Definition of "Ostpolitik"

Ostpolitik

proper noun
1. The policies of West Germany under Chancellor Willy Brandt, seeking rapprochement with East Germany and the Soviet Union.
  Quotations
  One of the paradoxes of Ostpolitik, as practiced by Brandt and his successors, was that by transferring large sums of hard currency into East Germany and showering the GDR with recognition, attention, and support, West German officials unintentionally foreclosed any chance of internal change, including reform of Eastern Germany’s polluted, antiquated industrial economy.
  2005, Tony Judt, “The Power of the Powerless”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010
  Since Ostpolitik, the normalisation of relations between then West Germany and the east, policy has been predicated upon Russia being a status quo power, not an imperialist one.
  2022 February 28, Daniel Boffey, “Ukraine conflict leads EU to rid itself of Russian sacred cows”, in The Guardian‎, Guardian Media Group, retrieved 2022-02-28