German reunification

• External factors: German reunification

  • until 1969 WG politicians publicly asserted the necessity of reunification
  • mid-1980s - prospect of reunification widely regarded across WG and EG
  • August 1989 - Hungary’s government no longer feared the intrusion of Soviet tanks and made plans for free elections
  • 30 October 1989 - total 50k EG crossed the Hungarian border
• Internal factors: German reunification

  • 1989 - EG began informal meetings which escalated into mass demonstration calling for reform and democratic change
  • Gorbachev refused to end the demonstrations due to his support for reform
  • 12 November 1989 - 500k EG were in West Berlin
  • demonstrations continued after the fall of the Wall
  • 3 October 1990 - official reunification
• Eastern perception of the West:

  • the land of opportunity and freedom
  • exaggerated ideas of the benefits of unification
  • government targetted to antagonise the West’s capitalistic ideology → enthralled East German’s instead
• Consequences of reunification:

  • plan developed to modernise EG infrastructure → heavy economic drain
  • 1994 - mass migration into WG → market shortages, higher unemployment, housing crunches
  • tensions between WG and former EG → had different work ethics and classes and resented the cost of reunification
  • severe unemployment in major EG cities (over 25%) → citizens yearned for the past
• Two Plus Four Treaty:

  • 12 September 1990 - treated signed by Germany, GDR, France, Russia, UK and US which sealed the foreign policy aspect of reunification
  • 15 March 1991 - entry of the Two Plus Four Treaty into force
• United Germany member of NATO:

  • Two Plus Four Treaty envisaged that united Germany would belong to NATO
  • German armed forces reduced to 370k soldiers
  • renouncement of atomic, biological and chemical weapons