History of Germany (since 1990)
This article describes the history of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1990 .
Helmut Kohl's Chancellorship in the United Germany (1990–1998)
Third term until the reunification election
On 3 October 1990 with the entry into force of the People's Chamber of the Democratic German Republic on July 22 adopted countries Introductory Act in conjunction with Annex II, Chapter II of the Unification Treaty , the founding of the five federal states of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia .
On October 14, 1990, eleven days after reunification, the actually scheduled date for the founding of the federal states, elections to the respective state parliaments took place in the new federal states . The CDU became the strongest party in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament , the Saxon state parliament , the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament and the Thuringian state parliament, and the SPD in the Brandenburg state parliament .
In reunified Berlin - the federal capital since October 3 , but not the seat of government - elections for the House of Representatives were held on December 2, parallel to the first all-German federal election.
After the reunification election
On December 2, 1990, the first all-German federal election took place. The Union reached 43.8%, the SPD only 33.5% and the FDP 11%. The PDS was able to move into the Bundestag with 2.4% thanks to the five percent hurdle that was shown separately for West and East Germany . The Greens failed in the west with 4.8% of the five percent clause, in the east a list association Alliance 90 / Greens reached 6.2% and thus entered the Bundestag.
With a narrow majority of 338 to 320 votes, the Bundestag decided on June 20, 1991 after a controversial debate in the capital city resolution to move parliament and parts of the government from Bonn to Berlin , which moved in 1999 (see Reichstag building and government district ). Up until this point in time, Bonn was the provisional federal capital of the Federal Republic of Germany , for which the Parliamentary Council had decided on May 10, 1949 . These decisions were linked to a debate about the nation's new self-image, which found its expression in the name Berlin Republic .
After a brief boom in reunification, the 1990s were characterized by economic stagnation, mass unemployment and a “ reform backlog ”. In particular, the new federal states did not develop as quickly as hoped after the introduction of the market economy (“ blooming landscapes ”). The new federal states only stabilized socially and economically in the 2000s.
From 1991 to 1993 there was a wave of riots against asylum seekers . A total of 17 people were murdered in arson attacks in Rostock , Mölln and Solingen as well as other places. In December, hundreds of thousands protested with fairy lights against xenophobia .
Roman Herzog was elected Federal President in 1994 . The former constitutional judge advocated that a “jolt” had to go through Germany in order to overcome the “encrusted structures” he saw.
Fifth term
The federal election on October 16, 1994 confirmed Helmut Kohl's government in office. The alliance greens made the leap over the five percent hurdle, the PDS moved back into the Bundestag because it was able to win three direct mandates in Berlin . The Treuhandanstalt , which was supposed to privatize the state assets of the GDR , was dissolved. The German-Czech Declaration of January 1997 attempted to dispel irritations in the relationship between the two neighboring countries. In June 1997, the floods of the Oder devastated entire regions.
Gerhard Schröder's Chancellorship (1998-2005)
Schröder's first term in office
In the federal elections on September 27, 1998 , a Federal Chancellor was voted out by the people for the first time in German history ; the previous changes in Chancellor resulted from changes within the party or the constructive vote of no confidence of 1982. SPD (40.9%) and Greens (6.7%) won more seats than Union (35.1%), FDP (6.2%) and PDS (5.1%). The Bundestag elected Gerhard Schröder (SPD) as Chancellor, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (Greens).
To everyone's surprise, Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine announced his resignation soon after the general election . The government thus lost Gerhard Schröder's internal party competitor and the most prominent representative of the left wing. Lafontaine's successor was the former Prime Minister of Hesse, Hans Eichel , who, unlike Lafontaine, did not rely on Keynesian demand policy .
The CDU experienced the dismantling of its honorary chairman Helmut Kohl in 1998/99 after it became known that he had sent his party donations from anonymous donors for years. This violated the political party law and the Basic Law , according to which all large donations must be identified by name. Kohl refused to name his sponsors and took his " word of honor " to them, which triggered the so-called CDU donation affair. Even Wolfgang Schaeuble was under suspicion, Angela Merkel then took over the chairmanship of the CDU.
Johannes Rau of the SPD, long-time Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia , was elected to succeed Roman Herzog as Federal President in 1999 ; Herzog had decided not to run for a second term. Rau, who was also known as "Brother Johannes" because of his nature and his church commitment, had tried hard for the office for years and first had to overcome resistance in public opinion, but then surprised with remarkable speeches.
In May 2000, a comprehensive tax reform was carried out with the aim of stimulating the economy. By means of the income from the controversial eco-tax , the pension insurance contributions should be reduced as part of the non-wage costs .
The conflict between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the KLA led to the war in Kosovo in 1998 . For the first time since World War II , German soldiers took part in acts of war. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , Chancellor Schröder guaranteed the USA “unlimited solidarity” and supported the war in Afghanistan as part of the “ war on terror ” . Both in Kosovo and in Afghanistan and other places are still German troops in action .
After the euro was introduced as a book currency in 1999, it replaced the Deutsche Mark as cash on January 1, 2002 . The changeover required major logistical efforts, but went according to plan in Germany as in the rest of Europe. The conversion rate is DM 1.95583 to EUR 1.00.
In the summer of 2002, the Elbe and several of its tributaries overflowed their banks. Large cities like Dresden and Magdeburg suffered from unprecedented floods . This natural disaster had a lasting impact on the election campaign.
Schröder's second term in office
In the federal election on September 22, 2002 , the CSU presented the Union's candidate for the second time since 1980: Edmund Stoiber . Union and SPD came up with the same result almost exactly: 38.5%. The Greens got 8.6%, the FDP only 7.4%. The PDS failed with 4.0% of the 5% hurdle and only sent two directly elected members of the Bundestag. This enabled the red-green federal government under Gerhard Schröder to continue its coalition.
Germany officially did not participate in the Iraq war in 2003 . This led to conflicts, especially with the USA , but to great expressions of sympathy from the German population towards the "peace chancellor" Schröder. Nevertheless, Germany supported the USA with indirect aid, such as securing the sea routes in the Horn of Africa , NBC tracer tanks in Kuwait and the non-withdrawal of German soldiers from NATO AWACS aircraft. The BND was also active in Iraq immediately before the war and was involved the USA cooperates.
From 2003 onwards, the government implemented changes in social, pension and health policy with the so-called Agenda 2010 . In general, the topic of ecology was given more weight, for example with the start of the nuclear phase-out or legislative initiatives to reduce greenhouse gases . Other reforms of the red-green government included the civil partnership law , the new citizenship law and the violence protection law . While Schröder was able to induce CDU-governed countries through concessions to vote in the interests of the federal government for some Federal Council votes, other reform projects by Red-Green, such as the Consumer Information Act , failed because of the Union majority in the Federal Council.
Persistently high unemployment, the foreseeable aging of society and the strained budget situation of the public coffers accelerated the discussion about reforms in Germany. The job market should be revitalized with the concepts of the Hartz Commission , pension and health insurance were constantly subjected to new reforms. The Union majority in the Bundesrat reduced the Schröder government's room for maneuver.
On May 23, 2004, the Federal Assembly elected Horst Köhler , the candidate of the CDU / CSU and FDP, as Federal President in the first ballot with 604 out of 1205 votes . Gesine Schwan stood for red-green , the previous incumbent Rau had not stood for re-election, as this hardly seemed realistic due to the majority situation. Köhler quickly made a name for himself as a non-partisan supporter of the reform process, actively participating in daily political events and making critical comments on factual issues.
The Hartz IV legislation from 2004 aimed to stimulate the labor market, among other things by putting more pressure on the unemployed. As a result, the protests grew against a policy that was perceived as socially unjust - especially by those directly affected - and which critics had not expected from the SPD.
The state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg on September 19, 2004 triggered a nationwide shock: On the one hand, the right-wing extremist DVU received around 6.1% of the votes in Brandenburg and was therefore still represented in the state parliament; on the other hand, the right-wing extremist NPD, the fourth strongest party with 9 , 2% and twelve members for the first time in the Saxon state parliament . The red-black coalition under Matthias Platzeck in Brandenburg was able to continue to rule despite the loss of votes, while the Saxon Prime Minister Georg Milbradt was now dependent on the SPD as a junior partner. In the next few months there were several scandal that were noted with outrage nationwide. Among other things, on February 13, 2005, the NPD refused to participate in a minute's silence in the state parliament, which was held on the occasion of the air raids on Dresden during World War II; the MP Jürgen Gansel even called the air strikes " bomb holocaust ". The Bundestag tightened the right of assembly and the criminal offense of sedition in order to prevent the further spread of right-wing extremism. Discussions about restarting the NPD ban process also flared up again.
A heavy burden on the government introduced the visa affair in early 2005. By a corresponding decree was Minister of State a. D. Ludger Volmer for a more generous issuing of visas , especially in the Ukrainian embassy in Kiev . There were allegations that the federal government had promoted human trafficking . Foreign Minister Fischer came under massive pressure and had to testify before an investigative committee of the German Bundestag. For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic such a statement was broadcast live on television. The taking of evidence was ended by Red-Green on June 2nd, whereupon the Union and FDP obtained an urgent decision before the Federal Constitutional Court, which determined that the taking of evidence had to be continued. On July 15, Interior Minister Otto Schily was also questioned by the committee.
In the prime ministerial election in Schleswig-Holstein on March 17, 2005, the SPD incumbent, Heide Simonis, surprisingly failed because she did not receive the required majority in several ballots, even though the agreed coalition had sufficient votes. A grand coalition was formed under the CDU politician Peter Harry Carstensen . In the next state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 22, the SPD incurred significant losses and lost government responsibility after 39 years. This ended the last red-green coalition at the state level. On the same day, Gerhard Schröder and Franz Müntefering announced their intention to hold an early federal election in autumn . For this purpose, the Bundestag should be dissolved, which Gerhard Schröder wanted to bring about with a failed vote of confidence .
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was passed on May 12, 2005 with 569 votes out of 594 in the Bundestag and with 66 out of 69 votes fifteen days later in the Bundesrat. Previously, the FDP had not been able to enforce its demand, supported by large parts of the population, to hold a nationwide referendum on the treaty. The historical significance of the constitution for the united Europe was recognized across parties, the few no votes came from the ranks of the PDS and the CSU. The Christian Social deputy Peter Gauweiler , who had already failed with a constitutional complaint against the vote on 12 May, presented a short time after the adoption of constitutional challenge in the Constitutional Court a. Federal President Köhler announced on June 15 that the ratification would wait until the constitutional authorities had decided. Due to the negative referendums in France and the Netherlands , the future of the European Constitution remained uncertain.
The discussions of the following weeks focused in particular on the constitutional admissibility of Schröder's vote of confidence, which was contested by numerous experts. Other possibilities for an early election, including a constitutional amendment through which the Bundestag is a self-dissolution law could have given have been discussed. The MPs Werner Schulz (Greens) and Jelena Hoffmann (SPD) and some small parties such as the ödp and Die Republikaner announced that there would be a new election before the Federal Constitutional Court. Regardless of this, on June 27, Federal Chancellor Schröder asked Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse to put the vote of confidence in the Bundestag on July 1, as planned. As expected, he lost this very significantly, only 151 MPs expressed their confidence in him. Federal President Horst Köhler announced his decision to dissolve the Bundestag on July 21. This marked the beginning of the election campaign for the 2005 Bundestag election , which is scheduled for September 18 . On August 25, the Federal Constitutional Court dismissed the two MPs' claims as unfounded.
With Schröder's announcement of the new election, all parties started preparing for the election. On May 30, the Union elected its chairwoman Angela Merkel as candidate for chancellor, the FDP acknowledged at its party congress to a coalition with the CDU and declared that it wanted to distinguish itself as a “ civil rights party”. Gerhard Schröder ran again for the SPD, for which the election prognoses predicted poor results. In contrast to 2002, however, the SPD did not make a clear commitment to the Greens, who ran with Joschka Fischer as the top candidate. The PDS and the WASG , founded in January 2005 , ran a joint candidacy as Die Linkspartei.PDS .
Angela Merkel's Chancellorship (since 2005)
Merkel's first term in office
In the 2005 Bundestag elections , the CDU and CSU received 35.2% of the votes, making them the strongest parliamentary group ahead of the SPD with 34.2%. Of the smaller parties, the FDP won the most votes with 9.8%, while the Left Party.PDS entered the Bundestag with 8.7% and ended up ahead of the Greens, who got 8.1%.
Neither red-green nor black-yellow achieved the majority in the Bundestag necessary to form a stable government. Since the FDP categorically ruled out a coalition with the SPD and the Greens and talks between the Union, the Greens and the FDP (“ Jamaica Coalition ”) failed, a grand coalition remained the last viable alternative. Traditionally, the party with the larger number of MPs is the leader, in this case Angela Merkel, who was elected first female Chancellor by the Bundestag on November 22, 2005. On the same day, the Merkel I cabinet was sworn in, in which both popular parties were represented by eight ministers each.
As a first test for the new government, revelations developed, after which the CIA used Germany as a stopover for transporting prisoners to foreign secret prisons and mistakenly abducted the German citizen Khaled al-Masri to Afghanistan and tortured him there without the red-green government closing in decided to take appropriate action.
In view of the sluggish economic growth and high unemployment under the previous government, the governing coalition was exposed to enormous political expectations. The coalition's hope was that a broad parliamentary government majority in the German Bundestag and Bundesrat would be able to more easily implement important reform projects such as the health reform and the federalism reform , which failed on December 17, 2004 due to differences of opinion on educational policy competencies.
In the first half of 2007, the German Federal Government took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union . In the exercise of the German Council Presidency, Merkel's Federal Cabinet was given great political weight by European politicians and political commentators in view of the need to solve European political problems such as the European Constitutional Treaty or the European energy supply.
In 2008, Germany too was drawn into a global economic crisis , which was essentially triggered by overly liberal lending, particularly in the real estate banking sector. As a result of the associated loss of confidence in the banking sector, bank lending to companies also collapsed in many areas. The federal government tried to counteract the crisis with a wide range of measures. These measures ranged from the nationalization of the heavily indebted bank Hypo Real Estate to the so-called scrappage bonus , a broad guarantee program for banks and other companies, to a slight reduction in health insurance contributions for the general public.
The efforts of the government were judged very differently in professional circles: On the one hand, there was a general dispute between the parties about the additional state borrowing and the scope for tax cuts as well as broad relief for citizens. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the measures was discussed in detail, for example in the case of the scrapping premium. Other topics, for example in energy policy, developed very controversially (key words: solar energy program in the Saharan countries, extension of the service life of old nuclear power plants, technical progress in the storability of wind energy).
Merkel's second term in office
In the federal election on September 27, 2009 , the CDU / CSU and FDP won the majority of the seats. The small parties FDP, Die Linke and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen were able to record a significant increase in votes at the expense of the previous grand coalition parties. Overall, the CDU and CSU lost slightly, while the SPD lost quite a lot of votes. Angela Merkel went into her second term in office with a coalition of CDU / CSU and FDP. The Merkel II cabinet was announced on October 23, 2009.
Federal President Köhler was elected for a second term on May 23, 2009 . After the sharp public criticism of Köhler's statements that "in case of doubt, military action is also necessary to protect our interests, for example free trade routes," he resigned just one year after his re-election. The then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff , was elected as Köhler's successor on June 30, 2010 . Wulff's presidency ended after twenty months, as he resigned on February 27, 2012 in the wake of a credit and media affair . On March 18, 2012 , the Federal Assembly elected Joachim Gauck , who was not a party to the party, as the third Federal President since 2009 .
In the 2009 Bundestag elections, the liberal FDP party had soared, gaining 14.6 percent of the second vote. In the public perception, the FDP subsequently almost exclusively focused on the subject of tax cuts. After the Hamburg election in February 2011 briefly represented in all state parliaments and in the Bundestag, the FDP no longer moved into the state parliament there in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt in March 2011 . This decline of the FDP continued in the state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin and Saarland. Jörg Lau located the problems of the FDP “at the moment when the FDP had to turn from a projection screen for voter frustration to a political actor again. A real existing liberalism emerged which could not keep up with its own pathos of freedom. ”On the other hand, the view is expressed that the FDP suffered from wrong time management; it was the unfortunate combination of their demands with the focusing event of the economic crisis, which had taken the majority of the population against tax cuts and then also against the FDP.
The nuclear disaster in Fukushima and the dispute over the “ Stuttgart 21 ” rail project enabled Winfried Kretschmann ( Baden-Württemberg ) to become the first Green Prime Minister of a German state. From the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2011 , the Greens were represented in all state parliaments and in the Bundestag (until the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2016 ).
Due to the accident in Fukushima, the federal government changed its course in energy policy . While the Merkel II cabinet had decided to extend the service life of German nuclear power plants after the 2009 Bundestag elections and thus terminated the nuclear consensus , it has now decided to phase out nuclear energy for good and accelerate the energy transition towards renewable energy sources . Other major domestic political projects started by the black-yellow coalition in the 2010s are the debt brake for balanced budgets , the reform and simplification of immigration policy for more qualified immigration, the introduction of the general minimum wage , as well as the promotion of computerization and the modernization of the economy Industry 4.0 future project .
In November 2011 it became known that the right-wing extremist group “ National Socialist Underground ” was responsible for ten murders of people of Turkish and Greek origin between 2000 and 2006. In this context, massive investigations by the police and the constitution protection authorities were uncovered. Several state parliaments (including Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Thuringia) and the Bundestag set up investigative committees to deal with the Ceska series of murders . A legal clarification has been taking place since May 2013 as part of the NSU trial in Munich.
Merkel's third term in office
In the 2013 federal election , the FDP failed to pass the five percent hurdle and did not make it into the 18th German Bundestag . After the partner of choice left, the Union formed a grand coalition with the SPD . Sigmar Gabriel was now Vice Chancellor, while Merkel remained Chancellor. Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) returned to the Federal Foreign Office, but resigned there at the beginning of 2017 to run for president, which was successful.
In early 2013, the American Edward Snowden revealed the surveillance and espionage practices of the US national security agency . Telecommunications channels and the Internet in particular were closely monitored in Germany. This is the most serious violation of fundamental rights to the detriment of the population (including the right to informational self-determination , postal and telecommunications secrecy ) since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded.
In December 2014, Bodo Ramelow ( Thuringia ), a politician belonging to the Die Linke party, was elected Prime Minister for the first time .
In 2015, in the course of the refugee crisis , Germany took hundreds of thousands of people and a. from Syria . On December 19, 2016, the attack on the Berlin Christmas market at the Memorial Church occurred by a Tunisian asylum seeker.
In 2017, the Bundestag voted for the introduction of same-sex marriage , which enables homosexual couples to have the same type of marriage as classical couples. The Chancellor herself was still against, but she gave the MPs from her parliamentary group the choice.
Merkel's fourth term in office
After the Bundestag election in 2017 in September 2017, the Alternative für Deutschland entered the Bundestag for the first time and became the third largest party and, after the formation of a government, the largest opposition party; the FDP was now also back. However, the formation of a new government took a long time. After the failure of negotiations of a so-called Jamaica coalition between the CDU / CSU, FDP and the Greens, as well as a long disagreement within the SPD about a willingness to form a coalition, a new government was only formed in March 2018 . This now again consisted of a grand coalition with CDU / CSU and SPD.
See also
literature
- Klaus Schroeder : The changed republic. Germany after reunification. Vögel, Stamsried 2006, ISBN 3-89650-231-X .
- John Rodden: The Walls that Remain. Eastern and Western Germans since Reunification. Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CO 2007, ISBN 978-1-59451-379-4 .
- Inge Stephan, Alexandra Tacke (Hrsg.): NachBilder der Wende (= literature, culture, gender. Small series. Volume 25). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20083-1 .
- Gerhard Jens Lüdeker, Dominik Orth (ed.): Post -Wende-Narrationen. The reunified Germany in the mirror of literature and film (= German-language contemporary literature and media. Volume 7). V & R Unipress, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89971-655-9 .
- Jeffrey J. Anderson (Ed.): From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic. Germany at the Twentieth Anniversary of Unification. Berghahn Books, New York a. a. 2010, ISBN 978-0-85745-221-4 .
- Klaus Stüve, Evelyne Hermannseder (ed.): The reunification of divided nations. Experiences from Germany and perspectives for Korea (= cultural economics. Volume 10). Lit, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-11253-8 .
- Gerhard Besier (ed.): 20 years of the new Federal Republic. Continuities and discontinuities (= Central and East Central European Studies. Volume 10). Lit, Berlin / Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-11423-5 .
- Andreas Wirsching : The price of freedom. History of Europe in our time. Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63252-5 , chapter The united Germany as a test case. Pp. 61–72 and further passages (p. 322–325 on the party system, p. 382–385 on the culture of remembrance).
- Andreas Rödder : 21.0 - A short history of the present. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68246-9 .
- Joachim Ragnitz , Gerhard Heimpold, Jens Hölscher, Rainer Land , Klaus Schroeder: 25 years of German unity: a success story? In: Economic Service . Vol. 95, 2015, issue 6, pp. 375–394.
- Tom Thieme (Ed.): 25 Years of German Unity. Continuity and change in East and West Germany. Universitätsverlag, Chemnitz 2016, ISBN 978-3-944640-68-6 , urn : nbn: de: bsz: ch1-qucosa-198290 .
- Guido Thiemeyer : The history of the Federal Republic of Germany: between ties to the West and European hegemony. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-17-023254-9 .
Web links
- German unity. In: From Politics and Contemporary History No. 30/31 of July 19, 2010; therein u. a. Klaus Schroeder : Germany after reunification , Rüdiger Thomas: German culture in the unification process
- 25 years of German unity. Topic page of the Federal Agency for Civic Education , 2015
- Dossier 25 years of German unity. In: Deutschlandfunk , 2015
- Markus Würz: Chapter globalization. In: Lebendiges Museum Online , House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany , February 22, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Hartmann , Udo Kempf: Heads of State in Democracy. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-18290-2 , p. 119 .
- ^ Hans Vorländer : Back to the ashes as a phoenix? The FDP after the 2009 Bundestag election. In: Oskar Niedermayer (Ed.): The parties after the 2009 Bundestag election. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-17935-3 , pp. 107-130, here p 109 .
- ↑ Jörg Lau : Grandmothers Freedom and the Really Existing Liberalism. In: Merkur 64 (2010), No. 9/10, pp. 954–964, here p. 956.
- ↑ Florian Blank, Sonja Blum, Jochen Dehling: The “time” factor and theoretical approaches in policy research. In: Nils C. Bandelow , Simon Hegelich (Hrsg.): Pluralism - strategies - decisions. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-18446-3 , pp. 63–83, here p. 71 .
- ^ Lothar Probst : Alliance 90 / The Greens on the way to becoming a “People's Party”? An analysis of the development of the Greens since the Bundestag election 2005. In: Oskar Niedermayer (Ed.): The parties after the Bundestag election 2009. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-17935-3 , p. 131– 156.
- ^ Government statement by Chancellor Merkel ( memento from January 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) on the main political projects, tagesschau.de, January 29, 2014