Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General-Secretary of the Communist Party on 11 March 1985 at a time when he was fully conscious of the Soviet Union’s economic and social difficulties, and therefore called for a fundamental restructuring of the party and modernize the Soviet political and economic system (perestroika). This would entail overhauling the entrenched party and state bureaucracies that had presided over the country’s economic decline that had stagnated as a result of imposing centralization and rigorous controls. Another wave of reform was introducing honesty and openness (glasnost) to address problems relating to different social problems: corruption in the Communist party by introducing transparency in the government to preclude financial misconduct, and alleviating censorship of the media as state control through introducing freedom of the press and expression. His decision to renounce using force in implementing changes he considered necessary for perestroika to succeed was equally important. However, he also neglected the underlying fact that the Communist Party and the Soviet state had been based on applying force, and thereby abandoning the Brezhnev doctrine of intervening in satellite states to suppress uprisings against Communist authority, as in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Renouncing this threat of force would make it impossible to contain resentment that would be unable to be held in check, including the element of nationalism while expressing his willingness to concede a large measure of autonomy to the states in the Soviet Union’s satellite states by offering to respect each Warsaw Pact member states’ sovereignty and independence. The populations of these states would all renounce socialism that had been imposed from above. The fall of the German Democratic Republic in the autumn of 1989 restored new discussions toward reunification that was completed in 1990, soon after the unexpected breakdown of the Soviet Union and its alliances with Eastern European states in December 1989.
The political democratising processes that were allowed to proceed in Poland and Hungary brought down their communist regimes’ monopolies on power. Hungarian authorities began opening their border with Austria on 2 May 1989, prior to the promulgation of a new constitution. This action of allowing free travel between Hungary and Austria led to massive numbers of East Germans pouring into Hungary, to which they could travel legally as another communist country, and then crossed into Austria, and then into the FRG. The DDR leadership responded with applying pressure and making threats of force to stem the impending population implosion, which resulted in the Hungarian authorities starting to enforce exit permission requirements, which temporarily stopped the crossings, before agreeing to loosen exit controls in exchange for the FRG’s pledge of one billion West German credits. The Hungarians opened their border with Austria during the night of 10-11 September as a temporary suspension of the 1969 treaty with the GDR since it was incompatible with Hungary’s other international obligations, adhering to the United Nations convention requiring free passage to refugees promised free passage to a third country, with the Soviet Union tacitly approved without protesting about this decision was made without prior consultation with the GDR, and thereby confirmed Gorbachev’s pledge of non-interference in the internal affairs of eastern European states. This development led to 25,000 DDR citizens taking this opportunity to escape within a few days, leading to approximately 200,000 East Germans crossing the Hungarian border by November. Others who were prevented by GDR border guards to enter Hungary sought asylum in West German embassies in Prague.
The SED General Secretary Erich Honecker Erich Honecker, who stubbornly refused to see that times had changed while facing economic and political bankruptcy. The GDR attempted to cease what became known as “The Great Escape” of the East German population that was bringing the economy to a standstill by imposing a ban on all visa-free travel to neighbouring states on 3 October, which left the GDR in a state of abject isolation. Dissidents attempted to call for reform in the GDR on the Luxemburg-Liebknecht anniversary on 17 January 1989, when they unfurled banners expressing that Luxemburg had supported free speech and the right to differ, and some carried pictures of Gorbachev. Their demands for freedom of expression, freedom of organization, and freedom to voice grievances were dismissed, as about a hundred of the would be demonstrators were arrested, followed by further arrests and imprisonments thereafter. An Initiative for Social Democratic Organisation was subsequently set up on 25-26 August that would become the GDR SPD on 7 October. A New Forum was established on 11 September that advocated “round table” discussions between the government and the opposition. Its founders, Bȁrbel Bohley and Jens Reich, petitioned the state administration for its legal recognition on 19 September, which was rejected two days later. This group then sought to acquire attention from the public at large by issuing petitions throughout the GDR in anticipation of its legalization. These two organisations hereafter represented increasingly greater expressions of public dissent that hat hitherto been sheltered, such as in the local churches, with its members declaring themselves to be reformers in these only available spaces for dissent.
Churches in the GDR, including the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig as the most important centre of anti-government public protests, where quasi-political meetings had been held since 1987 for peace discussions among hundreds of participants. Calls were made there for the regime to meet with dissenters to discuss the country’s condition in an atmosphere of toleration, and persuade citizens to remain for this purpose, rather than flee to face an uncertain future in the west. From the beginning of September 1989, regular Monday afternoon services were held at the Nikolaikirche, which were enabled by the DDR government allowing greater freedom for the churches in 1978 as spaces that were free from state intervention. These services were followed by the worshippers taking to the streets on 9 September to proclaim their faith in democratisation, with these popular demonstrations grew increasingly larger daily. A crowd of 20,000 gathered outside this church on 2 October in the largest such popular demonstration since the 1953 uprisings, and then 70,000 people on 9 October where the popular term “Wir sind das Volk,” or “We are the people” first emerged that initially signalled a call for popular reform, including calling for the end of the absolute rule of the SED, legalisation of the civil rights movement, freedom of the press and assembly, the dissolution of the Ministry of State Security and abolition of state surveillance. This development then led to 100,000 people demonstrating in Leipzig on 18 October.
Another such focal point of popular demonstrations was the Gethsemanekirche in East Berlin, from which protesters made analogies between Christian values and contemporary political values and ideas, such as denouncing self-righteous hypocrisy, with increasingly larger crowds gathering during the late afternoons, and late into the evenings by early October, These public meetings were forcibly halted in Berlin on 7 October, and then in Leipzig on the following day with arrests being made while demonstrations were dispersed. The increasingly massive demonstrations in Leipzig nevertheless continued on 9 October, constituting a crowd of 90,000, following the usual prayer session at the Nikolaikirche, and continued thereafter with increasingly higher numbers of demonstrators. While the Stasi had been the largest surveillance institution in history, with over 90,000 personnel, and had had more than twenty-five percent of the GDR’s population having worked for this organisation in different capacities, it had come to arouse hatred and indignation by 1989 when it no longer appeared invincibly menacing as it had been as a state instrument of intimidation and harassment. It was widely recognised that its very existence completely negated the legitimacy of the government, and reform became inevitable in the face of ongoing population implosion.
Erich Honecker, who maintained a truculent attitude in the face of popular demands for reform in the form of daily demonstrations, was dismissed as the SED politbureau general secretary on 17 October, upon being devoid of support from the party leadership, while it was clear that the 380,000 Russian troops in the GDR would not intervene in its internal affairs. He was replaced by Egon Krenz as a dubious successor who was also unable to take control to restore political stability. The first of a series of “Sunday Conversations” took place on 22 October between SED officials and the New Forum constituting a political movement calling for dialogue between the citizens and the government while massive popular demonstrations continued, with demands for complete freedom of travel, the immediate destruction of the Berlin Wall, and the end of SED rule. Krenz failed to garner any support from the GDR parliament upon the vote for his confirmation in office on 24 October. During the same time, the mass emigration movement amounted to a major crisis that affecting the continued functioning of the East German economy after the border to Czechoslovakia was re-opened on 1 November, and popular demands for internal reform while the SED no longer had the support of the Soviet leadership. At a time when the GDR was virtually bankrupt and facing a twenty-five to thirty percent decrease in the standard of living during state economic planning, Gorbachev informed Krenz during a state visit on 1 November that the Soviet Union, which was facing the worst economic situation since the October Revolution of 1917, could not offer the GDR any material assistance, in terms of either economic subsidies or military intervention.
The entire Council of Ministers resigned on the morning of 8 November, as did the Polibureau later on the same day, although some of its members were soon replaced, leading to moderates led by Hans Modrow as the head of a coalition government pitted against conservatives as a reformer, and Egon Krenz as General-Secretary. On the evening of 9 November, the East German press secretary, Günther Schabowski, misspoke about when legislation for lifting travel restrictions altogether that were to take place within a few months, which the public interpreted as being effective immediately. The border guards were overwhelmed by massive crowds approaching the border checkpoints, and the Berlin Wall began being spontaneously demolished. The FRG Chancellor Helmuth Kohl hereafter made plans for the unification of the two German states, to which the French government conceded on the basis of creating greater European integration, which superseded the British government earlier objections, while the American government agreed to Kohl’s plans in the interest of bolstering European security interests. The approval of the Soviet Union was secured in exchange for economic cooperation with the newly unified state. Further emigration from the DDR greatly undermined the legitimacy of the state that could no longer be maintained. Modrow became the de facto leader in the new government on 18 November and attempted to stabilise the political situation, which proved to be impossible as a result of the pressure of circumstances leading to faltering support. Krenz was ousted on 6 December. Modrow attempted to prevent the state from becoming ungovernable by attempting to hold discussions with Round Table representatives from the government, political parties and interest groups from 7 December, which culminated in sixteen meetings until the following March. A new government under Gregor Gysi, elected as the chairman of the SED on 8 December, conducted a series of discussions with opposition groups centered in the churches and independent parties while facing the force of recent events, and the former SED leadership were unable to hold the population in check without Soviet military intervention.
Free elections that were held for the first time on 18 March 1990 led to the creation of a democratised Volkskammer, and clearly demonstrated favour for unification, rather than reforming a separate East German state, with the Alliance for Germany winning over forty-eight percent of the vote. Unification of the two German states could have been enabled on the basis of Article 146 of the Basic Law of the FRG to create a new state by establishing a constituent assembly in drafting a new constitution. The GDR as composing five new states into the FRG was instead constitutionally enabled by Article 23 of the Basic Law that allowed for “other parts of Germany, or states, to become part of the country, and was thereby absorbed into the FRG in view of the collapsing GDR that would not be supported by its population that denied its continued legitimacy, which had been artificially created in 1949 under the auspices of the Soviet Union, while the authority of the central government was tenuous. Hundreds of thousands of GDR citizens crossing into the west daily remained endangering the continued function of the DDR economy, while also evoked fears of social unrest over fundamental issues, including providing employment and housing.
Kohl received the cabinet’s approval on 6 February 1990 to approach Modrow about an immediate currency union to stem the flow of immigrants to the west, encourage West German investment in East Germany, and accelerate the process of German unification. Terms for this purpose were formulated based on converting bank account amounts, wages and pension payments, which the GDR leadership under the new non-Communist president, Lothar de Maizière announced to the People’s Chamber on 19 April, and received its overwhelming approval while he would oversee the transition to the unity of the two German states in the face of the force of popular support for the dissolution of the GDR. The first democratic elections in the GDR took place on 6 May 1990, in which the CDU led became the largest party in the new Alliance for Germany coalition government under de Maizière as Minister-President, as voters supported unification and integration with western Europe. Currency union went into effect on 1 July in the State Treaty establishing a Currency, Economic and Social Union.
Plans for unification continued thereafter with the Second World War allies sanctioning its terms. The NATO and Warsaw Pact foreign ministers met in Ottawa, Canada on 13 February 1990 and agreed on a “two plus four” formula between the two German states and the four occupation powers. Gorbachev subsequently agreed to the creation of a unified Germany in a meeting the U.S. President George Bush on 30 May. The momentum of the political changes that he had initiated in the Soviet Union could not be contained, and therefore necessitated reaching an agreement with western countries to ensure continued cooperation, particularly to receive assistance with Russia’s economic distress, including from the FRG, and would agree for its continued NATO membership to contribute to enabling receiving financial assistance. Gorbachev also recognised that Germany was to be entitled to making its own foreign policy decisions, while he abjured the use of force, and expected that foreign aid would flow to the USSR from a unified German state. Allowing the unification process to move forward would also enable Russia to remain relevant in making contributions to ensuring peace in Europe, along with receiving Most Favoured Nation trading status from the U.S., which entailed compromising over Germany joining NATO upon the promulgation of the London Declaration on 6 July that proclaimed NATO’s fundamental repurposing and announcing that NATO would no longer considered the Warsaw Pact as a collective threat, and would invite its members into the organisation. The GDR exited the Warsaw Pact in September 1990, which was later dissolved altogether on 25 February 1991.
A united Germany was granted the right to NATO membership, and Soviet troops were to return from the GDR in exchange for agreeing to a series of political and military guarantees to the Soviet Union. Germany pledged that the military structure of NATO would not take effect in the GDR until all troops were withdrawn, along with providing 12 billion DM in economic aid, along with a further 5.7 million DM to cover the cost of withdrawing Soviet troops. The final Two plus Four Agreement on German reunification and officially restoring full sovereignty to Germany was concluded in the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany Treaty, signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990. Germany reaffirmed the previous guarantees of the East and West German governments regarding the existing international borders, and thereby renouncing claims to the former eastern German territories that were ceded to Russia and Poland in 1945, limiting the size of the German army, and pledging not to engage in creating nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Soviet troops would be withdrawn from Germany within four years at the expense of the German government. Other treaties between Germany and the Soviet Union pledged mutual friendship, stipulated full-scale cooperation in the spheres of economic, industrial, scientific and technological development. A separate German-Polish treaty reaffirmed the borders between the two countries. The agreed terms of unification came into effect on 3 October, when the DDR was dissolved at 0:00. The federal government was hereafter shifted to the former Reichstag in Berlin, where parliament convened for the first time on 4 October, where the legislative assembly ratified the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany on 5 October, which was subsequently ratified by the executive assembly on 8 October.
Assessing; Testing; Evaluating
Students review each other’s written contents online in randomised sequencing.
Evaluate each student’s contents according to a calibration rubric, and integrating their contributions to their peers’ contents.
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