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Abstract
What impact did France have on the speed and final outcome of German unification in 1990? The opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, took the French government by surprise. This dissertation contrasts the constancy of France's publicly avowed commitment to liberal democratic values against Mitterrand's secret diplomacy to delay or block German unification from the opening of the Berlin Wall to German unification on October 3, 1990. Mitterrand held separate private meetings Gorbachev, Thatcher and the East German leadership in which he attempted to broker a deal to obstruct rapid German unification. The research finds that France was constrained to accept German unification through international treaties and institutions and its commitment to liberal democratic values. Mitterrand tried to work outside these frameworks and failed. When events overtook even Helmut Kohl's timetable for German unity, France had to accept this inevitability and attempted to maximize its position by working within these frameworks and achieved a modest amount of influence.
In early 1990, when unification appeared increasingly inevitable, the French government developed policies to maximize its position within the negotiations for the settlement of the external aspects of German unification (the 2 + 4 talks), the European Community, the former Eastern bloc, and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe; and to minimize the damage that Mitterrand's obstructionism had caused to Franco-German relations. It was not until March and April 1990 that France and Germany resumed favorable relations and began a series of bilateral initiatives within Europe and the European Community.
This research draws upon archival materials and publications in French, German and Russian that are not available in English. Extensive interviews conducted in Paris with French foreign policymakers serve as the basis for understanding the inner-workings of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and how it responded to the spectre of rapid German unification.
