Tuesday 25 August 2009

The Berlin Wall (V): The Fall of the Wall (Continued)

Meanwhile, Czechoslovakia had also opened its border to West Germany, and the pressure on the GDR government grew. Eventually, a new law was proposed by which it was generally allowed that people of East Germany could leave the country, but with strict visa regulations. The public did not accept this, and a revision of the draft was initiated. On the evening of the 9th November 1989, a spokesman of the government stepped to the press and proclaimed that freedom of travel was granted, and the border was to be considered open. In a matter of hours, people were dancing on the Berlin Wall.

The Wall, which had divided Berlin for 28 long years, lost all of its terror in one single night. Officials at the border checkpoints had no other choice than to let the great masses of people who desired to visit West Berlin through without any control. West Berliners rushed to the border checkpoints to greet the Easterners, and the night of the 9th to 10th November 1989 became one huge party. On the following day, West Berlin was crammed and crowded, and people chuckled at the fact that bananas – the unavailability of which in the East was a symbol for its poverty and need – were sold out in the entire city.

In hindsight, the following development – the disbanding of the German Democratic Republic and its admission to the Federal Republic of Germany – appear like natural, logical consequences. But it was not so obvious at the time. East German authorities did not deny the fact that a reunification was inevitable, but they supported a slow, careful process. Initially, it was proposed that the two German states would form a confederation which would help the GDR to build up its political and economic structures to West German standards before it would eventually join the Federal Republic.

But these careful approaches were unrealistic. The people of East Germany were not satisfied with free travel, they demanded reunification. The parole of the ongoing Monday Demonstrations changed from “We are the people” to “We are one people”. The West German government reacted by announcing that further negotiations would only be made if the East German government was democratically elected and represented the people. Elections took place on 18th March 1990, and the parties that favoured immediate reunification got the majority. After economic and social regulations were taken, the five new states that constitute the former German Democratic Republic, and East Berlin, joined the Federal Republic of Germany on 3rd October 1990.

International recognition of the Reunification was granted with the Two Plus Four Treaties of 1990, in which the Allied Powers - The United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union - also granted full sovereignity to the Federal Republic of Germany, formally ending its status as an occupied country for good.

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