Fact about Germany (reunification)

1990: Reunification


After the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is still needed eleven months until the reunification of Germany realized. Reunification was based on the will of the people in both German states. With a large majority, voters in East Germany who participated in free elections, the first (and last) to parliament on March 18, 1990 to give voice to the parties that demanded incorporation of the Federal Republic of RDJ as soon as possible. As a legal basis, in mid-year 1990 agreement negotiated between the two German states. Previously agreed upon monetary union. At the same time, the Federal Republic and RDJ also formulate Agreement Two-plus-Four by four allied countries who are responsible for Berlin and for Germany as a whole. The agreement set the terms of reunification of Germany in the fields of foreign policy and security.

German Problem solved in 1990 as demanded by the old will be "Unity in Freedom". That solution can be achieved only with the approval of all neighboring countries. That means also, only simultaneously with the achievement of a solution to another major problem in the 20th century, the problem of Poland. Recognition of the Polish western border along the River Oder and Neisse Rivers are final and binding under international law is a prerequisite for the reunification of Germany in the applicable de facto border in 1945.

According to his own understanding, German reunification was "not a democracy pascanasional among countries of nationality" - so the Federal Republic of the "old" called by the political scientist Karl Dietrich Bracher in 1976 - but pascaklasik democratic nation-state among similar countries. German State was firmly in the joint European Union (EU) are supranational, and implement some of its sovereignty together with other member countries. Much of what distinguishes the German nation state with the first two - that is all the things that make the country into a state-led Bismarck military and authoritarian state. On the other hand there are lines of sustainability. Germany united as a country of law and constitution, as the federation and the social state to continue the tradition that is rooted deep into the 19th century. This applies also to the general suffrage and equal, and for parliamentary culture that has developed in the era of the Reichstag in the German Empire.Continuity is also happening in the region: Agreement Two-Plus-Four, the founding document of United Germany under international law, once again confirmed the solution "small German", namely Germany and Austria as two separate countries.

German problem has been solved since 1990, but the problem Europe has not been completed. With expansion in 2004 and 2007, EU includes twelve countries again. Until the turn of the era in the year 1989-1991, ten of the country's communist leanings. All new members were formerly part of the land area of the West, which characteristics is the legal tradition which is basically the same, also an early separation between the powers of religious institutions and secular institutions, and between the king's power and authority of the representatives of society. But also the experience of togetherness that means suffering and death caused by the hostilities on the basis of differences in religion or nationality, as well as by racism. Still it takes time for the parts of Europe that once separated it can grow together. This process will only succeed, if the deepening of European unity go hand in hand with the expansion of the EU. Deepening institutional reforms are not sufficient, but it requires thinking together about the history of Europe and about the conclusions to be drawn from that history.Conclusion The most important meaning is the awareness of the nature of Western values generally accepted, especially human rights are not inviolable. These values were developed jointly by Europe and America, and values that must be held on and became the yardsticks used to judge the world outside Europe and America.