West Germans were better off in the 1980s than ever before, but an increasing number of people, especially among the younger generation, were convinced that a global crisis was at hand. One topic dominated the public debate: the protection of the environment and, in particular, of the dying forests. West Germans faced a dilemma, since car emissions caused the environmental damage. It appeared they would have to forsake either their beloved cars or their cherished forests. The establishment of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety in 1986 underscored the growing political importance of environmental protection. |  | In its Germany policy, the government of Helmut Kohl continued the course set by the Social Democratic-Liberal coalition. The visit of Erich Honecker, chairman of the State Council of East Germany, to the Federal Republic in 1987 was the high point of a Germany policy whose objective was to normalize the relations between both German states. Both sides were learning to live with the division, if reluctantly. The West German government actively promoted the process of European integration. No one foresaw the importance of the policy of "perestroika," initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, for the German nation.
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