Osthandel and Ostpolitik: German Foreign Trade Policies in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer Monographs in German History, Vol 1

Robert Mark Spaulding, Department of History, University of North Carolina at Wilmington Long eclipsed by the scope of the Atlantic economy, obscured by Anglo-German rivalry, and nearly destroyed by the post-1945 division of Europe, the flow of goods across East Central Europe has been, nonetheless, an immensely significant pattern of European economic exchange.

For Germany, the Osthandel was both a blessing and a curse; its bounty provided much of the raw material for the rise of German economic and political power in Europe while its lure tantalized German ambitions to the point of madness. (From the Introduction). Based on rich archival material, this wide-ranging study documents and analyses for the first time a vitally important aspect of German-East European relations over a seventy-year period.

It spans the years from the very first trade treaty between the German and Russian empires to the postwar establishment of full commercial relations between the Federal Republic and the Soviet Union. A brief Epilogue probes the continuities of German policy in the period from 1960-1990.