West Germany and Namibia’s Path to Independence, 1969–1990. Foreign Policy and Rivalry with East Germany

In this study, Shanghai based Thorsten Kern shows that German West-East division played a vital role in West Germany’s position towards Namibia during the Cold War. The two German states’ deeply diverging policies, characterised in this context by competition for influence over SWAPO, were strongly affected by the Cold War rivalry between the capitalist West and the communist East. Yet ultimately, the dynamics of rapprochement helped to bring about Namibia’s independence.