Germany’s two-trillion-euro absorption contrasted with post-Soviet war and poverty elsewhere

Evidence

East German officials, who really believed in the socialist project they had spent four decades building, were horrified at the lack of leadership coming from Russia. The transition after the Wall fell, after the Mauerfall, was bumpy for many East Germans, but they could rely on West Germany—one of the richest countries in human history—to spend two trillion euros to integrate them into its expanded state structures. Much of the rest of the post-communist population got war or devastating poverty instead. In the first few years of the 1990s, violence broke out in Croatia, Chechnya, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Armenia, and Bosnia, killing hundreds of thousands of people. There were going to be economic problems no matter what happened. But the leaders in Moscow, encouraged by Washington, embarked upon economic “shock therapy.” — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 109

Categorization

• CANDY: The contrast between East Germany’s cushioned transition and the rest of the USSR’s chaos is a striking, elevator-conversation-worthy datapoint.
• XREF: connects to: Base spending turned Germany’s poorest region into a boom economy — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 126; Germany’s postwar success depended on external macroeconomic favors rarely acknowledged by German policy makers — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 908

Broader Connections

• Base spending turned Germany’s poorest region into a boom economy #exemplifies (0.78) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 126
• Germany’s postwar success depended on external macroeconomic favors rarely acknowledged by German policy makers #complicates (0.74) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 908