|Area:||357,021 sq km (137,847 sq mi)|
|Population||(2000 est.): 82,207,000|
|Capital:||Berlin; some ministries remain in Bonn|
|Chief of state:||President Johannes Rau|
|Head of government:||Chancellor Gerhard Schröder|
In many ways the Federal Republic of Germany experienced the end of an era in 2000. The move of the seat of government from Bonn to Berlin was completed, and the 10th anniversary of German unification was celebrated. Perhaps the most striking change came with the strengthening profile of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)–Green government. Whereas the socialist-environmentalist alliance, formerly perennially in opposition, had appeared ill at ease during its first two years in power, 2000 saw the team put in place by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the fall of 1998 come into its own. The passage of landmark economic legislation strengthened the government’s credibility, as did the slight upturn in the economy. The relative absence of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which was struggling with party-financing scandals and a leadership crisis that left the party crippled and self-absorbed rather than taking the lead on the issues of concern to the electorate, further enhanced the presence of the “Red-Green” coalition. It was also the end of an era in terms of world affairs as Germany began to emerge from its self-imposed policy of containment and into greater responsibility in its dealings with other world powers, NATO, the European Union (EU), and the United Nations.
The domestic political scene was dominated during the year by the uproar surrounding CDU financing. News of the scandal affecting the second largest political party came to light in late 1999. Helmut Kohl had left the chancellorship in 1998 after 16 successful years in office, retiring as something of a national hero, so his rapid fall from grace was both a disappointment and an embarrassment to the nation. The events attracted unprecedented media attention by German standards. Kohl refused to name the party’s secret financiers, who, he acknowledged, had anonymously provided some DM 2 million (about $1.2 million) in funding between 1993 and 1998. One major casualty of the scandal was party chief Wolfgang Schäuble, Kohl’s longtime protégé, who had taken over the CDU in 1998. On February 16 Schäuble announced his intention to give up leadership of the party as well as his position as whip of the CDU faction in the Bundestag (second house of parliament) after it came out that he had personally accepted a briefcase containing more than DM 100,000 (DM 1 equaled about $1.62 in 1993) in cash in the early 1990s from arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber. Schäuble had earlier denied even knowing Schreiber.
A succession of revelations and rumours throughout the early months of the year kept the story bubbling in the media. Kohl steadfastly refused to name the donors of the illegal funds, asserting that his word of honour was more precious than the law. Kohl gave up his ceremonial chairmanship of the CDU but refused to yield his seat in the Bundestag, where his obduracy soon began to impede the party’s desire to put the scandal in the past and get down to the business of legislating. Awkward questions were raised as well by Kohl’s planned participation in ceremonies in October commemorating the 10th anniversary of German unification. Ultimately he chose not to attend after the issue had been debated within the party and examined minutely in the media for months on end.
The CDU’s troubles detracted attention from pressing policy issues, such as reforming the Bundeswehr (armed forces) to keep pace with post-Cold War defense requirements. This issue, together with the related political, economic, social, and foreign policy dimensions, was studied by an independent 21-member commission appointed by Schröder and headed by former president Richard von Weizsäcker. The commission’s report, released on May 23, concluded that “the Bundeswehr has no future in its current structure” because it had produced a surplus of manpower but a shortage of o