas scholarship program for political science and commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 'revolutions' in Central and Eastern Europe. The book's contributions take stock of the developments after 1989, with special emphasis on the causes and effects of the transitions, including the processes of State unification and separation that followed in the wake of the 'revolutions.' It is divided into four main parts: a) regime transitions from communism; b) State unification and separation; c) party system continuity and change since 1989 (in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland); d) the effects of German unification on external and internal German relations. The geographical scope thus varies from chapter to chapter, but the main emphasis is on Germany and its closest Central European neighbors.