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In 1955 West Germany joined NATO, while East Germany joined the Warsaw Pact. The GDR was not recognized by Britain, as it followed the FRG's Halistein doctrine, according to which the FRG was the only legitimate German state. The Labour Party officially had no relations with the GDR, but after 1955 an increasing number of Labour MPs, including some senior figures, travelled to the GDR and openly voiced their opinion that the GDR should be recognized. Such visits produced tensions between the SPD and the Labour Party. The article analyses why the Labour Party risked those tensions. It asks where it differed in its assessment and its priorities from the SPD. And it explores how it sought to overcome the Cold War division of the continent by propagating a new Ostpolitik which preceded the better-known Ostpolitik pursued by Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr in the FRG after 1963. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]