Putting Humpty-Dumpty Back Together Again: Communism’s Collapse and the Reconstruction of the East German Ex-Communist Party

The collapse of communism did not follow any single path in east central Europe. In Hungary and Poland, the transition was marked by early negotiations between opposition elites and the ruling Communist party. In East Germany and Czechoslovakia, the regimes fell victim to a sudden and quick implosion. In Romania and Bulgaria, internal coups replaced the ruling communist elite with other members of the nomenklatura. The transitions away from communist rule diverged from each other in timing, manner, and degree.