1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe

by Mary Elise Sarotte

How the political events of 1989 shaped Europe after the Cold War



There are unique periods in history when a single year witnesses the total transformation of international relations. The year 1989 was one such crucial watershed. This book uses previously unavailable sources to explore the momentous events following the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago and the effects they have had on our world ever since.

Based on documents, interviews, and television broadcasts from many different locations, including Moscow, Berlin, Bonn, Paris, London, and Washington, 1989 describes how Germany unified, NATO expansion began, and Russia got left on the periphery of the new Europe. Mary Sarotte explains that while it was clear past a certain point that the Soviet Bloc would crumble, there was nothing inevitable about what would follow. A wide array of political players--from leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev, Helmut Kohl, George H. W. Bush, and James Baker, to organizations like NATO and the European Community, to courageous individual dissidents--all proposed courses of action and models for the future. In front of global television cameras, a competition ensued, ultimately won by those who wanted to ensure that the "new" order looked very much like the old. Sarotte explores how the aftermath of this fateful victory, and Russian resentment of it, continue to shape world politics today.

Presenting diverse perspectives from the political elite as well as ordinary citizens, 1989 is compelling reading for anyone who cares about international relations past, present, or future.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Germany, Russia, European History, War

321 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2009

Reviews

[Andrew Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, it is the best book to date about how Germany became united following the fall of the Berlin Wall on ninth of November 1989.

Extremely well written, supported by multitude of sources, leads us, step by step, through the outcome of that event. The author presents four scenarios proposed to proceed with the changes and following their detailed analysis explains why the one proposed by the chancellor Kohl, called a "prefab model", has been implemented. It proposed to import all the established and tried institutions in the West Germany and move them across to its eastern neighbour.

With rapidly deteriorating Soviet economy and increasing tensions within the government Gorbachev decided to accept twelve billion marks for his troops withdrawal and another three billion interest free credit in exchange for his agreement to Kohl's proposal.

One anecdote mentioned in the book must be noted. When the West Germans defeated the English football team in the finals of the World Cup 2010, Kohl gloated that the Germans had beat the English at their national game. Thatcher shot back that the English had beaten the Germans at theirs twice in the twentieth century.

[Legens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of how the two Germanies and the four victors of World War II shaped the post-Cold War order in Europe. Not as dramatic as Sarotte's "The Collapse", but just as analytic and intensely relevant in its conclusions:
- Reunification was open-ended and could have happened in different ways (a German confederation, a united Germany under quadripartite rights, a new pan-German constitutional convention, a neutral Germany in pan-European security order) than the "prefab" way of adopting West German institutions (Basic Law, DM, NATO) - or not at all.
- Leaving the Soviets out of the post-Cold War order was a short-term operational master class, but a strategic failure in the long run.

Anyway, here's my operational ranking of the involved countries:
1. West Germany: Kohl's masterclass of timing and negotiation.
2. USA: Got mostly everything they wanted (united Germany in NATO, and a possible NATO expansion), and had to do almost nothing for it. Therefore lower than West Germany, whose task was actually hard and did not only require constraint.
3. France: Ensured further European integration by siding with West Germany early on.
4. UK: The first net loser. Infighting between Thatcher and Hurd, and Thatcher's stubborn refusal to see the changes on the continent as a chance instead of Potentially Aggressive Powerful Germany no. 3 distanced the UK from its allies and contributed to the mental gap between the UK and the other EC members.
5. Soviet Union: Yes, the Soviets lost a lot and were constantly outmaneuvered. But their position was awful, and at least Gorbachev secured lots of money from West Germany - not that it helped the USSR a lot, as most of it sunk into the dark channels of Soviet corruption.
6. East Germany: The dissidents, civil rights activists, and reform socialists which brought down the Wall at the risk of their lives were steamrolled. Largely ignored by Kohl whose idea of democratic legitimacy was that the East Germans should follow his lead and vote for him, as well as by their nominal Soviet ally, East Germany vanished entirely.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulously-researched yet engaging account of the events in 1989 that led to the fall of the Soviet bloc. I especially enjoyed the account of the inept East German press briefing that precipitated the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Sarotte's book makes her readers feel like they are present as the events unfold. Given its length and depth, I'd recommend this book to modern history scholars (or those who wish they were) rather than those with a more casual interest in the time period.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for something more anecdotal, with an overarching narrative structure. This was more as a series of short essays, each focusing on something different (mostly how the meetings came together, the vision for a unified Germany and who compromised on what) though they did build on one another. It would likely be a good book for an international relations or political science class; it's mostly dry but the small moments where the personality was allowed to shine through were good. As other viewers have pointed out, the pages dealing with the literal fall of the Berlin Wall are excellent!

There's only 214 pages of prose, the rest are the copious notes. This book has a meticulous level of detail which won't interest the casual historian but it's bound to be of interest to others.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarotte glossed over the events in the GDR and Eastern Europe that lead up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Solidarity movement, changes in Hungary, the growing internal discontent in the GDR and the lack of real leadership by Honecker had great impact. Having said that, the events that lead to the fall of the wall were of less concern to Sarotte than the ensuing negotiations lead by Kohl. Sarotte does a good job of bringing the various events and point of view together in a way that maintains reader interest, most of the time.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of boring and mechanical look at the endgame of the Cold War. Interesting for just one reason - its argument that the United States and Soviet Union were not important players in the ending of the Cold War and it really revolved around German leadership, specifically Helmut Kohl. But the writing style was so drab that it made for a challenging reading.

[Cath Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks mark for the good read!

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Sarotte's 1989 reinterprets, in a striking manner, the end of the Cold War in Europe. Based on extensive multiarchival research, it suggests a Bismarckian preeminence for West German chancellor Helmut Kohl in driving the course of events. All students of this subject will henceforth have to grapple with this provocatively persuasive argument.
John Lewis Gaddis, Yale

The research is stunning, including new archival sources and revealing interviews with the historical figures involved. Her narrative is fast-paced―like the events themselves―and highly readable. Scholars, students, and the informed public at large will enjoy and learn a lot from this impressive book.
Norman M. Naimark, Stanford

The author embeds her interpretation in a sharp-eyed, fluent narrative of 1989-1990 that sees the realpolitik behind the stirring upheavals.She offers a smart and canny analysis of the birth of our not-so-new world order.
Publishers Weekly

Sarotte's book is compact and highly interpretive. Yet Sarotte has thoroughly mastered the original source material in all the key countries. She distills it with great skill, constantly enlivening her account with a sensibility for what these changes meant in life and culture. Hers is now the best one-volume work on Germany's unification available. It contains the clearest understanding to date of the extraordinary juggling performance of Kohl.
Philip D. Zelikow, Foreign Affairs

With remarkable diligence, Sarotte has interviewed almost all the surviving participants, and quarried government archives and other libraries for documents that illustrate the decision-making (and lack of it) that year. The result is a tale of hypocrisy and indecision in high places.
The Economist

Sarotte's readable and reliable diplomatic history will no doubt take its place as the classic overview of this period. It is sensible, balanced, and well documented, drawing on what is now an extensive international body of primary and secondary sources.
Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs [not a fan]

Sarotte's outstanding book shows that Europe's prefab post-1989 order was a messy improvisation, but at no point during the collapse of communism did conditions favourable to the alternatives cohere.
Richard Gowan, International Journal

1989 is widely and deeply-researched, gracefully written, and admirably concise. I especially liked the author's ability to express the human dimensions of her story by combining an analysis of big issues and long range trends with carefully-chosen vignettes and contemporary quotations. The book is full of astute and totally convincing judgments.
James Sheehan, H-Diplo

"This book sets the record straight on several issues [and] popular misconceptions and exposes the truth behind the positions of the major players. It is a valuable book that helps understand the international political power play.
Vaidehi Nathan, Organiser

Sarotte's book conveys a much-needed appreciation that history, even at its hinges, is anything but simple.
William W. Finan, Current History

Mary Elise Sarotte has produced a first-rate scholarly book. It is thoroughly researched, well written, intelligent, and full of interesting vignettes that complement the larger story she tells.
Michael Bernhard, American Historical Review

The lion's share of Sarotte's book is directed toward the struggle between the US and the USSR and provides a fresh and insightful interpretation of Germany and the rebuilding of Europe. 1989 sheds light on many dark chapters of the past that continue to influence the present global political system.
Lior Alperovich, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs

A great virtue of Mary Elise Sarotte's 1989 is that she makes the problem of hindsight bias explicit, and systematically explores the roads not taken.
Timothy Garton Ash [not a fan]
New York Review of Books

Challenging conventional wisdom, Mary Sarotte questions why the West opted to extend existing Euro-Atlantic structures east in the wake of German unification, instead of creating a new system that would have included Moscow. Based on new archival material and extensive interviews with participants in these events, she argues convincingly that the United States and its partners missed a one-time opportunity to devise a post-Cold War architecture that would have made Europe more secure.
Angela Stent, Georgetown University [not a fan]

[Bob Koelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is classic top down history, almost every moment coming from the perspectives of Kohl, Gorbachev, Bush & Baker, Mitterand, Thatcher, et al. They steer Germany's fate from November 9, 1989, to unification just under a year later. It's interesting to understand the often hidden motivations of these leaders, particularly Gorbachev. He was in a steadily weakening position which the others recognized, but to the full extent. There were other possibilities that weren't pursued, mostly because Kohl recognized that the easiest "pre-fab" solution of extending West German laws and economy east would be possible because Gorbachev was obviously dealing with him hat in hand, so to speak. Every meeting is parsed, practically every conversation between these leaders, and it's therefore not the most compelling reading for me.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want a nice sinecure, you have to produce. And the more you produce, the higher the pension plan the taxpayer will give you. So you have to write and publish even if it does not make any sense.

So it's 1989. The Soviet fist is no more. People want blue jeans and Coca Cola. There was no struggle. The next people in line took over the power. Now, in 1956 there was struggle. But the paper pusher empire populated by Sorottes has allotted 1956 Europe to some other leech.

[Jason Knoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, step-by-step, behind the scenes story of the reunification of Germany, told mostly from the American, German, and Soviet standpoints. A more apt title, however, would be "1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Germany."

[Gordon Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would be something assigned in an upper division poli sci class, and while one of the more readable books in that context, suffers otherwise. A close diplomatic history of the epic events in 1989 and 1990 that unified Germany and ended the cold war.

[Martin Chudik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

[Cesar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing account on German unification and the “fall” of the Berlin Wall. This book offers a lot of information on the complexities and details that transpired between Russian, the two Germanies, France, the US and Britain heads of state that made unification possible. In essence Gorbachev was outmaneuvered by Baker and Kohl in their meetings regarding NATO expansion and unification. Gorbachev was facing turmoil in his economy and within the Warsaw pact countries. It almost seemed like Gorbachev was very preoccupied with the turmoil going on Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania to really give enough attention to the GDR, and that left him unable to set limitations and conditions on NATO expansion and German unification.

[Roxy Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a surprisingly in-depth look at the lighting speed transition to a post-Cold War world that occurred after 1989. I agree with one of the previous reviews--the account of how the botched press briefing by the East German spokesman basically led directly to the fall of the Wall was hilarious (it was basically an accident that the Berlin Wall fell so early, lmao).

There was so much material stuffed into this book, it basically felt like a play-by-play of every interaction Gorbachev, Kohl, Genscher, Bush, Baker, etc. went through during these years. This showed the unbelievable extent of research that Sarotte put into this book and yielded some hilarious anecdotes from major power players, but it also led to me getting a bit lost and confused at times. The 25 page summary at the end was very helpful in rehashing prominent themes and giving a brief overview of how unification and NATO structures would play out over the next decade.

Overall, I liked the book but wouldn't recommend it to anyone for light reading. Definitely better for someone with a historical background and/or a strong interest in Cold War history.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for a grad class.

I've done quite a bit of reading on the building of the Berlin Wall and the Berlin crises, but next to none on the fall of the wall, which seems weird now. Anyway, this is an incredibly researched book which by its nature has to leave some things out - like internal situations in Poland and Lithuania - but does not allow that to detract from her narrative and argument. I'm not certain that I'm entirely on board with her interpretation of Kohl... Although I firmly believe that individuals make history, I'm not certain that it's quite as black and white as she presents here. Again, I've done almost no reading on Kohl and zero original research, so she might very well be right. But really her success here is that now I want to find some other interpretations and see what others think about Kohl's role vs Gorby and Bush Sr.

[Meihan Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recent disputes between EU and Russia over Russian media remind me of this book.

It provides a vivid example of what Sarotte said in the conclusion part. The very image of Post-Cold War Europe in the vision of the (Western) state leaders in the late 1980s (who very much learnt their lesson from the Treaty of Versailles and the Second World War, participated in the whole 2+4 process of German unification and made every move very great caution such as a U.S. President not openly celebrating the fall of Berlin Wall in order not to "embitter the USSR for its loss of its East German trophy") was never realized, and has even less chance to be so today.

Prof. Harrison's counter argument to it also makes some sense, though.

[Jonathan James]

A thorough study of an era not usually taught in academia. Highly recommended.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meticulous account and in-depth analysis of the events leading to the "reunification" of the two German states. Thansk to Sarotte's clear style and thinking it almost reads like a cold-blooded novel.

[Bill Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Sarotte is a force of nature. This is a blow by blow account of the fall of the Berlin Wall. See this video for a sense of the author's focus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnofm...

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looks rather interesting....