Securing Building Permits

This chapter details how Helmut Kohl still had to secure building permits to start work even after the prefab model emerged as the winner among the models. Kohl particularly had to convince Gorbachev because he needed some form of permission from not only Moscow but also Warsaw to proceed with his plans for East Germany. Close cooperation between Kohl and the Bush administration ensued—which involved the chancellor and his aides making repeated trips to the States in spring and summer 1990, often just weeks apart—with the mission of finding ways to convince their NATO allies to make reform a reality in time to sway Gorbachev. In the second half of 1990, Kohl got the building permits that he needed to move the prefabricated structures that had served West Germany well—its alliance, constitution, currency, and market economy—eastward to replace the ruins of Eastern socialism.