On October 3, 1990, the German reunification was officially signed. The process that led to the unification of the “ two Germanys” - the western FRG and the eastern GDR, however, began earlier.
Germany had been divided for almost four decades when in June 1987, during a visit to the walled-in West Berlin, the then US President Ronald Reagan called out: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!". This is recalled by "Deutsche Welle".
This message caused more excitement than hope that it would be heard. Although most of the GDR's neighboring Eastern Bloc countries had begun to democratize and open up politically, East German leader Erich Honecker refused to follow Gorbachev's perestroika. In January 1989, he even threatened: "The Wall will remain in 50 and 100 years if the reasons for its existence are not removed."
Events follow one another
In 1989, only three percent of West Germans believed they would live to see reunification. However, a wave of emigration and mass street demonstrations put the GDR government under pressure. In early November, it was forced to adopt a regulation on limited freedom of travel. On the evening of November 9, 1989, Politburo member Günter Schabowski announced the decision to immediately open the borders, which was misinterpreted: "We have decided to adopt a regulation that allows every citizen of the GDR to freely cross the state borders and leave the country."
That same night, huge crowds of people stormed the Berlin Wall and without a single shot being fired, the GDR border regime collapsed. The fall of the wall was a triumph for the people of the street protests in Leipzig, Berlin and Dresden, influenced by the successes of the Polish Solidarity movement, the reformers in Hungary and, last but not least, by Gorbachev's reforms. The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the way for the unification of Germany. Without the wall, the socialist state disintegrated, and calls for a sovereign and democratic GDR were swept away by the people's strong desire for unification: "We are one people..."
In the first free elections for the People's Chamber in the GDR, the Alliance for Germany, led by the East German CDU, which declared itself in favor of rapid accession to the Federal Republic, won.
Helmut Kohl had long since seen his golden hour
In the West, with the support of all factions in the Bundestag, the government of Chancellor Kohl, a Christian Democrat, was feverishly negotiating with the new East German government and, at the same time, with the victorious countries of World War II. Preparations were being made to restore German unity. Helmut Kohl:
"We Germans have learned from history. We are a people who love peace and freedom. And never again will we leave democracy completely defenseless in the hands of the enemies of peace and freedom."
In the summer of 1990, the West German mark was introduced as legal tender in the GDR, and in August the People's Chamber decided to join the Federal Republic. A little later, the Unification Treaty was signed, and on the night of October 3, 1990, the whole of Germany celebrated its Unification.