Editing German reunification (section)

== Precursors to reunification ==
{{Further|History of Germany (1945–1990)}}
{{History of Germany}}
[[File:Deutschland Besatzungszonen 8 Jun 1947 - 22 Apr 1949.svg|thumb|right|One map about Germany which shows the [[Allied-occupied Germany|four Allied occupation zones]] (''de facto'' not including [[Saar Protectorate|Saarland]]) in Germany (1947–1949)]]
[[File:Fotothek df pk 0000172 011 Porträt, Ernst.jpg|thumb|300px|right|{{left|An East German political event on 21 April 1946: [[Otto Grotewohl]] (right) and [[Wilhelm Pieck]] (left) seal the [[Merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|merger of two parties, SPD and KPD]], to form the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]], a communist party that would dominate the future East German state, with a symbolic handshake. Walter Ulbricht is seated in the foreground to the right of [[Otto Grotewohl|Grotewohl]].}}{{right |''[[Avraham Pisarek]]''}}]]
[[File:Germans-airlift-1948.jpg|thumb|[[Berlin Blockade]] (1948–1949)]]
[[image:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26569, Frankfurt-Main, Frankfurter Konferenz.jpg|thumb|right|200px|West German prime ministers and mayors received the British, American, and French occupiers' [[Frankfurt Documents]] which contained recommendations for the establishment new state and formed a working basis for the [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany]]; 1 July 1948]]
[[File:Berliner Mauer, ostdeutscher Grenzer beobachtet Räumung des Kubat-Dreieck.jpg|thumb|right|[[Berlin Wall]] (1961–1989)]]
[[File:DBP 249 Eingliederung Saarland 10 Pf 1957.jpg|thumb|right|Stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost (1957) for the [[reunification|political incorporation]] of the Saarland into the Federal Republic of Germany on 1 January 1957 with the [[Coat of arms of Saarland|new state coat of arms]] of the [[Saarland]]]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 175-14676, Leipzig, Reichsgericht, russischer Panzer.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Soviet [[Iosif Stalin tank|IS-2 tank]] in [[Leipzig]] in the [[East German uprising of 1953]] on 17 June]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-M0925-406, New York, Fahnen vor dem UNO-Gebäude.jpg|thumb|Flags of the two Germanies in front of the [[United Nations headquarters]], September 1973]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P1219-0310, Berlin, Unterzeichung Abkommen Transitgebührenpauschale.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|On 19 December 1975, the permanent representative [[Günter Gaus]] signed an agreement on transit fees with the head of department in the [[Ministry of Finance (East Germany)|East German Ministry of Finance]], Hans Nimmerich, in the House of Ministries]]
After the [[Death of Adolf Hitler|suicide of Adolf Hitler]] on 30 April 1945, [[Karl Dönitz]] assumed the title of ''[[President of Germany (1919–1945)|Reichspräsident]]'' in accordance with [[Last will and testament of Adolf Hitler|Hitler's last political testament]]. As such, he authorised the signing of the [[German Instrument of Surrender|unconditional surrender of all German armed forces]], which took effect on 8 May 1945. He tried to establish a government under [[Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk|Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk]] in [[Flensburg Government|Flensburg]]. This government, however, was not recognised by the Allies; and Dönitz and all its other members were arrested on 23 May by British forces. On 5 June 1945, in Berlin, the supreme commanders of the four occupying powers signed a common [[Berlin Declaration (1945)|Berlin Declaration]], which formally confirmed the defeat of [[Nazi Germany]] in [[World War II]], as well as the complete legal extinction of the [[German Reich]] with the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945<ref>{{Cite journal| volume = 41|issue = 6|last = Kelsen| first = Hans| title = Is a peace treaty with Germany legally Possible and Politically Desirable?| journal = American Political Science Review| year = 1947|pages = 1188–1193| doi=10.1017/s0003055400261108}}</ref> Germany was occupied by four countries representing the victorious [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] signing the agreement (US, UK, France, and the USSR). The declaration also formed the [[Allied Control Council]] (ACC) of these four countries ruling Germany,<ref>{{cite book|last= Heller| first =Kevin Jon| title = The Nuremberg Military Tribunals| publisher = OUP| date = 2011| page  = 116}}</ref><ref name="Ziemke 1990 114">{{cite book|last= Ziemke| first = Earl Frederick| title = The US Army and the Occupation of Germany 1944–1946| publisher = Center of Military History, United States Army| date = 1990| pages = 114}}</ref> and confirmed the German borders which had been in force before [[Anschluss|the annexation of Austria]]. With the Potsdam Agreement at the [[Potsdam Conference]] between the three main Allies defeating the European [[Axis Powers|Axis]] (US, UK, and the USSR) on 2 August 1945, Germany was divided by the Allies into occupation zones, each under the [[military government]] of one of these four countries. The agreement also modified Germany's border, with the country ''de facto'' losing its [[Former eastern territories of Germany|former territories]] east of the [[Oder–Neisse line]] to Poland and the Soviet Union (most for Poland because the [[Kresy|eastern territories]] of [[Second Polish Republic|former Poland]] were annexed by the USSR). Germany's border decision came under pressure{{clarify|date=October 2024}} from Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union. During and after the war, many ethnic Germans who had lived in the historically German lands in [[Central and Eastern Europe]], including territories east of the Oder–Neisse line, [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|fled and were expelled]] to post-war German and Austrian territory. Saarland, an area in the [[French occupation zone in Germany|French occupation zone]], was separated from Germany when its own constitution took effect, to become [[Saar protectorate|a French protectorate]] on 17 December 1947.<ref>Koch, Tonia (23 January 2013) [http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/die-praeambel-macht-den-unterschied.1001.de.html?dram:article_id=235212 ''Die Präambel macht den Unterschied. Zur Landesverfassung des Saarlands und ihrer Geschichte.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329140450/http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/die-praeambel-macht-den-unterschied.1001.de.html?dram:article_id=235212|date=29 March 2017}} In: ''[[Deutschlandfunk]]''; [https://www.landtag-saar.de/landtag/ein-langer-weg-nach-europa/aufbau-der-demokratie-an-der-saar/ ''Aufbau der Demokratie an der Saar.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516190631/https://www.landtag-saar.de/landtag/ein-langer-weg-nach-europa/aufbau-der-demokratie-an-der-saar/|date=16 May 2023}} In: ''Landtag-Saar.de.''</ref>

===Developments from 1948===
Among the Allies, geo-political tension between the Soviet Union and Western Allies in [[occupied Germany]] as part of their tension in the world led the Soviets to ''de facto'' withdraw from the ACC on 20 March 1948 (four occupying countries restored the act of the ACC in 1971) and [[Berlin Blockade|blockade West Berlin]] (after the introduction of a [[Deutsch Mark|new currency]] in West Germany on 20 June of the same year) from 20 June 1948 to 12 May 1949, but the USSR could not force the three Western Allies to withdraw from West Berlin as they wanted; consequently, the foundation of a new German state became impossible. The Federal Republic of Germany, or "West Germany", a [[liberal democracy]], was established in the [[American occupation zone in Germany|US]], [[British occupation zone in Germany|UK]], and [[French occupation zone in Germany|French]] zones on 23 May 1949. West Germany was ''de jure'' established in the [[Trizone]] occupied by three Western Allies and established on 1 August 1948. Its forerunner was the [[Bizone]] formed by the US and UK zones on 1 January 1947 before the inclusion of the French zone.<ref name=EU>{{cite web |title=The division of Germany |url=https://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/55c09dcc-a9f2-45e9-b240-eaef64452cae/5d3b421b-9a4b-46fc-a041-fab64325d6a6 |website=Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe |publisher=The University of Luxembourg |access-date=31 July 2019 |archive-date=31 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731050913/https://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/55c09dcc-a9f2-45e9-b240-eaef64452cae/5d3b421b-9a4b-46fc-a041-fab64325d6a6 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wegs">{{Cite book |last1=Wegs |first1=J. Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5tGEAAAQBAJ |title=Europe Since 1945: A Concise History |last2=Ladrech |first2=Robert |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-230-21122-3 |edition=5th |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lehmann |first=Hans Georg |title=Chronik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: 1945/49-1981 |date=1981 |publisher=Beck |isbn=978-3-406-06035-9 |series=Beck'sche schwarze Reihe |location=München |page=18 |language=de}}</ref> The Trizone did not include West Berlin, which was also occupied by three Western Allies, although the city was ''de facto'' part of the West German state; the German Democratic Republic or "East Germany", a [[communist state]] with a [[planned economy|planned]] and [[public property|public economy]] which declared itself as the new state and the [[Succession of states|successor]] of the German Reich,<ref>Donald M. McRae, ''Canadian Yearbook of International Law 2005'', Vol. 43, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 2006, p. 431.</ref> a legal-former German state (in contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany, which considered itself a state partially identical with the German Reich and not merely its successor, with the "partial identity" limited to apply only within its current ''de facto'' territory<ref>BVerfGE 36, 1: Verdict of the [[Federal Constitutional Court of Germany|Federal Constitutional Court]] (''Bundesverfassungsgericht'') regarding the [[Basic Treaty, 1972|East–West Basic Treaty]] — [http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/dfr/bv036001.html#Rn078 in German] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070807001034/http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/dfr/bv036001.html#Rn078 |date=2007-08-07 }} and [https://law.utexas.edu/transnational/foreign-law-translations/german/case.php?id=589 in English] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220152049/https://law.utexas.edu/transnational/foreign-law-translations/german/case.php?id=589 |date=2016-12-20 }}, 31 July 1973</ref>), was established in the [[Soviet occupation zone in Germany|Soviet zone]] on 7 October 1949. It ''de jure'' did not include East Berlin, occupied by the Soviets, although the city was ''de facto'' its capital: the severe ideological conflict between German politicians and sociologists in their self-governing east–west society was preceded by the influence of higher{{clarify|date=October 2024}} foreign occupiers; however this only really rose to become official with the birth of the two countries of Germany in the context of the period of international tension during the [[Cold War]]. The capital of West Germany was [[Bonn]]; however it was only considered provisional due to the West German aspiration to establish Berlin as its capital, although at the time Berlin was divided, with the eastern part ''de facto'' managed by East Germany. East Germany originally also wanted to gain West Berlin and make the unified Berlin its capital.

===1952 onwards===
The Western Allies and West Germany rejected the [[Stalin Note|Soviet Union's idea of neutral reunification in 1952]], resulting in the two German governments continuing to exist side-by-side. Most of the [[inner German border|border between two Germanies]], and later the border in Berlin, were physically fortified and tightly controlled by East Germany from 1952 and 1961, respectively. The flags of the two German countries were originally the [[Flag of Germany|same]], but in 1959 East Germany changed [[Flag of East Germany|its flag]].<ref name="DDR1959">{{cite web |url=http://www.documentarchiv.de/ddr/1959/ddr-staatswappen-staatsflagge-aender_ges.html |title=Gesetz zur Änderung des Gesetzes über das Staatswappen und die Staatsflagge der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik |language=de |author=Government of the German Democratic Republic |work=documentArchiv.de |date=1 October 1959 |access-date=24 February 2008 |archive-date=13 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191113012908/http://www.documentarchiv.de/ddr/1959/ddr-staatswappen-staatsflagge-aender_ges.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The West German government initially did not recognize the new and ''de facto'' [[Germany–Poland border|German–Polish border]], nor East Germany, but later eventually recognized the border in 1972 (with the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw<ref name=Jessup>{{cite book|last1=Jessup|first1=John E.|title=An encyclopedic dictionary of conflict and conflict resolution, 1945–1996|date=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, Conn.|isbn=978-0313281129|page=543}}</ref><ref name="Publishing2013">{{cite book|author=Britannica Educational Publishing|title=Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ef2cAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA193|year=2013|publisher=Britannica Educational Publishing|isbn=978-1-61530-991-7|page=193}}</ref><ref name="Biesinger2006">{{cite book|author=Joseph A. Biesinger|title=Germany: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=exMn24SA7fMC&pg=PA615|year=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-7471-6|page=615}}</ref>) and East Germany in 1973 (with the 1972 Basic Treaty<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Basic-Treaty | title=Basic Treaty &#124; 1972 &#124; Britannica | access-date=16 May 2023 | archive-date=16 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516210224/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Basic-Treaty | url-status=live }}</ref>) when applying [[Ostpolitik|a common policy to reconcile with the communist countries in the East]]. The East German government also had encouraged two-state status after initially denying the existence of the West German state, influenced by the Soviet policy of "[[peaceful coexistence]]". The mutual recognition of the two Germanies paved the way for both countries to be widely recognized internationally.{{Efn|In addition, prior to 1965 the [[IOC]] only recognized the Olympic committee for Germany, so the separate Olympic committees of Saarland, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the German Democratic Republic were not recognized by the IOC, and Germany was represented by a [[United Team of Germany at the Olympics|single team]] in the Winter and Summer Olympics until 1968.}} The two Germanies [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 335|joined]] the United Nations as two separate country members in 1973 and East Germany abandoned its goal of reunification with their compatriots in the West in [[Constitution of East Germany#1974 amendments|a constitutional amendment the following year]].

{{cquote|''The principle is written in [[Grundgesetz|our Constitution]] – that no one has the right to give up a policy whose goal is the eventual reunification of Germany. But in a realistic view of the world, this is a goal that could take generations beyond [[Silent Generation|my own]] to achieve.''<br>{{center|<small>[[Leader of the Christian Democratic Union|CDU Leader]] Helmut Kohl for [[The New York Times]], 1976<ref>{{Cite web |last=Whitney |first=Craig R. |date=August 17, 1976 |title=Kohl Says He'd Bring 'Sounder' Policy in Bonn |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/17/archives/kohl-says-hed-bring-sounder-policy-in-bonn.html |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref></small>}}}}

[[File:President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at the first Summit in Geneva, Switzerland.jpg|thumb|[[Ronald Reagan]] (United States) and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] (Soviet Union) at the first Summit in [[Geneva]], Switzerland on 19 November 1985]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0922-002, Leipzig, Montagsdemonstration.jpg|thumb|East German [[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|Monday demonstration]] against the government in [[Leipzig]], 16 October 1989]]
[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] had led the country as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] since 1985. During this time, the Soviet Union experienced a period of [[Brezhnev stagnation|economic and political stagnation]], and correspondingly decreased intervention in [[Eastern Bloc politics]]. In 1987, the United States President [[Ronald Reagan]] gave a famous speech at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], challenging [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet General Secretary]] Mikhail Gorbachev to "[[Tear down this wall!|tear down this wall]]" which prevented freedom of movement in Berlin. [[Berlin Wall|The wall]] had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] had referred to as the "[[Iron Curtain]]". Gorbachev announced in 1988 that the Soviet Union would abandon the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]] and allow the Eastern European countries to freely determine their own internal affairs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Doder |first=Dusko |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/22626554 |title=Gorbachev : heretic in the Kremlin |date=1990 |publisher=Macdonald |others=Louise Branson |isbn=0-356-19760-3 |location=London |oclc=22626554 |access-date=6 March 2022 |archive-date=6 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306041727/https://www.worldcat.org/title/gorbachev-heretic-in-the-kremlin/oclc/22626554 |url-status=live }}</ref> In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of ''[[glasnost]]'' (openness) and ''[[perestroika]]'' (economic restructuring), and taken further by Gorbachev, the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity movement]] took hold in Poland. Further inspired by other [[Tank Man|images of brave defiance]], a [[Revolutions of 1989|wave of revolutions]] swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. 
In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence. However, the dismantling of the old Hungarian border facilities did not open the borders nor were the previous strict controls removed, and the isolation by the [[Iron Curtain]] was still intact over its entire length. The opening of a border gate between [[Austria]] and Hungary at the [[Pan-European Picnic]] on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the [[Eastern Bloc]] had disintegrated.<ref name="Thomas Roser 2018"/><ref name="Böhlau Verlag"/> Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the [[Paneuropean Union]], which was then headed by [[Karl von Habsburg]], distributed thousands of brochures inviting them to a picnic near the border at [[Sopron]]. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the [[Berlin Wall]] had been built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea of Karl's father [[Otto von Habsburg]] to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2019-03-12 |title=TV Interview Tips |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/npcr.31171 |journal=Nonprofit Communications Report |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=7 |doi=10.1002/npcr.31171 |s2cid=242693987 |issn=1549-778X |access-date=6 March 2022 |archive-date=13 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213042937/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/npcr.31171 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The media reaction of [[Erich Honecker]] in the "Daily Mirror" of 19 August 1989 showed the public in East and West that the Eastern European communist rulers had suffered a loss of power in their own sphere, and that they were no longer in control of events: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]], in which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Marks, and then they were persuaded to come to the West." In particular, Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State [[Imre Pozsgay]] considered whether Moscow would command the [[Soviet forces|Soviet troops]] stationed in Hungary to intervene.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1990 |title=Division 19 officers August 1989 – August 1990 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/e402342005-008 |access-date=2022-03-06 |website=PsycEXTRA Dataset |doi=10.1037/e402342005-008 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612151832/http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/e402342005-008 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> But, with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the nonintervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus, the bracket{{clarify|date=October 2024}} of the Eastern Bloc was broken.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Die Insekten |title=Bringing German to Life |year=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-315-75694-3 |pages=43–50 |doi=10.4324/9781315756943-11}}</ref>

Hungary was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms. By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East German citizens had escaped to the West before the GDR denied travel to Hungary, leaving Czechoslovakia as the only neighboring state to which East Germans could escape.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Osten |first1=Philipp |title=Das Tor zur Seele: Schlaf, Somnambulismus und Hellsehen im frühen 19 |last2=Krull |first2=Nora |last3=Krull |first3=Nora |publisher=Brill, Schöningh |year=2014 |isbn=978-3-506-77935-9 |pages=158–190 |language=de |chapter=Wissenschaft und Schwärmerei. Der Pfarrer Johann August Steinhofer und die Somnambule Anna Barbara Straub |doi=10.30965/9783657779352_006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rödder |first=Andreas |title=Deutschland einig Vaterland: die Geschichte der Wiedervereinigung |date=2009 |publisher=Beck |isbn=978-3-406-56281-5 |edition=2nd |location=München |language=de |oclc=317287167 |orig-year=1967}}</ref>

Even then, many people within and outside Germany still believed that real reunification between the two countries would not happen in the foreseeable future.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schmemann |first=Serge |date=1989-05-14 |title=Despite New Stirrings, Dream of 'One Germany' Fades |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/weekinreview/the-world-despite-new-stirrings-dream-of-one-germany-fades.html |access-date=2022-03-06 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=1 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901030530/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/weekinreview/the-world-despite-new-stirrings-dream-of-one-germany-fades.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The turning point in Germany, called ''[[Die Wende]]'', was marked by the "[[Peaceful revolution (German)|Peaceful Revolution]]" leading to the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]] on the night of 9 November 1989, with East and West Germany subsequently entering into negotiations toward eliminating the division that had been imposed upon Germans more than four decades earlier.