German reunification
Мore than 30 years ago, on 3 October 1990, Germany regained its unity - and to this day,
German Unity Day is celebrated as the national holiday of this most economically powerful
EU country. On October 3, 1990, not only Germany but the whole of Europe rejoiced - the
Germans, because the political division was removed and they again felt masters of their
destiny, the Eastern Europeans, because this unification was taken as a first step towards
pan-European unity, the Western Europeans in view of the fact that they are the winners of
the four-and-a-half-decade-long Cold War. In other words, about a quarter of a century ago,
most Europeans were so excited that almost no one wanted to heed the warnings not to
rush, but to first consider the consequences of this geopolitical change in central Europe. But
let's go back to 1989 - the "year of miracles", which changed Europe and the world and
marked the beginning of a new era,
In 23 August 1989, after the opening of the Hungarian-Austrian border, the “escape” of East Germans
across Hungary began, which threatened to depopulate the country. At the same time, a new, more
radical demand was put on the agenda - unification with the FRG. The response to these demands
was the speech of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Kohl in the West
German Bundestag with a 10-point program dedicated to the development of relations between the
two German states. This program consisted of a list of measures to strengthen cooperation between
the two German states, promises of immediate concrete assistance to the GDR in the humanitarian
sphere, in particular the creation of a monetary fund to finance the trips of East Germans to the West
(Germany, back in 1983-1984, becomes one of the heads of Creditors of the GDR), proposals for the
creation of a contractual German community with new joint institutions and the expansion of the
functions of the existing ones. Confirming the need to develop and deepen cooperation with the
GDR, the Chancellor expressed his intention to create in the future a confessional unification of
Germany. The peaceful unification of Germany could only be carried out by negotiation. The first
major step on this path was the Treaty on Economic, Monetary and Social Union of May 18, 1990,
the entry into force of which led to monetary reform. As a result, the GDR stamps were replaced by
Deutsch stamps, which became a single means of payment on the territory of the two German states
still existing in parallel. The conditions of the monetary reform were a crushing blow to the already
shaken economy of the GDR, led to an increase in the indebtedness of its enterprises, which were
extremely low, in comparison with West German, labor productivity. The next important step
towards achieving German unity was the agreement between the GDR and the FRG, signed in August
1990, according to which, in order to achieve legal unification, a "single electoral territory" was
created, in which all elections were to pass according to the electoral laws and rules adopted in the
Federal Republic of Germany.
The images of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 are etched in everyone's mind. The
unification of Germany, on the other hand, took place almost quietly a little less than a year
later. Then the fate of German unification was decided, and then the first warnings were
heard about the undesirable consequences of the complete reorganization of the post-war
order. The fears of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who always carries a map of
pre-war Germany in her famous bag, and of French President Francois Mitterrand that a
united Germany could upset the balance of power in a united Europe. But the strong desire
of USSR and US Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev and George W. Bush to end the Cold War,
mass enthusiasm and sympathy for divided Germans led European leaders to accept Helmut
Kohl's plan for unification.
In 1990 Helmut Kohl met Gorbachev in Moscow. The Soviet leader recognized the Germans'
right to reunification.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl
in Moscow (2 October , 1988).
On September 12, 1990, the Treaty on the Final Settlement of the German Question was
signed between the victors of World War II - the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France,
and the two German states.
October 3, 1990 was an epochal change: The territories of the German Democratic Republic
(East Germany, DDR) were incorporated into the then "West Germany".
1990 Day of German Unity, with flags of German states at the Reichstag building in Berlin
What remains of the East, thirty years later, many urban centers of former Communist
Germany have been carefully restored and new factories have sprung up, but many others
have not survived the abrupt transition to capitalism. Like the automotive ones. Just think of
the famous Trabant and the most exclusive - but still Spartan by Western standards -
Wartburg which closed its doors in 1991.
An abandoned production
building of the former East
German VEB car factory where
BMWthe
" But anddifferences
Wartburg carsare
werestill
built (Eisenach, eastern Germany,
Sept. A
felt. 22, 2020.) (AP cultural
country's
Photo/Michael Probst)
consciousness cannot change quickly. I was one of the first to describe the so-
called 'wall in the head'. That cultural wall between West and East Germany. And
it was crazy that politicians don't 'they had seen. But when I wrote' the Jumper of
the Wall 'at the time, I thought in my turn that a generation would be enough. But
no: at least two, three were needed ". To take stock of German reunification 30
years later is the German writer Peter Schneider, who in an interview with ANSA
says: "We all made the mistake of forgetting that children have parents. And that
parents influence more than any other factor in children's heads and what they
feel and think ". And so, Even in Europe, according to Schneider, the distance
between the countries of East and West is still visible: "We see that building a
democracy is a long and complicated process and that there are always
repercussions. Cultural awareness , cultural habits are something that changes
much more slowly than highways or technology.
Useful links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tdw29LduG4 : German Reunification Explained
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-reunification-2020/a-55131890 : Germany faces old
problems 30 years after reunification
https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-reunification-of-Germany : The
reunification of Germany
