Editing German reunification (section)

{{Short description|1989–1991 unification process of Germany}}
{{For|the unification of most German states in 1871|Unification of Germany}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox event
| title = German reunification
| partof = the [[Revolutions of 1989]] and the [[end of the Cold War]]
| image = West and East Germans at the Brandenburg Gate in 1989.jpg
| caption = Germans stand on top of the Wall in front of the [[Brandenburg Gate]] in the days before the Wall was torn down.
| native_name = ''Deutsche Wiedervereinigung''{{Clear}}''[[Die Wende]]''
| date = {{start and end dates|df=y|1989|11|09|1990|10|03}}{{-}}(Final agreement effective from 15 March 1991)
| place = {{ubli|
|{{flag|East Germany}}
|{{flag|West Germany}}
|↓
|{{flag|Germany}}
}}
| coordinates = 
| cause = [[Revolutions of 1989]]
* [[Peaceful Revolution]]
* [[Fall of the Berlin Wall]]
| result = Reunification of Germany under the Federal Republic
* [[Berlin Wall]] opened on 9 November 1989
* [[1990 East German general election|Free elections]] in East Germany return a pro-unification government (18 March 1990)
* East and West Germany establish a monetary union from a treaty signed 18 May 1990, effective 1 July 1990
* East Germany dissolves itself effective 3 October 1990 
* East German ''[[Länder]]'' of [[Brandenburg]], [[Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania]], [[Saxony]], [[Saxony-Anhalt]], and [[Thuringia]] reestablished to become states of the reunified Germany
* East German Länder join West Germany on 3 October 1990 under the Unification Treaty signed 31 August 1990
* East German territories reunify within the [[European Economic Community]] and [[NATO]]
* [[Two Plus Four Agreement]] signed 12 September 1990 restores full sovereignty to Germany, effective 15 March 1991
* [[East Berlin]] merges with [[West Berlin]] to form a reunited [[Berlin]] as the capital of Germany
* Reunited Germany [[Legal recognition|legally recognises]] the [[Germany–Poland border]] in the [[German–Polish Border Treaty]] of 1990
* Withdrawal of Soviet, then Russian troops completed 31 August 1994
* [[Berlin-Bonn Act|Relocation of the federal government to Berlin]] completed 2000
* The country becomes one of its [[Great power|great powers]] again
}}

[[File:Inter–German Locator.svg|thumb|300px|right|[[West Germany]] and [[East Germany]] (1949{{Efn|The Saarland was de facto separated from occupied Germany to become a protectorate in 1947, it became part of West Germany in 1957.}}–1990)]]
[[File:Flag_Map_of_Allied-Occupied_Germany.png|thumb|300px|right|[[Allied-occupied Germany]] and [[Saar Protectorate]]]]
[[File:Germany in Europe (-rivers -mini map).svg|thumb|300px|right|[[Germany]] (1990–present)]]
'''German reunification''' ({{langx|de|link=no|Deutsche Wiedervereinigung}}) was the process of re-establishing [[Germany]] as a single [[sovereign state]], which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] and the integration of its re-established constituent federated states into the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] to form [[Germany|present-day Germany]]. This date was chosen as the customary [[German Unity Day]], and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a [[national day|national holiday]].<ref name="Einigungsvertrag">{{Cite web |title=EinigVtr – Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands |url=http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/einigvtr/BJNR208890990.html |access-date=2022-03-06 |website=www.gesetze-im-internet.de |language=de |archive-date=20 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120144722/http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/einigvtr/BJNR208890990.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On the same date, [[East Berlin|East]] and [[West Berlin|West]] [[Berlin]] were also reunified into a single city, which eventually [[Decision on the Capital of Germany|became the capital]] of Germany.

The [[East German government]], controlled by the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED), started to falter on 2 May 1989, when the [[removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria]] opened a hole in the [[Iron Curtain]]. The border was still closely guarded, but the [[Pan-European Picnic]] and the indecisive reaction of the rulers of the Eastern Bloc started off an irreversible movement.<ref name="Böhlau Verlag">{{Citation |last1=Brait |first1=Andrea |title=Grenzöffnung 1989 – Offene Grenzen? |date=2014-07-06 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205793236.9 |work=Grenzöffnung 1989 |pages=9–44 |place=Wien |publisher=Böhlau Verlag |access-date=2022-03-06 |last2=Gehler |first2=Michael|doi=10.7767/boehlau.9783205793236.9 |isbn=978-3-205-79496-7 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Thomas Roser 2018">{{Cite journal |last=Sardemann |first=Gerhard |date=2010-08-01 |title=Die Welt aus den Angeln heben |journal=TATuP: Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=8–17 |doi=10.14512/tatup.19.2.8 |issn=2199-9201|doi-access=free }}</ref> It allowed an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany via [[People's Republic of Hungary|Hungary]]. The [[Peaceful Revolution]], part of the international [[revolutions of 1989]] including a series of protests by East German citizens, led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the [[1990 East German general election|GDR's first free elections]] on 18 March 1990, and then to negotiations between the two countries that culminated in a Unification Treaty.<ref name="Einigungsvertrag" /> Other negotiations between the two Germanies and the four occupying powers in Germany produced the [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany]], which granted on 15 March 1991 full [[sovereignty]] to a reunified German state, whose two parts had previously been bound by a number of limitations stemming from their post-[[World War II]] status as [[Allied-occupied Germany|occupation zones]], though it was not until 31 August 1994 that the last [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|Russian occupation troops]] left Germany.

After the [[end of World War II in Europe]], the old [[Nazi Germany|German Reich]], consequent on the [[German Instrument of Surrender|unconditional surrender of all German armed forces]] and the total absence of any German central government authority, had effectively ceased to exist, and Germany was [[Allied-occupied Germany|occupied]] and divided by the four Allied countries. There was no peace treaty. Two countries emerged. The [[American occupation zone in Germany|American-occupied]], [[British occupation zone in Germany|British-occupied]], and [[French occupation zone in Germany|French-occupied]] zones combined to form the FRG, i.e., West Germany, on 23 May 1949. The [[Soviet occupation zone in Germany|Soviet-occupied]] zone formed the GDR, i.e., East Germany, in October 1949. The West German state [[Enlargement of NATO|joined NATO]] in 1955. In 1990, a range of opinions continued to be maintained over whether a [[Germany|reunited Germany]] could be said to represent "Germany as a whole"{{Efn|The sentence "Germany as a whole" was recorded in the Potsdam Agreement to mention Germany.}} for this purpose. In the context of the revolutions of 1989; on 12 September 1990, under the [[Two Plus Four Treaty]] with the four Allies, both East and West Germany committed to the principle that their joint pre-1990 boundary constituted the entire territory that could be claimed by a government of Germany.

The reunited state is not a [[successor state]], but an enlarged continuation of the 1949–1990 West German state. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany retained the West German seats in the governing bodies of the [[European Economic Community]] (EEC) (later the [[European Union]]) and in international organizations including the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO) and the [[United Nations]] (UN), while relinquishing membership in the [[Warsaw Pact]] (WP) and other international organizations to which only East Germany belonged.