German reunification

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This article is about the 1990 German reunification. For the 1871 German Empire, see Unification of Germany.

The division of Germany in 1949. The future West Germany (blue) consists of the American, British and French Zones (without the Saarland [purple], which later joined West Germany after a referendum), while East Germany (red) is formed from the Soviet Zone (without the western sections of Berlin [yellow]).

German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) took place on 3 October 1990, when the areas of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) were incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG / West Germany). The start of this reunification process is commonly referred to as Die Wende (The Turning / The Change).

After the GDR's first free elections on 18 March 1990, negotiations between the GDR and FRG culminated in a Unification Treaty, whilst negotiations between the GDR and FRG and the four occupying powers produced the so-called "Two Plus Four Treaty" granting full sovereignty to a unified German state, whose two halves had previously still been bound by a number of limitations stemming from its post-WWII-status as an occupied nation.

The reunified Germany remained a member of the European Community (later the European Union) and NATO.

1 Naming
2 Reunification
- 2.1 History
- 2.2 Effects
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Naming

There is debate as to whether the events of 1990 should be properly referred to as a "reunification" or a "unification". Proponents of the former use the term in contrast with the initial unification of Germany in 1871. Popular parlance, which uses "reunification", is deeply affected by the 1989 opening of the Berlin Wall (and the rest of the inner German border) and the physical reunification of the city of Berlin (itself divided only since 1961). Others, however, argue that 1990 represented a "unification" of two German states into a larger entity which, in its resulting form, had never before existed (see History of Germany). For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term "reunification" during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende. The most common term in German is "Deutsche Einheit" or "German unity"; German unity is the term that Hans-Dietrich Genscher used in front of international journalists to correct them when they asked him about "reunification" in 1990.

After 1990, the term "die Wende" became more common. The term generally refers to the events (mostly in Eastern Europe) that led up to the actual reunification; in its usual context, this term loosely translates to "the turnaround", without any further meaning. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the cultural connotation of the time and the events in the GDR that brought about this "turnaround" in German history.

[edit] Reunification

[edit] History

Police Officers of the East German Volkspolizei wait for the official opening of the Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989.

Germany was officially reunified at 00:00 CET on 3 October 1990, when the five reestablished federal states (Bundesländer) of East Germany–Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Berlin (formed by uniting the two halves of the formerly divided city) –formally joined the Federal Republic of Germany, choosing one of two options implemented in the West German constitution (Grundgesetz). As these five newly-founded German states formally joined the Federal Republic in accordance with the (then-existing) Article 23, the area in which the constitution served as the constitution was simply extended to include them. The alternative would have been for East Germany to join as a whole along the lines of a formal union between two German states that then would have had to, amongst other things, create a new constitution for the newly established country.

To facilitate this process and to reassure other countries, some changes were made to the "Basic Law" (constitution). Article 146 was amended so that Article 23 of the current constitution could be used for reunification. After the five "New Länder" of East Germany had joined, the constitution was amended again to indicate that all parts of Germany are now unified. Article 23 was rewritten as keeping it could be understood as an invitation to e.g. Austria to join. However, the constitution can be amended again at some future date and it still permits the adoption of another constitution by the German people at some time in the future.

On 14 November 1990, the German government signed a treaty with Poland, finalising Germany's boundaries as permanent along the Oder-Neisse line, and thus, renouncing any claims to Silesia, Farther Pomerania, Gdańsk (Danzig), and territories of the former province of East Prussia. The following month, the first all-German free elections since 1932 were held, resulting in an increased majority for the coalition government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

To commemorate the day that marks the official unification of the former East and West Germany in 1990, October 3rd has since then been the official German national holiday, the Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit). It replaced the previous national holiday held in West Germany on June 17th commemorating the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.

[edit] Effects

Throughout former East Germany, abandoned Soviet military installations remain. Nedlitz Caserne, near Potsdam, as seen in August 2002, is being redeveloped.

The cost of reunification came to be a heavy burden to the German economy, having contributed negatively to Germany’s almost stagnating economic growth in recent years. The total costs of reunification are estimated to amount to over €1.5 trillion, according to the Free University of Berlin. The primary reason for the hefty price tag was the weak East German economy, especially as it stood in comparison to West Germany; further, the exchange rate between the East German and West German currency was artificially inflated to be one-to-one-unit, largely for political reasons, with West Germany footing the bill. In spite of West Germany's large investments, many East German businesses collapsed in the face of West German and European competition. Even today, the German government still allocates over €10 billion to the development of the formerly East German states every year. During the 1980s, the capitalist economy of West Germany prospered, while the communist (socialist) economy of East Germany declined; subsequently, providing goods and services to East Germany strained the resources of the West. Uncompetitive industries formerly supported by the East German government were to be privatised, often resulting in their stripping or complete dissolution.

As a consequence of reunification, much of the former GDR has been de-industrialised, causing an unemployment rate of up to 25% in some areas. Thousands of former East Germans continue to migrate to western Germany to find jobs, resulting in the loss of significant parts of the eastern work force, especially highly skilled workers, who have shown themselves to be significantly more willing to move.

According to the German Bundesbank (central bank), the cause of many problems in the German economy are actually rooted in reunification, rather than the introduction of the Euro currency in 2002, as suggested by many economists.^[1]