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15 Years of German Unity
This year, Germany is celebrating the 15th anniversary of German Unification. More than remembering the walls, fences and armed guards that separated East from West, this is a time to celebrate the peaceful resistance and determination with which GDR citizens overcame that separation. After the Fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989, the United States played a vital part on the path to German unification on October 3, 1990. Without the US resoluteness voiced by President Ronald Reagan and President George H. W. Bush and displayed over decades throughout the Cold War, German unification might have remained merely a dream for some time. This year, former US Secretary of State James A. Baker, the senior US official in the "Two Plus Four" negotiations, was a guest of honor at the German Embassy’s Unity Day celebration. For decades, US troops in Germany have secured peace and stability. Kurt Beck, Minister President of the State of Rheinland-Pfalz, the German state with the most US troops, was the other guest of honor.
The national holiday "reminds us how the people in the GDR fought the Communist dictatorship using peaceful means to win their freedom. They thereby wrote one of the most beautiful chapters in Germany’s history and bestowed this gift on all of us in Germany."  Ambassador Ischinger’s Message on the Day of German Unity
"Without America’s unwavering commitment to freedom and democracy, Europe as a whole and many of its parts, including Germany, would definitely be a different place today. Without America’s belief in German democracy, German unification might not have taken place in my lifetime."
Test your knowledge of the names, places and concepts associated with German unification.
Fifteen years after unification, a totally new economic structure has been built in eastern Germany. The far-reaching changes are now seen as an opportunity and people are self-confidently developing new products and solutions for the world of tomorrow.
From the Berlin Wall’s construction in 1961, to the historic events of 1989, to German unification in 1990, this timeline offers a multi-media look back.
From the East German demonstrations that preceeded the Fall of the Wall to the signing of the key treaties, unification was more than a moment in history - it was a process.
Pieces of the Berlin Wall have ended up in public and private hands all over the world, and indeed some remnants still stand in their original location in Berlin.
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