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A Shared Environment

German–German Relations along the Border, 1945–72

Bibliographic Data

ID10073799
AuthorsTim Grady (0000-0001-5652-9032, University of Chester, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume50
Issue3
Pages660-679
Publication date2015-03-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0094 • E-ISSN: 1461-7250
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022009414564803
OpenAlexW1998322542
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited1

The division of Germany into two militarized blocs during the Cold War fundamentally shaped the lives of people living in both East and West. Yet, as recent scholarship has increasingly highlighted, there were also numerous areas of contact and interaction, whether in the cultural, political or social sphere. One largely overlooked aspect of these Cold War relations, which this article explores, is the environment. Focusing on the history of the shared German environment from the end of the Second World War through to the early 1970s, the article argues that on a local level, environmental problems helped to ensure the survival of cross-border relations. Despite their repeated efforts, the two states failed to divide the German landscape in half. Rivers, lakes and forests continually crossed the fortified border, while animals and plant life traversed from one side to the other too. In attempting to maintain this shared border landscape, East and West Germans were repeatedly forced into dialogue. Although relations gradually faded as the border regime was strengthened, it proved impossible for either side to escape fully the entangled German environment

Archaeology · Cold war · German · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · European history and politics · History · Law

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Unique citing works2
Citations per year0,67
Citation span2023 - 2023 (1)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 2

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