2019•Unpublished venueRequires access
Monetary and Economic Union
Pekka Kalevi Hämäläinen
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Abstract
The booming West German economy had ample funds for investment. The surge of West German business to the East had started well before the March elections in the DDR but the outcome accelerated it. Anticipating that a new East German regime would remove any remaining obstacles to the free operation of market forces and speedy monetary and economic union, hopes rose of a repetition of the Wirtschaftswunder , the rapid West German post-war economic recovery in the 1950s. Changing ingrained attitudes and ways of thinking would be perhaps the biggest obstacle to rebuilding the East German economy. Cherishing hopes of decisive economic improvement, the East Germans had voted heavily for the Alliance for Germany, seeing in it the best promise of rapid unification. While the politics of German reunification captivated the world, German business had started on the practical aspects of building unity.