Full text available in Adobe Acrobat format:http://www.ebr.edu.pl/volume19/issue1/2019_1_53.pdf
Volume 5 (19) Number 1 pp. 53-78
Wolfgang Zank
The Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Insufficient data, short time spans, illusions and multiple pressures: designing the German Monetary Union in 1990
Abstract:
The German unification in 1990 generated many benefits, but also many disappointments.
After the introduction of the monetary union between the GDR and
West Germany on 1 July 1990, the East German industry collapsed, and mass unemployment
became persistent. Ever since the modalities of the monetary union have
been discussed controversially.
This paper reconstructs the decision-making processes and negotiations towards
monetary union. To a high extent, this reconstruction is based on original documents.
Early on in Bonn a consensus was reached that monetary union had to be introduced
soon, the rapid decline of the GDR making stepwise approaches impossible. Many officials
were aware of the detrimental effects of a 1:1 conversion of the wages. But few
dared to go against the widespread demands for 1:1 in the GDR population and government,
not the least because of over-optimistic promises before the elections in the
GDR in March 1990.
Keywords: decision-making processes, GDR economy, German monetary and economic union, German reunification, transition to market economy
DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2019.1.4
For citation:
| MLA | Zank, Wolfgang. "Insufficient data, short time spans, illusions and multiple pressures: designing the German Monetary Union in 1990." Economics and Business Review EBR 19.1 (2019): 53-78. DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2019.1.4 |
| APA | Zank, W. (2019). Insufficient data, short time spans, illusions and multiple pressures: designing the German Monetary Union in 1990. Economics and Business Review EBR 19(1), 53-78 DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2019.1.4 |
| ISO 690 | ZANK, Wolfgang. Insufficient data, short time spans, illusions and multiple pressures: designing the German Monetary Union in 1990. Economics and Business Review EBR, 2019, 19.1: 53-78. DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2019.1.4 |