A Political and Economic Dictionary of Western Europe, First Edition
German unification occurred when the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) were formally united on 3 October 1990. This event followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the socialist state system of the GDR in November 1989. According to the Constitution of the FRG, the Basic Law, there were two possible methods for completing German unification. Paragraph 146 provided for the termination of both German states and the drafting of a new constitution for the new, unified state. Paragraph 23 made it possible to extend the FRG to new states (Länder) within Germany so that they became part of the FRG. On 23–24 August 1990 the East German parliament voted by 294 of 400 votes to come under the purview of the Basic Law of the FRG and German unification was thus completed according to Paragraph 23. On the day of German unification the GDR ceased to exist and the FRG was extended to the five new Länder in the east.
German unification had also to be agreed by the Allies. While the USA had no reservations, the Soviet Union (USSR) at first opposed the plans on the grounds that it did not wish a unified Germany to become part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The United Kingdom and France were concerned about the implications of having a larger and more powerful Germany in the European Union.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl reassured the Allies by promising to limit the number of German troops and to lock Germany further into the process of European integration. At the final ‘2+4 Talks’ in Moscow, USSR, on 12 September 1990 the foreign ministers of the FRG, the GDR, France, the USSR, the United Kingdom and the USA signed an agreement regulating the external aspects of German unification and returning full sovereignty to unified Germany from 3 October 1990.
It took just under one year to complete the process of German unification. However, unification as an outcome was by no means inevitable. From the 1970s the two Germanys were recognized as separate states and the Ostpolitik of Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1969–74 promoted peaceful co-existence of the two states over unification. The protesters in the 1989 revolution did not initially specifically demand unification, but rather freedom to travel and democratic reform of the GDR state. Chancellor Helmut Kohl published a Ten Point Plan in November 1989 which proposed a confederation of the two German states and the idea of unification became increasingly popular. In the democratic election to the Volkskammer held in the GDR in March 1990 the pro-unification parties of the right gained the highest number of votes (48%). GDR citizens were voting, among other things, to adopt the Deutsche Mark (DM) as their national currency. Monetary, economic and social union was completed on 1 July 1990 and the East German currency was replaced by the DM at a general rate of one-to-one.
The term German unification is often used interchangeably with German reunification. However, since Germany in its present form and with its current borders has never existed before, the term unification is preferable.
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