Seppo Hentilä’s scientific contributions

Stuck between the blocs of the Cold War, Finland was not able - as the only country in the world - to establish full diplomatic relations with either of the German states until 1973. The leading political party in Finland since 1966, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in 1967 undertook an initiative to normalize Finland's German policy on the basis of acknowledging the existence of the two German states as an unchangeable reality. The SDP's new German policy was prepared by a Party Commission, headed by the MP and professor of political history, L. A. Puntila. In April 1968 the SDP executive approved a statement on German policy, formulated by Puntila's Commission. The real objective of the statement was to raise the Eastern political profile of the Party, and Professor Puntila's profile as well. The ideas of the German political statement, which Puntila presented in both German states in 1968, were bitterly criticized in the West, and on the contrary, approved with applause in the East.