Germany Today: Continuity and Change

Abstract

Events of recent months have changed the face of German politics. Or, to be more precise, they have shown that Germany has changed in recent years. Seen from the year 1999, these transformations have been twofold: on one hand, important fundamental conditions of German politics have changed over the past ten years; on the other hand, since last fall, a new government established new priorities. In a first step, this paper will give a short description of the internal and external state of German affairs at the end of Helmut Kohl's long reign. It will then analyse the current domestic and foreign policy situation in Germany, its new political directions, the reforms and setbacks of the new coalition of Social Democrats and Greens. In concluding, the more thoroughgoing aspects of change in Germany since unification will briefly be discussed.