German

Reunification
JINGMING LI

Background information
The Potsdam Conference 1945
The Soviet zone became the German Democratic
Republic (East Germany)
. French, British, and American zones united to
form the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany).
The capital city of Berlin was divided into four
occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet
Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and
France. Germans lived under such imposed
divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War.

Economy Situation
East

Germany established an
authoritarian government with a
centralized command economy
West Germany developed a capitalist
social market economy and a
democratic parliamentary government.

Factors leading to Reunification

Into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of

economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly
decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics.
In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at
Brandenburg Gate.
In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost
(openness), perestroika (economic restructuring).
the Solidarity movement took hold in Poland.
a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc
that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence
and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West.

Process of Reunification
On 28 November 1989, West German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a 10-point
program.
In March 1990, the Party of Democratic
Socialism the renamed SED was roundly
defeated by a grand coalition headed by the
East German counterpart of Kohl's CDU.
On 18 May 1990, the two German states
signed a treaty agreeing on monetary,
economic and social union.

Process of Reunifcation
This treaty is called "Vertrag ber die
Schaffung einer Whrungs-, Wirtschaftsund Sozialunion zwischen der Deutschen
Demokratischen Republik und der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland"[4] in German.
with the Deutsche Mark replacing the East
German mark as the official currency of East
Germany.
the GDR transferred its financial policy
sovereignty to West Germany.

German Reunification Treaty

Signed on 31 August of 1990, and finally approved
by large majorities in the legislative chambers of
both countries on 20 September 1990
on 29 September 1990 Under article 45 of the
Treaty, it entered into force in international Law
officially reunited at 00:00 CET on 3 October
1990
East Germany joined the Federal Republic as the
five Lnder of Brandenburg, MecklenburgVorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and
Thuringia.

Conclusion
To

commemorate the day that marks

the official unification of the former East
and West Germany in 1990, 3 October
has since then been the official German
national holiday, the Day of German
Unity.
reunification was not a merger that
created a third state out of the two, but
an incorporation.

Work cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reun

ification#
Process_of_reunification
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perestroika
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmv
e/wiki100k/docs/
German_reunification.html
http://www.goethe.de/ges/pok/ddg/en27
485.
htm