The Peaceful Revolution, 1987-90 » The End of the GDR and German Reunification

The SED government collapses

Opening the Wall did not save the SED (the Socialist Unity Party that ruled the GDR, or East Germany). It made things worse. People now wanted real change, and the party was falling apart.

• 13 November 1989: Hans Modrow, a reformer from Dresden, became head of the government.
• 1 December 1989: the Volkskammer (the GDR parliament) removed the SED's "leading role" from the constitution. The party no longer had a right to rule.
• 3 December 1989: the whole Politburo and Central Committee resigned, and Egon Krenz went with them. Gregor Gysi took over a party that soon changed its name.
• 7 December 1989: a Round Table began. Here the SED, new opposition groups and church leaders met to plan the way ahead.

The state's hated secret police, the Stasi, was also losing power. On 15 January 1990 crowds forced their way into the Stasi headquarters in East Berlin to stop its files being destroyed.

Many people were still leaving for the West, and the economy was weak. The slogan on the Monday marches changed from "We are the people" to "We are one people". More and more East Germans wanted unity with West Germany.

Key terms:

• Reunification: bringing East and West Germany together again as one country.
• Currency union: joining two countries' money into one currency, so that East Germans would use the West German Deutschmark.

The elections of March 1990

Modrow's government was too weak to last. The Round Table pushed for free elections, and they were brought forward to 18 March 1990. These were the first free elections ever held in the GDR.

The result showed that most East Germans wanted unity and a fast one. In April 1990 Lothar de Maizière, an East German Christian Democrat, became prime minister of a coalition government. Its main job was to arrange the end of the GDR.

Currency union

Money was a big reason for reunification. East Germans earned and saved in the weak East German mark and wanted the strong West German Deutschmark. In February 1990 Kohl offered a currency union. On 1 July 1990 it began. Wages and pensions were swapped one East mark for one Deutschmark, and small savings were swapped at the same rate. Larger savings were swapped at a worse rate.

Currency union was popular, but it also made East German goods very expensive compared with products from the West. From this date the East German economy was run in West German money, so the GDR had lost much of its independence.

Reunification, March to October 1990

The two Germanys could not join up alone. The four powers that had won the Second World War (the USA, the USSR, Britain and France) still had rights over Germany. In spring 1990 they met the two German states in the Two-plus-Four talks. The Soviet Union agreed that a united Germany could join NATO, and the final treaty was signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990.

• 1 July 1990: currency union began.
• 23 August 1990: the Volkskammer voted for the GDR to join West Germany on 3 October.
• 31 August 1990: the two states signed a Unification Treaty.
• 3 October 1990: the GDR ended, and Germany was one country again.

The GDR did not merge as an equal partner. Its areas joined the Federal Republic of West Germany as new states, under West German law.

Exam-style question

This is a Paper 2 Section A (a) question. It tests whether you can describe features with accurate detail.

Describe TWO features of EITHER the elections of March 1990 OR the currency union of July 1990. [6 marks]

Recap

• After the Wall opened, Modrow led the government, the SED lost its leading role and Krenz and the Politburo resigned (December 1989).
• The first free elections, on 18 March 1990, were won by the Alliance for Germany, which wanted fast unity.
• Currency union on 1 July 1990 brought the Deutschmark to East Germany.
• The Two-plus-Four talks and the Unification Treaty led to reunification on 3 October 1990.