German reunification – a short history | DW Documentary

[Music] The Divided Germany in 1989 so two countries was something that many particularly in France and Great Britain thought should stay that way the transition the French Ambassador told me this cold this reunification he wants to make a single state that's crazy yeah we always thought that France and Germany together in the same bed trouble yeah trouble for the British Germany was a revengeous country in the eyes of all the Soviet people back then there they were all revanchists who were only trying to swallow up East Germany East Germany was my country Germany is a

United Fatherland I grew up at a time when that wasn't conceivable at all [Music] people freedom is huge and that's what happened thank you Germany in 1989 a divided country if it were ever to be reunited it would need the consent of the four Victorious powers of World War II the Soviet Union the US Britain and France had so-called reserved rights in the Autumn of 1989 the peaceful Revolution sweeping across the Eastern Bloc had also reached East Germany but the Communist Regime ignored the people's voice instead of reforms it staged the largest military parade ever

still demonstrations at the mass Exodus of its citizens put the regime under enormous pressure finally it was forced to open its borders to the West I left my East German translator to follow the rest of the press conference and samoski said yes the wall is now open or worse that effects and my translator who had never been to the West was one of the first ones through Victor homela and he rushed through and started begging the people he met to give him a lift to my hotel he had no idea where the hotel is and

suddenly he's banging on my door but I'm in the middle of writing a story I don't know what's happened and he bursts in and I say Victor listen I'm writing a story take something from the mini bar and I'll talk to you in a minute and then suddenly I think Victor homila is here in West Berlin he's not allowed to be here he's he's in East German Victor what are you doing here and he finally says that's what I'm trying to tell you the wall is down I was in launched and experienced the fall of

the Berlin Wall in the bundestag when the deputies stood up and sang the German national anthem it was heart-rending only the West German Chancellor was absent on this historic day Elmwood Coral had just landed in Warsaw for an inaugural visit to the first non-communist government in the Soviet Bloc [Music] this trip to Poland was to have been a great celebration of reconciliation between this new first free government in Poland and the former West Germany led by helmet Cole of course we were all there and thought well now for the big dinner it was the evening

of November 9th and I was sitting in my hotel when the news suddenly broke live on television the wall is open I almost fell off the bed it was quite clear this is surprisingly quiet and thoughtful he didn't break out into obvious Euphoria but you could tell he was asking himself what should I do now faced with a delicate situation coal remained diplomatic [Music] [Applause] Berlin November the 10th 1989. overnight the city moved into the spotlight of History [Applause] so in a British army helicopter which I borrowed I flew 33 hours later to Berlin and

landed beside the wall on the western side it was very cold very early in the morning and the best thing about that scene was that the British Army in Berlin had set up a free tea stand just this side of the wall so the first experience of Freedom that a lot of people got coming through was British Army tea which is very strong and very hot and very sweet [Music] the first thing Helmut cool did after his return from Warsaw was to talk to all the major partners he talked on the phone to president to

Margaret Thatcher and to General Secretary gorbachov IA basically what came out of these phone calls was that everyone said we have to prevent chaos from breaking out the whole process must be kept under control the plant [Music] after the wall fell there were calls for Soviet troops to intervene immediately but the man who decided everything was General Secretary Gorbachev um Gorbachev wanted no violence and sent a messenger to Bonn it was a real surprise for the Chancellor's office an immediate trigger was a Soviet visitor to my office a journalist whom we later Learned was a

KGB General we had always suspected that but we didn't know it until later I'm just uh he had been sent to me with a list of questions and these questions all revolved in principle around the subject of German unification I was really electrified because I thought portugalov always represents the dogmatic Soviet party line and now here he is suddenly talking about German unification [Music] if he dares to do that I told the chancellor in its high time and he publicly took the leader [Music] three weeks after the fall of the wall Cole's adviser horse telchik

called me in my office that was unique I did not expect that and said the chancellor was due to make an important statement and they wanted to invite us foreign was planning German reunification a plan to which his foreign minister was not privy the 10 points in the plan for German German were de facto steps towards reunification on November 25th haircut made his statement and agrees with me as prime minister of East Germany that we needed to be bound by a treaty although we didn't rightly know what being bound by a treaty meant I said

we'd think of something we wanted to reduce the resistance of East Germany and the Soviet Union by accepting their proposals [Music] the ten point speech did shock all of us because we had so-called Reserve rights about what would be the solution to the German question and Cole had adopted unification without consulting the other the other countries which had to agree to that Margaret said we knew right from the start that Margaret Thatcher would be against it so we didn't tell her the ten point plan was announced of course the reaction in Paris was mild horror

yeah we only found out about it from the Press even though we worked very closely together and spoke on the phone every day with the staff at the West German chancellery [Music] the French Ambassador told me this coal this reunification he wants to make a single state and that's crazy no consultation and so on come to my office and bond on Monday and I'll explain to you how things should happen I didn't go of course not because I knew Cole was right he had seized a moment in history when it was necessary [Music] President Bush

had the speech about an hour and a half before Cole made it but it was in German so he couldn't read it in advance the danger was that he could otherwise have called to Helmut and said Helmut great speech you know I support you but let's talk before there were a lot of anxieties among countries in the west there were anxieties in countries in the East about what would happen would you have a new midteropa so the notion of a United NATO was to a Germany in NATO was partly to preserve the stability that we've

had for the past 25 or 30 years the Soviets had a problem with exactly that for them NATO was an opposing military Alliance and in the beginning they couldn't imagine it Moscow was disgruntled Soviet correspondent Vladimir contract explained why in German TV's Press Club show [Music] in English the Russians were also preoccupied with their own problems after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc the country was suffering a major Supply crisis people began to hold stocks like in Wartime of course this caused a lot of discontent and against this background Billy's foreign policy issues such as

the reunification of Germany went almost unnoticed by the majority I remember very clearly December 18th Cole flew to Dresden and I was with him and he arrived in the city and people huge crowd of people huge we're just yelling iron height iron height there was this chant and Cole later said that that was the moment he realized that you can't delay it is like all secretaries general of the Warsaw Pact modro started off with a boring written statement about peace de tongue disarmament and so on he didn't give us the feeling that he knew what

the situation in his country was really like the talks with helmet Cole weren't about the issues of unification at that point they were just about the joint treaty Cole wasn't willing to negotiate with me any further right was a clear reform program but the only reform program he had was that he wanted 15 billion and later gave us a list of everything he wanted to buy in West Germany to supply the East Germans well that couldn't be the answer [Music] an important moment came on the 22nd of December 1989 when East Germany officially opened the

Berlin wall and helmet coal and prime minister Mojo walked together through the Brandenburg gate foreign I actually was supposed to take part in the live broadcast from the other side of the Brandenburg gate for ARD a microphone had been set up for me but I couldn't get to it because of the crowds pouring through I was 50 centimeters from the microphone but it went on and on and then we all went pouring through the Brandenburg gate together and here you see it again the immense crowd euphoric and full of commitment and it really felt like

a historic moment [Applause] [Music] thank you the best operation the Western European allies France and England were more than skeptical they were actually against it at the beginning they made no secret of it Margaret Thatcher I believe if it had been up to her there would certainly have been no German reunification [Music] foreign was a child of the 1930s she'd grown up with the rise of Nazism her family had hosted Jewish refugees from Germany so she had that knowledge of what had happened and her lesson that she Drew from that process was that Germany was

too big and too aggressive if left as a single large state in the middle of Europe and she did not believe that the German character had fundamentally changed it is true that Mrs Thatcher occasionally had a map of of Europe in the past showing the size of Germany at different moments in history in her famous handbag and I think there was some meeting with president mitochon when she produced the map but that's an incident Margaret Thatcher said to Francois during my summer holidays I reread Churchill's War Memoirs aren't you afraid talking about a common European

currency are you not afraid of being swallowed up by Germany the economy is not crucial World politics we think that mitarong played a double game yeah he he pretended uh when he talked to Thatcher he pretended that he was 100 against unification when he talked to Gorbachev he tried to get Gorbachev to stop unification but when he talked publicly and when he talked to Helmut Cole then it was all you know hand in hand and very touching stories actually meteorol and Cora were in agreement from early on Paris was to give reunification the green light

if Coral allowed Europe a bigger role the chancellor was even willing to give up the Deutsche Mark the British were left in the dark [Music] price that had to be had to be European currency European Army European foreign policy you know Eurovision I mean just everything you know um and we were really worried about this we you know because we don't want that kind of Europe we want a different kind of Europe and helmet core wasn't going to give us a choice so German unification mean that meant that we had less choice [Music] thank you

when Mrs Thatcher was in Moscow and the conversation turned to reunification she asked that no stenographic record be kept iceye but of course after that everything was recorded in the interview she clearly said we believe it is very dangerous and that the Germans are trying to establish hegemony she was of the opinion that the Soviet Union should take a stronger position against reunification Gorbachev is suspicious he thinks he's been set up to be the Fall Guy and frankly Gorbachev thinks of these people will I choose France and Britain or will I choose the United States

in Germany and he thinks the latter two were probably the safer course were very understanding towards Gorbachev they didn't do what used to occur during the Cold War instead they welcomed his reforms they said there would be new opportunities for Russia and the Soviet Union nobody at the time ever imagined that the USSR itself would collapse within two years a special Summit in Ottawa NATO and the Warsaw Pact met and German reunification became the major topic of an International Conference for the first time [Music] we had to think of a mechanism that would allow us

to deal with four-power rights deal with the issues of of internal to German unification but also some of these other topics and so we worked with the team and came up with this idea of two plus four we emphasize two before the four because we wanted to stress that the unification of the germanies would be the leading part and uh I remember when uh Baker went around to try to advance this idea with the Brits and the French and others some would say oh four plus two some would use six there was some resistance of

this and I remember it uh it was quite an important moment when we finally got the full acceptance of this of the Soviet Union at a median in Ottawa so the two plus four format was born but nobody knew what Moscow stance would be that's why the East and West German governments wanted to talk to God about as soon as possible each had its own plans for German German When Hans Mojo came back from Moscow and talked about a United German Fatherland I was very angry he of all people was now trying to persuade us

that we were heading towards reunification before his trip to Moscow it all sounded quite different was still talking about a step-by-step process of reunification the West German Chancellor was in a hurry East Germany was literally bankrupt who would help them then if we didn't that would also have been the main message to Gorbachev in Casey asked Helmut cool to explain why he wanted German unification but it never got that far because 20 minutes into his statement Gorbachev completely surprised us he agreed to our reunification exactly foreign still represented by hundreds of thousands of soldiers in

East Germany agreed that Germany could become one again so it was no surprise that this mood these moments of strong emotion emerged in the aircraft where seasoned politicians raised their glasses and then just clean glasses for the cameras thank you Germany had friends in the west and these friends had to recognize German unification otherwise they'd no longer be friends and allies it was clear to Margaret Thatcher as to all of us after the famous meeting between colon Gorbachev that's unification had been inevitable for Margaret but the diplomats were relieved just how problematic the British foreign

office found its prime minister's opposition only became clear almost two decades later [Music] this is a telegram from Christopher Melody and bom and he says despite our supportive Lion on the German wish to achieve Unity through self-determination the UK is perceived here as perhaps the least positive of the three Western allies and the least important and in the margin you can see Mr status writing because we are foreign I think I wouldn't say we wanted to change the image I think we wanted to give all the documents that were relevant in order to and allow

people to form their own opinion really and I think what had happened was that the opinion of British policy had been based very very strongly really on Mrs Thatcher's own Memoirs and that became the dominant narrative really because of the remarks that Mrs Thatcher had made earlier publicly it looked as that we'd been against unification privately in the negotiation Douglas heard the British foreign secretary was negotiating very very helpfully making some of the best suggestions that were made to get agreement with the Soviet Union even before the formal negotiations began East Germans took part in

a free election for the first time a new government was to represent them Helmut Cole campaigned vigorously [Music] understood [Applause] imagine Helmut coal in the squares of the Cities up to 250 000 gdr citizens on the Square he had never experienced such a thing in West Germany in his life of course that inspired him when a quarter of a million people cheer for you and of course you're going to say I am the greatest a fundamental decision was being taken that it was not about saying and another four years and another 99 but that's a

fundamental choice of Direction was being made for this country and this is just what it was [Music] so we had free elections an elected government an elected Parliament with a mandate and the clear desire to organize German reunification and that's exactly what happened the agreements were negotiated under pressure from East German citizens who wanted things to move quickly [Music] was trying to salvage something from East Germany but he had no chance and demisier just saw himself as responsible for an orderly Handover English Germany stood against their own regime with the cry we are the people

which soon became we are of one people this was a clear call for unification to say that West Germany pounced on its neighbor and swallowed it up is wrong the majority of East Germans clearly decided that they wanted to join the federal republic [Music] foreign ification of Germany and of course he made the classic remarks about blossoming Landscapes and the German reunification could be paid after petty cash and we've reported it all it was important for the people back home I also wasn't one of those who believed all that the thing about petty cash for

example but it wasn't meant for me anyway it was intended to reassure the West German taxpayer um there were enormous Financial transfers and the people and the old federal republic did not get up in arms about it they might not have been thrilled about it but they accepted it and they knew in their hearts that it was necessary even if they didn't like it spring saw further developments in the international Arena the Europeans agreed to unification and declared that the new Germany would be part of the European community [Music] the two plus four negotiation started

four meetings were scheduled to hammer out the details [Music] the Germans had two foreign ministers at the talks Marcus mecca for East Germany and Hans dietrichencher for the West [Music] the question of the future status of United Germany would we get full sovereignty back from the four Victoria's powers or not second would a unified Germany be a member of NATO and if so in what form then the withdrawal of the Soviet forces 370 000 Soviet troops in East Germany Gorbachev was worried that Cole was putting his foot on the accelerator sort of destabilizing and the

fact that bush developed a trusting relationship with Gorbachev including at that uh that Malta meeting I think gave some support as Cole did what he had to do to sort of take advantage of this moment in in history I think Cole in that sense was just knew that there has to be a price that there has to be a give and take he's asking Gorbachev to do an amazingly courageous thing historically to seed you know what they saw as their empire and so it did come with but that was not the key the key was

you know first you agree it's going to happen and now let's figure out how we can make it palatable and let the Russians pull out without humiliation that was what was left by then Gorbachev was ready to let these countries become United I'm the economic Barn offered to help with the treaty in exchange for the withdrawal of Soviet forces the German government would pay almost 4 billion Deutsche marks and indicated its willingness to provide even bigger loans [Music] would have been insolvent by the end of June 1990 Helmut Cole ordered me to go to Moscow

with the heads of two major German banks a secret journey to negotiate everything and the clear message I got from gorbachevas we want this agreement and we want this loan I had to explain to him that we were prepared to do this but it was part of an overall solution foreign [Music] visit to the U.S in the summer Gorbachev was very enamored with the CSE principles and I recalled that one of the principles of the CSE was that each country is free to join their own Alliance so President Bush says the Gorbachev in the cabinet

room you know Mikhail can you agree that under CSE principles that we won't say Germany will join NATO we'll say that Germany is free to make its own choice under CSE principles and that if it chooses NATO that we will accept it and Gorbachev says yes I can accept that so that was the moment that we had Gorbachev accepting uh the notion of a United Germany and NATO we had to make concessions but there was one condition if United Germany became a NATO member there will be no NATO bases on the territory of the former

East Germany reality shows that whilst there can be a lot of Goodwills and find words in politics you can unfortunately only believe in a documents thank you damage the sky and the Deutschland to subside [Music] the commitment to German Unity NATO membership a return of full sovereignty and and I think that in the end he agreed to the whole development because he hoped that this great United Germany economically powerful technologically strong would be the most important partner for him for the modernization and development of the Soviet Union expectations were really high it was believed at

the time that Russia and Germany were entering a new era and everything would evolve very nicely [Music] [Applause] and no one at that time could imagine Russia would face great difficulties had said at the talks in Moscow in the beginning of February yeah Chancellor you can have East Germany and I'll give it to you and it'll cost you a hundred billion would we have said no no So to that extent but we ultimately financed was relatives especially since a large proportion was also made up of loans summer 1990 only one problem was left to solve

the order nicer line Poland had been waiting since the end of World War II for West Germany to recognize the Border along the two rivers both East Germany and the four Victorious Powers supported Poland's position it was decided to resolve the matter at the two plus four Summit in Paris which the Polish foreign minister was invited to attend Ed new government was coming under enormous pressure over the Border question and every day's delay just undermined it further the government needed the trust and credibility of its population it was about a Polish existential question its western

border and that was at a time when the first democratic government had to embark on radical reforms production s remember France had also got alzheims back from Germany and this border was inviolable so the Polish borders should be invaluable too it was like a balance my proposal was for the two German states sent Poland to draw up a border treaty which would then be signed and ratified immediately after German unification Cole was totally against it really dragged his heels on this but it was of course very important the Allies all of the United States England

France and the Soviet Union had all made it a condition for German unification this was not just a domestic issue for cold and the Americans unequivocally intervened in Bonn and said folks if you don't do it the deal is off so from the German point of view the choice was unification with East Germany and Berlin but with the final loss of former territories in Eastern Europe or nothing after four months of negotiations but less than a year after the war came down the unification treaty was finalized [Music] two states two societies and two armies were

to become one country a thousand Pages regulated the accession of East Germany to the federal republic [Music] the international two plus four treaty was also signed in Moscow four Victorious Powers returning full sovereignty to a United Germany 45 years after the end of the second World War thank you [Music] there are some critics that say oh you should have spent more time trying to design a new European this or that or others well good luck I mean you know you getting all this done in 11 months was hard enough and frankly doing it in a

way that created a structure for a unified Germany in NATO a changing European commission offering possibilities for the then Soviet Union and also possibilities for other Eastern European countries to me look like a pretty good Year's work foreign [Music] and my finest Hour was to live and work in the federal republic at the time of reunification [Music] I bought a case of beer and distributed the bottles among my friends and we all drank to the health of the German people on camera I drink to the fact that Germany had now achieved its goal her dream

had become a reality and now the main thing was not to jeopardize these achievements but to continue to develop everything we are experiencing now is to all intents and purposes a break with those former hopes a lot has been achieved but I think it will take just as long again until you no longer notice the difference but I don't see it now with younger colleagues who are 25 or 26 when they start working for us they are united Germans is the greatest story that you can experience as a journalists and of course we were delighted

on a personal level it was a huge story and 25 years later things look quite different the old fears of a Berlin Republic of German domination of Europe those fears have simply evaporated now have a paradox because suddenly we've realized that we need Germany we need this big reunified Germany under this powerful Angela Merkel because we need to change our relationship to Europe and we can only do that with the help of the Germans so Germans have become our best friends yeah and if you had a quiet Revolution better than we French dude no heads

ruled I salute you don't overestimate their options they are limited Germany is too big for the others but also too small for Europe the Germans never really revealed the depth of what this meant to their identity to have this history of World War II and the Nazi past always hanging over them and to live with this physical evidence of their historic shame and so all of these things and suddenly it comes together again and it's a relief it's it's an affirmation that we can be one people again um and you know to witness that was

enormously powerful to see what is an end to your Penance means which in effect it was [Music] thank you foreign [Music]