Putting Humpty-Dumpty Back Together Again: Communism’s Collapse and the Reconstruction of the East German Ex-Communist Party
in German Politics and Society
Author:
Daniel F. Ziblatt
Daniel F. Ziblatt
University of California, Berkeley
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The collapse of communism did not follow any single path in east
central Europe. In Hungary and Poland, the transition was marked
by early negotiations between opposition elites and the ruling Communist
party. In East Germany and Czechoslovakia, the regimes fell
victim to a sudden and quick implosion. In Romania and Bulgaria,
internal coups replaced the ruling communist elite with other members
of the nomenklatura. The transitions away from communist rule
diverged from each other in timing, manner, and degree.