Ostpolitik: Looking Peace in the East

Willy Brandt

Germany, 1969 – the German nation was divided for over two decades. The Adenauer era already ended six years ago. Two chancellor had come to power, Ludwig Erhard and Kurt Kiesinger. The Cold War was still raging. Just a year before, in 1968, Soviet aggression was demonstrated in its invasion of Czechoslovakia. The world feared for a new era of Soviet menace. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), under its new Chancellor, the once Mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, instead of making a hard stand against the Eastern Communist bloc, decided to engage them under his foreign policy known as the Eastern Policy or Ostpolitik.

Hallstein Doctrine

Flags of West Germany (left) and East Germany (right)

In the 1950s, Germany sat right in the middle of the Cold War and divided between the capitalist democratic West and the communist East. The West German state, known as the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) reconstructed and economically developed. Under its chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, the country aligned with democracies of Europe and also worked towards European integration. In contrast, the Eastern German State, known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) joined the communist bloc falling to the sphere of influence of the Union Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). For West German Chancellor Adenauer, he sought to reunite the 2 German states by preventing the recognition of the other German State.

Nordpolitik: Engaging with the Communist Bloc

The Republic of Korea engaged with the communist countries in the 80s under then-South Korea's President Roh Tae Woo's Nordpolitik or Northern Policy. It rooted from the Détente of the 1970s where South Korea shifted from ideologically-based diplomacy to practicality. It paved the way for the country's growing global presence with the aim of isolating the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or at the very least, bring them to the negotiation table.

Pres. Roh Tae Woo