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Peaceful Demands for Change Lead to Reunification
Germany's national holiday commemorates the process of reunification that was formally concluded with the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990. This process began in the summer of 1989. Encouraged by the perestroika policy of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, demands for change were also voiced in the GDR. Growing numbers of refugees and a lack of willingness on the part of the GDR government to reform created growing impatience among GDR citizens. Initial meetings of dissatisfied persons were held in churches and parsonages. Beginning on September 4 demands for change were voiced publicly. The "Monday demonstrations" began in Leipzig. Peaceful demonstrations of this kind were soon being held throughout the GDR. The demand of the people for more participation and democracy was expressed in their chant: "We are the people!"
The demonstrations were successful. On October 18, Erich Honecker resigned from office as GDR State Council Chairman and Secretary-General of the SED. As a consequence of the largest demonstration, held on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz on November 4, the entire GDR government resigned three days later. Two days later, on November 9, 1989, the Wall came down. After the fall of the wall, a plan and the Round Table As the call "Germany, united Fatherland" becomes ever louder at the Monday demonstrations, Egon Krenz succeeds Erich Honecker as the new secretary general of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and chairman of the German Democratic Republic’s Council of State. The new government headed by Hans Modrow is sworn in on November 18. On November 28, Chancellor Helmut Kohl presented his ten-point plan for overcoming the division of Germany. The plan foresaw a gradual approximation of the two parts of Germany involving a longer period of confederation before ending in reunification. The precondition for this was political and economic reforms in the GDR. Kohl called for a restructuring of the planned economic system in the direction of market economy as well as free, equal and secret-ballot elections in connection with the abolition of the bloc party system under the domination of the SED. The latter demand was fulfilled on December 1 by the People’s Chamber when it struck the leading role of the SED from the constitution. Two days later the SED Central Committee and Politburo resigned definitively. On December 7, 14 parties, political groups, and organizations came together at what was called the Central Round Table. The Central Round Table was part of a system of public controls until the first democratic elections could be held. It saw its task as providing an element of democracy by submitting proposals on how to overcome the existing crisis of government. It demanded involvement in key political and economic decisions taken by the government and the People’s Chamber and called for abolition of the "Stasi," the state security police, a demand whose importance became evident on January 15, 1990, when the people stormed Stasi headquarters on Berlin’s Normannenstrasse. Despite this ransacking it was possible to save a major part of the Stasi files, which has made it possible for these files to be examined and evaluated by a special government commissioner and agency created for this purpose.
In late January the Round Table decided to hold the People’s Chamber election, originally scheduled for May 6, on 18 March. Mikhail Gorbachev said during a visit to Moscow by GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow that, in principle, no one doubted German unity. The condition, however, would be the neutrality of a united Germany. With the approval of the People’s Chamber, the "Government of National Responsibility" was constituted on February 5 in which eight representatives of the Round Table were appointed as ministers without portfolio. The free election to the People’s Chamber was won by an electoral alliance, the "Alliance for Germany." A lawyer by the name of Lothar de Mazière (CDU) became Prime Minister of the Grand Coalition that was formed. Exactly two months later, on May 18, the Preparatory Treaty for the Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany was signed. With this treaty the GDR transferred its financial and monetary policy sovereignty to the West German Federal Republic which, in return, granted subsidies for the GDR government budget and, at the same time, subsidized the GDR’s pension and social security systems. This created a framework for political unification. Economic and monetary
union between the GDR and the Federal Republic went into effect on July 1.
The East German mark was abolished. Along with the West German mark, the
GDR adopted the main elements of economic and social legislation in the
Federal Republic so that by then, along with the political restructuring
that had already taken place, major differences between the two German
political systems had been formally eliminated. In actual fact the effects
of these differences were not overcome. Narrowing the differences in standards
of living in eastern and western Germany continues to be an objective
of German domestic policy.
A set of treaties On August 2 West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and East German State Secretary Günther Krause agreed on a draft Unification Treaty. They also signed the All-German Election Treaty. It set December 2, 1990, as the date for the first all-German election. In a special session held on August 23, the People’s Chamber set the date of October 3 as the date for the official accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic. This date took the place of the previous German national holiday, the 17th of June, commemorating the GDR workers' revolt in 1953. The Unification Treaty was signed in East Berlin on August 31. All internal problems relating to German unification were definitively settled in this treaty.
United Germany’s integration in the foreign policy context was regulated under a separate treaty signed by the two German states and the four allied powers who defeated Germany in the Second World War. After about four months of intensive negotiations the Two-Plus-Four Treaty was signed on September 12. As the third pillar of German unification it clarified foreign and security policy questions regarding united Germany, including matters of alliance membership. Germany’s renunciation of production and possession of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons was written into the treaty. Germany also recognized its present borders as definitive, including the Oder-Neisse border with Poland. This formally ended the post-war era. For Germany the Two-Plus-Four Treaty had the character of a peace treaty with its World War II adversaries. It was the precondition for regaining full political sovereignty.
The Unification Treaty between the GDR and the Federal Republic went into effect on September 29, 1990, creating the legal prerequisites for reunification. The process of reunification was formally completed a week later, on October 3, 1990, with the official accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic. The 3rd of October is now Germany’s national holiday. Treaties
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 The Day of German Unity - October 3
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