American and Soviet Influence on the Characteristics of the Political Leadership of Germany, the GDR, and Unified Germany

The article presents the influence of the United States of America and the Soviet Union on the formation of political leadership types in the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and united Germany in 1990. The presented material briefly describes the typologies of political leadership presented in the political science discourse (typology of traditional, rational-legal and charismatic leade r Max Weber, typology of leader — ‘bannerman’, leader-‘merchant’, leader — ‘servant’ and leader — ‘fireman’ Margaret Hermann, typology ‘patriarch’, ‘tyrant’ and ‘ideal’ leader Cecil Jibb), that is possible in the future to relate the identified types to the political leaders of Germany — Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Willie Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, and Helmut Kohl and GDR — Walter Ulbricht and Eric Honecker. The economic, military, ideological and political influences of the two super-Powers of the «cold war» period are revealed based on the nodal events of the political history of the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

1. Petrov K. E. Images of political leaders in modern conditions through the prism of classical concepts. Gumanitarnye Nauki.Vestnik Finasovogo Universiteta = Humanities and Social Sciences. Bulletin of the Financial University. 2020;10(3):6–14. (In Russ.).

2. Fonarev A. V. Features and main types of political leadership. Vestnik Bryanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2014;(2):392–397. (In Russ.).

3. Nekrylova O. G. CDU on the way of formation of West German statehood (1948–1949). Zhurnal regional’noi istorii. 2018;2(2):49–64. (In Russ.).

4. Sorokin A. N. Evolution of the image of the Soviet Union by Willy Brandt. Vestnik Omskogo universiteta. Seriya “Istoricheskie nauki”. 2018;4(20):204–213. (In Russ.).