The Reunification of Germany

In the aftermath of World War II, Germany was a defeated nation that was divided into different zones by its conquerors. The Americans, British, and French each controlled a portion of the Western half of Germany, while the Soviet Union controlled a vast block of Eastern Germany. After four years of allied occupation, these zones remained divided: the zones controlled by capitalist nations merged to form the new nation of West Germany, while the zone that the Soviet Union controlled struck out on its own as East Germany, a communist satellite state of the Russian homeland. During the period of the Cold War, it seemed as if the reunification of Germany was an impossible dream. These two states remained separated—in name, ideology, and with physical obstacles erected to prevent East Germans from defecting to the West—until 1989, when the Berlin Wall, a heavily guarded barrier that divided the city of Berlin for more than 25 years, was torn down. In March of 1990, the East, then known as the German Democratic Republic, merged with the West, called the Federal Republic of Germany. But just how did the reunification of Germany come about?

In March of 1990, the process of negotiating the reunification of Germany after the long separation began. After months of deliberation and a new election, the Germans and the occupying allied forces arrived at what was called the Two Plus Four Treaty, a document that granted the reunified Germany complete sovereignty, with the exception of a few limitations that remained from the outcome of the Second World War. Rather than form an entirely new nation out of the two halves, the officials decided simply to extend the constitution of West Germany to include the six East German States: Brandenbertg, Mecklenburg, Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. With the reunification of Germany, Berlin once again emerged as a unified city-state. The West German government wrote a new provision of its constitution, known as Article 23, which would allow the new states of East Germany to join with their fellow Western states as a whole nation. By November, the Germans had already outlined the boundaries of reunified Germany, withdrawing any claims they had to certain territories, such as the Silesia, East Brandenburg, Farther Pomerania, and Gdańsk. Later, in December, Germans held their first free election since the Nazis had come to power in 1933. The election resulted in the appointment of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

In commemoration of this historic event, October 3rd is now the official Day of German Unity (Tag der deutschen Einheit), a national holiday when Germans celebrate the reunification of Germany.