M.Phil. / The following study will examine the effects of the reunification of East Germany and West Germany on the South African coal exports to Germany. The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, and thereafter the reunification of East and West Germany took one year to complete. Before the reunification (1981 to 1988), the West German economy was booming, and the contributions of the different energy carriers to the West German energy consumption were as follows: Contribution in 19811 (%) Contribution in 1988 (%) Hard Coal! 20,9 19,1 Brown Coal 10,6 8,1 Oil 44,8 41,9 Gas 16,0 16,2 Nuclear 4,7 12,0 Other Energies 2,9 2,5 As West Germany is a country which is poor in indigenous energy resources, the majority of the above energies were and still are imported. Before reunification, West Germany had, however an established local hard coal mining industry. Due to rising expenses, however, the mining industry was being cut back. Production had decreased as had the number of people employed by the industry. The main consumers of hard coal were the electricity generation industry and production industries other than the iron and steel industry. To supplement hard coal supply, steam coal was being imported into West Germany. The countries of origin for these imports were South Africa, Poland, the USA, Australia, Canada, and more recently, Indonesia and Colombia. By contrast, the comparable energy picture for East Germany from 1981 to 1988 was as follows: Contribution in 1981 (%) Contribution in 1988 (%) Hard Coal 5,0 4,5 Brown Coal 64,4 68,5 Oil 16,5 13,2 Gas 9,2 9,3 Nuclear 4,0 3,7 Other Energies 0,8 0,5 The majority of the above energy was imported, but all the brown coal required was mined locally. Hard coal, which was required mainly for the iron and steel industry, was imported chiefly from Poland. The East German economy was close to bankruptcy shortly before the reunification. The extent of this condition, however, only became apparent after the reunification. The poor condition of the industries and their detrimental effect on the environment came as a shock to all. The initial step taken after the reunification, was to close all the East German nuclear power stations, mainly for safety reasons. Thereafter, large portions of the brown coal mining industry, along with many other sectors of the industry were closed while others were reconstructed. The enormous economic strength of West Germany was demonstrated in the speed with which the East was converted to a market economy. Effects of the reunification were also seen in the energy sector
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:2973 |
| Date | 22 August 2012 |
| Creators | Von Ketelhodt, Alison Freifrau |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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