October 3 - Day of German Unity
The Day of German Unity, Germany’s national holiday, marks the day in 1990 on which the German Democratic Republic (East) acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. More than remembering the wall, fences and armed guards that separated East from West during the Cold War, the Day of German Unity is a time to celebrate the peaceful unification and a time to renew the commitment to using freedom to help shape our world.
On 3 October we Germans remember with joy and gratitude our national unity, which we regained on 3 October 1990. On that day, our nation’s decades of division came to an end.
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Following the peaceful overthrow of the East German regime in 1989, in the summer of 1990 negotiations about the reunification treaty commenced in Berlin. Eventually, on October 3, 1990, East Germany acceded to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Reunification
The fact that East Germany acceded to West Germany on October 3, 1990, less than a year after the fall of the wall, is a testament to the strong leadership of the United States and its allies, the remarkable vision of the Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the strong will of the German people to be reunited.
Unity Timeline
On the afternoon of October 3, 1990, after a night of joyous celebrating united Germany, Chancellor Helmut Kohl received a phone call from his friend and fellow statesman President George H. W. Bush in Washington.
Kohl Bush
In celebrating the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolution that brought down the Wall, we will profile over the course of 2009 important East Germans who have shaped beyond all physical borders the cultural, intellectual and political life of postwar Germany and Europe.
Profiles
