Kohl reunification and EMU-convergence era

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Core movement is reunification: the monetary, fiscal, and constitutional integration of the GDR into the Federal Republic, followed by a decade of EMU convergence. Economic school: social-market / ordoliberal, strained by political-choice GEMU parity; fiscal and monetary institutions held under stress. Left-right axis: centre-right. Key content: (i) Steuerreform 1990 (Waigel/Stoltenberg) cutting income and corporate rates; (ii) GEMU — Staatsvertrag 18 May 1990 and currency- union Second State Treaty 1:1 wages/salaries up to 4000 DDM on 1 July 1990; (iii) Einigungsvertrag 31 August 1990, reunification 3 October 1990; (iv) Treuhandanstalt privatising/liquidating ~14,000 GDR state enterprises 1990-1994; (v) Solidaritätszuschlag 1991 and Solidarpakt I (1993-2004) financing east-German transfers ~DM120bn/year; (vi) Asyl-Kompromiss 1993 constitutional Art 16a amendment tightening asylum; (vii) Maastricht Treaty signed 7 February 1992, ratified 1993; (viii) EWG/ERM crisis September 1992 (Bundesbank DM defence stance); (ix) Standortdebatte 1993-94 over labour costs and East Asian competition; (x) Pflegeversicherung 1994-1995 long-term-care insurance; (xi) Rentenreform 1992 and 1997 demographic-factor adjustments; (xii) Bundesbank-Stability-Culture export — Stabilitätspakt Amsterdam June 1997 binding EMU fiscal rules designed by Waigel; (xiii) Euro conversion rates set 31 December 1998; (xiv) Bundesbahn reform 1994 rail privatisation/corporatisation. Popularity: 1987 election CDU/CSU 44.3%; 1990 Bundestagswahl first all-German election CDU/CSU 43.8%, FDP 11.0% (coalition 55%); 1994 CDU/CSU 41.5%, narrow continuation; 1998 lost to Schröder SPD-Grüne (CDU/CSU 35.1%, SPD 40.9%). Coherence: the reunification-EMU package was politically coherent around 'anchor Germany deeper in Europe' but economically strained by 1:1 GEMU parity (east unemployment spike and multi-decade transfer dependency) and by Solidaritätszuschlag's persistence.