-
How did the Federal Republic of Germany navigate the “end of the boom” era, characterized by economic stagnation, the rise of post-materialist politics (the Greens), and the conservative restoration under Helmut Kohl, and to what extent did this period of domestic turbulence paradoxically stabilize the nation for the unexpected challenge of reunification? This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the final phase of the “old” Federal Republic, spanning from the 1973 Oil Crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It examines the erosion of the social-liberal consensus as the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) ground to a halt, leading to the…