Discussions between Brandt and East German leader Willi Stoph began quickly, but no formal settlement was reached as Brandt was unwilling to recognize the East as a sovereign state. In 1970 the Treaty of Moscow was signed between West Germany and the Soviets and quickly afterwards treaties with Poland (Treaty of Warsaw in 1970) and other Eastern Bloc states were signed.
The most controversial agreement was the Basic Treaty of 1972 that created mutual recognition between the FRG and GDR as two separate states (though explicitly not as ...
The goal of the Ostpolitik of the 1970s was to surmount but not to reverse the existing status quo between the two German states, which were formed in 1948 after World War II, and to ultimately lead to their reunification, while giving up the goal of immediate reunification as a prerequisite to all other decisions.
Among the elements of Ostpolitik was abandonment of the Hallstein Doctrine and recognition of the Oder-Ne ...
The word Ostpolitik was adopted by many languages and now stands for the proverbial "Change through Rapprochement" principle, verbalised by Egon Bahr in his 1963 speech.
The current (as of 2005) Sunshine policy of South Korea towards the North is in many ways similar to the German Ostpolitik of the 1970s.
...
