Reunification, 1989-1991
Gorbachev's Reforms and Their Impact on East Germany
The revolution that ended the GDR began not in East Germany but in Moscow. When Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader in 1985, he introduced two transformative policies. Glasnost (openness) allowed greater freedom of expression in the Soviet Union; perestroika (restructuring) attempted to reform the Soviet economy. Crucially, Gorbachev signalled that the Soviet Union would no longer use military force to maintain communist governments in Eastern Europe — a reversal of the Brezhnev Doctrine, which had justified Soviet intervention in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). This decision meant that Eastern European regimes no longer had Soviet tanks as their ultimate guarantor of survival.
Erich Honecker, the GDR's leader, rejected Gorbachev's reforms, insisting they were inappropriate for East Germany. The GDR's official newspaper refused to distribute a Soviet magazine that contained reform-minded articles. This growing divergence between Moscow and East Berlin left the SED increasingly isolated — it was committed to a hard-line course that even the Soviet Union was abandoning.
Gorbachev's key decision was to refuse to use Soviet military force to save communist regimes in Eastern Europe. Without this backstop, the SED could not rely on Soviet tanks to crush popular opposition as they had in 1953. This made the regime fundamentally vulnerable in 1989.
The 1989 Revolutions Across Eastern Europe
The year 1989 brought a cascade of revolutions across the communist bloc. In Poland, partially free elections in June 1989 produced a crushing defeat for the communist party; in Hungary, reforms opened the border with Austria in May 1989 — a critical development for East Germans. Hungary's open border provided a new escape route: East Germans on holiday in Hungary could cross into Austria and then travel to West Germany. By September 1989 approximately 30,000 East Germans had taken this route. Others sought refuge in West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw, which became scenes of mass occupation as East Germans camped in the embassy gardens waiting for exit permits.
The Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig
While tens of thousands were fleeing, others decided to stay and demand change. Every Monday evening, East Germans gathered for demonstrations in Leipzig — originally for prayers at the Nikolaikirche (St Nicholas Church) that turned into political protests. The Monday Demonstrations grew rapidly: from hundreds in September 1989 to approximately 70,000 on 9 October 1989. That Monday was a moment of acute tension — some SED officials had discussed using force to clear the demonstrators, and there were reports of hospital staff being placed on alert. The demonstration passed peacefully, however, and the crisis passed without a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown. The following Monday, 16 October, brought approximately 120,000 demonstrators.
Under pressure from the protests and from within the SED, Erich Honecker was ousted on 18 October 1989 and replaced by Egon Krenz. The SED attempted to manage the crisis — partly by announcing reforms and partly by trying to control the flow of information. On 9 November 1989, a confused press conference announcement by SED spokesman Günter Schabowski — who had not been briefed on the intended limits of new travel rules — led thousands of East Berliners to converge on the border crossings demanding to be let through. Overwhelmed guards, without clear orders, opened the gates. The Berlin Wall fell on the night of 9 November 1989.
Helmut Kohl and the Ten-Point Plan
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl seized the initiative. On 28 November 1989 — less than three weeks after the Wall fell — he announced a Ten-Point Plan for the gradual reunification of Germany, without prior consultation with his Western allies or Gorbachev. The plan envisaged a phased approach: first expanded cooperation between the two Germanies, then a confederal arrangement, and eventually full unification. Kohl moved far faster than most observers expected. He campaigned actively in East Germany's first free elections in March 1990, which produced a landslide for his eastern German CDU partner — a clear mandate for rapid reunification.
The Two Plus Four Treaty (signed 12 September 1990) provided the international framework for reunification. The 'two' were the two German states; the 'four' were the wartime Allies (USA, UK, France, USSR). Germany accepted its existing borders — including the Polish border — and agreed not to develop nuclear weapons. The USSR accepted reunification in exchange for substantial financial compensation and assurances about NATO's future role.
Reunification: 3 October 1990
The Two Plus Four Treaty (Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany) was signed on 12 September 1990. It settled the international dimensions of reunification: Germany's existing borders were confirmed, the occupation rights of the four powers ended, Germany agreed not to develop weapons of mass destruction, and NATO's jurisdiction would not extend to the former GDR territory. Germany was formally reunified on 3 October 1990 — now celebrated as German Unity Day. The GDR ceased to exist; its five eastern states (Länder) joined the Federal Republic of Germany.
The two Germanies that merged in 1990 were very different. East Germany's economy was far weaker than the West's: its industries were uncompetitive, its infrastructure decrepit, and its currency had been exchanged at a politically generous but economically damaging 1:1 rate with the Deutschmark. In the first years after reunification, many East German factories closed, unemployment in the East soared to around 30–40% in some areas, and billions of Deutschmarks of annual transfers flowed from West to East. The psychological gulf — the 'Mauer im Kopf' (wall in the head) — between Easterners and Westerners persisted long after the physical wall had gone. Many East Germans felt their experience, qualifications and way of life had been devalued in the unified Germany.