German Reunification (1990): How East and West Germany Became One

German reunification took place on 3 October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). It ended 41 years of division that had followed the Second World War and the start of the Cold War. Less than eleven months after the opening of the Berlin Wall, a sequence of elections, a currency union and international treaties created a single sovereign German state at the heart of Europe.

Background: a divided nation

After Germany’s defeat in 1945 the country was divided into four occupation zones run by the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The Allies’ plans were set out at the Potsdam Conference, but cooperation soon broke down. In 1949 two states were founded: the democratic Federal Republic in the west, with its capital in Bonn, and the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east.

West Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law, was written as a provisional document and set reunification as a goal. Millions of East Germans fled west until the GDR sealed the border, culminating in the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. By the 1980s the two states recognised each other in practice, and few politicians expected unity within their lifetimes.

In 1989 everything changed. Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the Soviet Union, Hungary’s opening of its border and mass protests in East German cities shook the GDR leadership. On 9 November 1989, after a confused announcement of new travel rules, crowds forced open the border crossings in Berlin. The story of that night is told in the article on the fall of the Berlin Wall.

From the fall of the Wall to the March election

At first the question was whether the GDR would survive as a reformed socialist state. A new government under Hans Modrow promised change, and a Central Round Table of government and opposition groups began meeting in East Berlin on 7 December 1989. Many civil rights activists hoped for a democratic but separate East Germany.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl took the initiative on 28 November 1989 with a Ten-Point Plan that foresaw confederative structures leading eventually to a federation. On the streets, the chant of the protests shifted from “We are the people” to “We are one people”. East Germans continued to move west in large numbers, about 2,000 a day in early 1990, putting heavy pressure on both states.

The decisive moment came with the GDR’s first and only free parliamentary election on 18 March 1990. Turnout was over 90 per cent. The Alliance for Germany, led by the eastern Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and backed by Kohl, won about 48 per cent of the vote on a platform of rapid unification. The CDU’s Lothar de Maizière became prime minister of a broad coalition on 12 April 1990.

Currency union and the Unification Treaty

The first major step was economic. A treaty on monetary, economic and social union was signed on 18 May 1990 and took effect on 1 July 1990. From that day the West German Deutsche Mark became the currency of the GDR. Wages, salaries and pensions were converted at a rate of one to one, and personal savings at one to one up to an age-dependent limit, with larger sums at two to one.

The generous rate was politically popular but economically risky. East German industry, much less productive than its western counterpart, suddenly had to pay wages in hard currency and lost its traditional markets in the Soviet bloc. Many firms collapsed within months.

The legal route to unity was Article 23 of the Basic Law, which allowed other parts of Germany to join the Federal Republic. On 23 August 1990 the East German parliament, the Volkskammer, voted by 294 to 62, with 7 abstentions, to join with effect from 3 October 1990. The Unification Treaty, negotiated by West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and East German State Secretary Günther Krause, was signed in East Berlin on 31 August 1990. It ran to hundreds of pages and covered everything from law and property to the future capital.

The international settlement and unity day

Unity also required the agreement of the four Second World War Allies, which still held rights over Berlin and Germany as a whole. Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and France’s President François Mitterrand were at first wary of a larger Germany. The United States under President George H. W. Bush strongly supported unity provided Germany remained in NATO.

The key concession came from Moscow. At meetings in Moscow and the Caucasus in July 1990, Gorbachev accepted that a united Germany could choose its alliance. In return Kohl promised to cap the German armed forces at 370,000, to renounce nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and to help finance the withdrawal of Soviet troops from East Germany.

These terms were written into the Two Plus Four Treaty, signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990 by the two German states and the four powers. It confirmed united Germany’s borders, including the Oder–Neisse line with Poland, and ended the Allies’ special rights.

On the evening of 2 October 1990 large crowds gathered in Berlin. At midnight the black, red and gold Flag of Unity was raised in front of the Reichstag building, while the national anthem was played and fireworks lit the sky. The GDR ceased to exist.

Its territory became five federal states, or Länder: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, while East and West Berlin were joined into a single state. About 16 million East Germans joined some 63 million West Germans in a country of roughly 79 million people.

On 2 December 1990 the first all-German federal election returned Kohl’s coalition of Christian Democrats and Free Democrats to power. In June 1991 the Bundestag voted narrowly, by 338 to 320, to move the seat of parliament and government from Bonn to Berlin, a move completed in 1999.

Key people

Helmut Kohl, West German chancellor since 1982, seized the opportunity of 1989 and pushed for rapid unity, both at home and in talks with Washington and Moscow. He became known as the “chancellor of unity”.

Lothar de Maizière, a lawyer and musician, led the only freely elected East German government. His task was to negotiate the end of his own state on the best possible terms for East Germans.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, refused to use force to save the East German regime and in July 1990 accepted a united Germany in NATO. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, West Germany’s long-serving foreign minister, led the diplomatic negotiations, while Wolfgang Schäuble negotiated the Unification Treaty.

Consequences

The economic transition was harsh. A trust agency, the Treuhandanstalt, took over around 8,500 state-owned enterprises and privatised, restructured or closed them. Industrial production in the east fell sharply, and unemployment rose to well over 15 per cent in many eastern regions during the 1990s. Hundreds of thousands of people, especially young adults, moved west.

At the same time, huge sums were invested in roads, railways, housing, telecommunications and the restoration of historic towns. A “solidarity surcharge” on income tax was introduced in 1991 to help pay the costs. Living standards in the east rose substantially, although wages and wealth there remain on average below western levels.

Reunification also meant confronting the past. The files of the East German secret police were opened to the people they had spied on, a process that began with the storming of the Stasi headquarters in January 1990. Former border guards and some political leaders were put on trial for killings at the border.

Myths and facts

Myth: East and West Germany merged as equals. In fact the GDR joined the existing Federal Republic, whose constitution, laws, currency and institutions were extended to the east. This is one reason many East Germans later felt their experience had been overlooked.

Myth: Germany’s national day marks the fall of the Wall. The Day of German Unity is 3 October, the date of formal unification, not 9 November.

Myth: Unification was certain from the moment the Wall fell. In November 1989 almost no leader expected unity within a year. The speed was driven by the March 1990 election, continued emigration from the east and a brief window of Soviet cooperation.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1989, 9 November: The Berlin Wall is opened.
• 1989, 28 November: Helmut Kohl presents his Ten-Point Plan.
• 1990, 18 March: The first free election in East Germany favours rapid unity.
• 1990, 1 July: The monetary, economic and social union takes effect; the Deutsche Mark arrives in the east.
• 1990, 23 August: The Volkskammer votes to join the Federal Republic.
• 1990, 31 August: The Unification Treaty is signed in East Berlin.
• 1990, 12 September: The Two Plus Four Treaty is signed in Moscow.
• 1990, 3 October: Germany is reunified.
• 1990, 2 December: The first all-German federal election is held.

Why it matters

German reunification was the clearest sign that the Cold War division of Europe was over. It created the largest state in the European Union by population, reshaped NATO and the European project, and showed that a deep political division could be overcome peacefully. Its economic and social effects, in both east and west, continue to shape German politics more than three decades later.