Germany at Fifty-Five

The 55th anniversary of a democratic Germany coincides with other important anniversaries in German history: the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion; and the 90th anniversary of the start of the First World War, the legacy of which haunted the Federal Republic at its founding in 1949. 'Germany at fifty-five' examines how these pasts have placed and continue to place constraints on the domestic and foreign policy discourse and practices, how they have both shaped and misshapen the evolution of the German political culture, and how they have hindered the reintegration of eastern and western Germany. The volume, divided into six sections, explores the founding of the Bonn and Berlin republics, the legacies of national socialism, a unified Germany's evolving political culture, the process of policy and institutional adaptation, the evolution of the party system, and foreign policy.