German reunification – a short history | DW Documentary

[Music] duska tied to dodge hunt in Yahoo the divided Germany in 1989 so two countries was something that many particularly in France and Great Britain thought should stay that way food doesn't stuff once why get me yeah if an sister French ambassador told me this cold is reunification he wants to make a single state that's crazy dad Madison they stopped the loop we always thought the France and Germany together in the same bed trouble yeah trouble for the British Bushmen fire Germany was a revanchist country in the eyes of all the soviet people back then there they were all revanchist hsihu are only trying to swallow up East Germany you know East Germany was my country Germany is a United fatherland I grew up at a time when that wasn't conceivable at all to suddenly give people freedom is huge and that's what happened [Music] [Applause] [Music] 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 two 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 and 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 Przewalski's said yes the wall is now open or worse that effect I believe authorized nothing I was on Conan born avoid fun for our said something high sunless on financial status vant 150 and my translator who had never been to the West was one of the first ones through the victor home Allah 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 any bursted and I say Viktor listen I'm writing his story take something from the minibar and I'll talk to you in a minute then suddenly I think Viktor hemella is here in West Berlin he's not allowed to be here he's an 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 [Music] I wasn't long and experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall in the Bundestag when the deputies stood up and sang the German national anthem esculent lee sanghun decision was heart-rending he'll take a - only the West German Chancellor was absent on this historic day Helmut Kohl had just landed in Warsaw for an inaugural visit to the first non communist government in the Soviet bloc disseisin apoyan so 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 Helmut Kohl Bhuvana do downs 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 he'd oh that beneath us for bed cause I just saw transcloud chemical bond washing to Helmut Kohl was surprisingly quiet and thoughtful me in the King borough he didn't break out into obvious euphoria um but you could tell he was asking himself Thank You faction I do now verse Mosley gets to him faced with a delicate situation call remained diplomatic 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 the CSTO say mu cool the first thing elmwood cool did after his return from warsaw was to talk to all the major partners at English pop he talked on the phone to President Bush to meet Iran through Margaret Thatcher and to general secretary Gorbachev as a kid there go watch but see basically what came out of these phone calls was that everyone said we had to prevent chaos from breaking out the whole process must be kept under control the stare gown support says with the controller blocked [Music] escape steam indeed Ikuo bottom thus after the Wall fell there were calls for Soviet troops to enter in immediately shetan I'm grateful but the man who decided everything was general secretary Gorbachev that's not their goal bad show Gorbachev wanted no violence and sends a messenger to bond it was a real surprise for the chancellor's office Ummah the par hustlers of our survey to show bazooka an immediate trigger was a Soviet visitor to my office a journalist mr. Poe to god of whom we later learned was a KGB general cocky we had always suspected that but we did not know it until later I was just Spezza a fan went about to mierqis I'm talking with he had been sent to me with a list of questions and these questions all revolved in principal around the subject of German unification phobic I was really electrified because I thought Porto gone off always represents the dogmatic Soviet party line but I leaned and now here he is suddenly talking about German unification and in the others if he dares to do that I told the Chancellor and it's high time that he publicly took the lead yet he effing least you feel we went into and I welcome speed on acting five down Mary weeks after the fall of the wall Cole's advisor horse tell chick 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 bundeskanzler vo dynasty and Vista clearing martin acoustica she took two adult sons massage and frickin in the country gasket to the center focus Helmut Kohl was planning German reunification a plan to which his foreign minister was not privy the ten points in the plan for German German rapprochement would de facto steps towards reunification on film on Swansea on November 25th hair Cole made his statement and agrees with me as Prime Minister of East Germany that we needed to be bound by a treaty well then devote our scheme I'm chuffed we would since money so it was the foot that although we didn't rightly know what being bounded by a treaty method I said we'd think of something we wanted to reduce the resistance of East Germany in the Soviet Union by accepting their proposal see I can afford legal Fontaine with off the 10-point speech did shock all of us because we had so called reserved 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 no longer said shavasana thus we knew right from the start that Margaret Thatcher would be against it so we didn't tell her nothing did after the 10-point plan was announced of course the reaction in Paris was mild horror Lisha since Edison yeah we 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 Chancellor II have a clicker about delicious who knew their transition would Shafter Conde French ambassador told me this Col this reunification he wants to make a single state and that's crazy no consultation and so on they still fit all the own to conjure dildo couldn t come to my office and bond on Monday and I'll explain to you how things should happen that Zoe anything I didn't go through of course not because I knew Cole was right then he had seized a moment in history when it was necessary to he's God there's ambush huh deteriorated 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 then the danger was that he could otherwise have called to helmet and said helmet great speech you know I support you but let's talk before he devised he understood city gavel essence for live there were a lot of anxieties among countries in the West there are anxieties and countries in the East about what would happen would you have a new Mitchell Europa so the notion of a United NATO was to Germany in NATO was partly to preserve the stability that we've had from the past 25 or 30 years P you know yet 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 to come 2001 from Moscow was disgruntled Soviet correspondent Vladimir kondratyev explained why in German TVs Press Club show [Music] remember master yet shown as a geezer disappointing year of much pizza fault evil does and Cindy's ippolit eek I said of annual deutschlands if Claddagh sister which is a fairly under the scan the stability of on some continent English affirmed the Russians were also preoccupied with their own problems after the collapse of the Soviet bloc the country was suffering a major supply crisis Georgia not solution people began to hold stocks like in wartime of course this caused a lot of discontent and against this background Billy foreign policy issues such as the reunification of Germany went almost unnoticed by the majority I remember very clearly December 18 coal flew to Dresden and I was with him and he arrived in the city and people huge crowd of people huge were just yelling einheit I in height there was this chant and coal later said that that was the moment he realized that you can't delay it supervisor the benefit in Chicago idea out of the Mentalist a mood were affinity VI Laguna Seca tear it is like all secretaries general of the Warsaw Pact madro started off with a boring written statement about peace they talked disarmament and so on one Turk up was neat he didn't give us the feeling that he knew what the situation in his country was really like was to be the logins I've noticed your video do you think you meet him cool the talks with Helmut Kohl 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 via devar Cooney I'd meet beer to fondle Jose McCool about the TV what Helmut Kohl was expecting from how Motorola was a clear reform program I think abut 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 answers that's continued character [Music] investigar woman an important moment came on the 22nd of December 1989 when East Germany officially opened the Berlin Wall and Helmut Kohl and Prime Minister mojo walked together through the Brandenburg Gate boom it dim minister-president moto reminds I'm done Deutsch does bun burger talking updated sticker good but does our math it is written Dino Linux into the minds of the chuckles again that made me ELISA - coos happen chata a mission of God was owed to me and it 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 the food it was fifty centimeters from the microphone but it went on and on and then we all went pouring through the Brandenburg a together and here you see it again the immense crowd you for I did full of commitment and it really felt like a historic moment when focused is good at least this time mr. Rajah m'lady [Music] the best elevation 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] Margaret Thatcher was a child of the 1930s she'd grown up with the rise of Nazism her family had hosted um 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 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 meeting on when she produced the lab but that's an incident I heard that shocked and easier also meet all Margaret Thatcher said to Francois Mitterrand dear during my summer holidays I reread Churchill's go memos aren't you afraid it's good with everybody it'll all have been talking about a common European currency your body - hostile are you not afraid of being swallowed up by Germany I already borrowed my emitter Hong said he did not know my Donna well the economy is not crucial anybody gweld politicses celebrity we think the meaty role played a double game yeah he pretended 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 Kohl then it was all you know hand in hand and very touching stories actually meetable and cor were in agreement from early on Paris was to give reunification and green light if coal allowed Europe a bigger role the Chancellor was even willing to give up the deutsche mark the British were left in the dark this was the price that had to be paid to France European currency European army European foreign policy you know Eurovision I mean just everything you know and we were really worried about this we didn't know because we don't want that kind of Europe we want a different kind of Europe and Helmut Kohl wasn't going to give us a choice so German unification mean that meant that we had less choice my gun pitcher Kedah delicious legends today when mrs. Thatcher was in Moscow and the conversation turned to reunification she asked that no stenographic record be kept what can there's no porcelain but of course after that everything was recorded tell my mother she's in the interview she clearly said what's in your person we believe it is very dangerous the Germans are trying to establish hegemony she was of the opinion that the Soviet Union should take a stronger position against reunifications presidency garbage off is suspicious he thinks he's being set up to be the fall guy and frankly Gorbachev thinks hmm of these people will I choose France and Britain or will I choose the United States in Germany and he thinks the latter two are probably the safer course Bush and beggars and Gorbachev King Bush and Baker 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 the fandom debate and artists at MIT and undelivered Eva Hannigan film the atom the ethnic hinder them working the VMS to give you [Music] we had to think of a mechanism that would allow us to deal with for power rights deal with the issues of internal to German unification but also some of these other topics and so we worked with a 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 Germany's would be the leading part and I remember when Baker went around to try to advance this idea with the Brits and the French and others some would say oh four plus two somewhat used six there was some resistance of this and I remember it it was quite an important moment when we finally got the full acceptance of this of the Soviet Union at a meeting 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 watch off as soon as possible each had its own plans for German German haha Shmuel Oh sons would was mousketool when house madre came back from moscow and talked about a united German fatherland I was very angry he of all people is now trying to persuade us that we were heading towards reunification before his trip to Moscow it all sounded quite different and personal than others but whilst morale was still talking about a step-by-step process of reunification the West German Chancellor was in a hurry the DDR pushed a bleep unquote East Germany was literally bankrupt live who would help them yet if we didn't that's why the hell pooch off dog that would also have been the main message to Gorbachev in case he asked Helmut Kohl to explain why you wanted German unification I was a white cloud but it never got that far because 20 minutes into his statement Gorbachev completely surprised us he agreed to our reunification itsu azhagi a I finally not see the Gorbachev had me only sustained peace to exact justice over donee own en child whom the Dutch in einem starts elite in respect even yet undecided artists decide punk who did make the iana concepts to boost him might have better it couldn't have been any better the great Soviet Union still represented by hundreds of thousands of soldiers in East Germany agreed that Germany could become one again divided this is a kind of there was no surprise that this mood these moments of strong emotion emerged in the aircraft where seasoned politicians raise their glasses and in just clink glasses for the cameras dun aengus Rosen hub don't undetermined II had friends in the West and his friends had to recognize German unification otherwise they'd no longer be friends and allies me a visa it was clear to Margaret Thatcher as to all of us after the famous meeting between : Gorbachev that unification had been inevitable it may have been a setback for Margaret Thatcher 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 this is a telegram from Sir Christopher malabi and bomb 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 him as a status of writing because we are I think I wouldn't said we wanted to change the image I think we wanted to give all the documents that were relevant in order to 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 doctor said the British Foreign Secretary was negotiating very very help for me 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 Penn would call campaigned vigorously for the sake DISA understate Soviet comment by recommend salmon please land of pound one sending him a cool flow of templates and estate imagine Helmut Kohl 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 his when a quarter of a million people cheer for inspire and of course you're going to say I am the greatest the consumers are you finding quality is well he give inside there was a certainty that a fundamental decision was being taken that it was not about saying and another four years and another 99% but that a fundamental choice of direction was being made for this country and this is just what it was quantity victims and trade him to Jesus land could talk about Windows washable [Music] the namibian of Hiva 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 divineness native I think Louis C'thun I always had the feeling Marta was trying to salvage something from East Germany but he had no chance in de mazia just saw himself as responsible for an orderly handover Songza eileen you were gonna go field you mentioned in Austin people in East Germany stood against their own regime with the cry we are the people which soon became we are of one just like wolf not that this was a clear call for unification the able to say that West Germany pounced on its neighbor and swallowed it up is wrong 90 minutes the majority of East Germans clearly decided that they wanted to join is the Federal Republic so bonus of a big voice Hiyori Mike Ryan fun League initiative will disclose a confidential press conferences took place regularly here in the aquarium when this place of confidence and Helmut Kohl attended them twice a year he got up he addressed topical issues that were being discussed and talked about the unification of Germany and of course he made the classic remarks about blossoming landscapes and that German reunification could be paid out of petty cash and we've reported it all it was important for the people back home good luck why obviously feel you had to talk I also wasn't one of those who believed all that school the thing about petty cash for example but it wasn't meant for me anyway it was intended to reassure the West German taxpayer so we burned the Duff isn't royal financing there were enormous financial transfers from West sequences 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 as it was and they knew in their hearts that it was necessary even if they didn't like it this is no advantage Bob Springs for further developments in the international arena the Europeans agreed to unification and declared that the new Germany would be part of the European community then the 2+4 negotiation started four meetings were scheduled to hammer out the details [Music] the Germans had two foreign ministers of the talks Marcus Mecca for East Germany and hans-dietrich Genscher for the West stop to fog this will the question of the future status of a united Germany thoughts firstly smoke would we get full sovereignty back from the four victorious powers or not so seconds would a unified Germany be a member of NATO a disclosure Invicta tonight and if so in what for night then they withdrawal of the Soviet forces 370 thousand Soviet troops in East Germany their Gorbachev was worried that coal was putting his foot on the accelerator sort of destabilizing and the fact that Bush developed a trusting relationship with Gorbachev including it that that Malta meeting I think gave some support as coal did what he had to do to sort of take advantage of this moment in history I think coal in that sense was just knew that there has to be 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 in the meantime the economic situation in the Soviet Union had become critical bond offered to help with a treaty in exchange for the withdrawal of Soviet forces the German government would pay almost four billion darks and indicated its willingness to provide even bigger loans Sabaton in Vevey me and the union all set Lawrence the Soviet Union a world policy would have been insolvent by the end of June 1990 Helmut Kohl ordered me to go to Moscow with the heads of two major German banks most coats a secret journey to negotiate everything a little family and the clear message I got from Gorbachev loved sport soft we want this agreement and we want this loan Vivaldi's infotrac I had to explain to him that we were prepared to do this but it was part of an overall solution justice the societies and God sent over dusties tyldus Kazam Kazam tourism list above all an overall solution involved the issue of a United Germany's alliances it was the main theme during Gorbachev's 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 CSCE was the 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 will say the Germany is free to make its own choice under CSC 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 the notion of a united Germany and NATO not look at the patina cachito spoken no timberland we had to make concessions but there was one condition if a united Germany became a NATO member there will be no NATO bases on the territory of the former East Germany Delta Clarion no practical Picasa reality shows that once they can be allotted of will slow and find words in politics but Vella you can unfortunately only believe in a document in Russia she moves yield equivalent dominated the sky redundant some start from zina filing on Zenith fuller in Pune and shake the serenity the 2000 highlight the commitment to German unity NATO membership a return of full sovereignty and and and covetous I think that in the end he agreed to the whole development because he hoped at this great United Germany is economically powerful technologically stronger it would be the most important partner for him for the modernization and development of the Soviet Union is to modernize Ian won't be convinced of it [Music] the avowed from Vallejo expectations are really high it was believed at the time that Russia and Germany were entering a new era and everything would evolve very nicely until agreement oh and no one at that time could imagine Russia would face great difficulties he could Satan before then I'm funky war if Gorbachev had said at the talks in Moscow which beginning of February at 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 relative especially since a large proportion was also made up of loans so Marlin Cosette I love Twitty too by late summer 1990 only one problem was left to solve the order nicer line Fernand had been waiting since the end of World War two for West Germany to recognize the border along the two rivers both East Germany and the for Victoria sparse 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 tobu a grown-up I see on todaäôs ma soviet skis new government was coming under enormous pressure over the border question and every day's delay just undermined it further Mesa was not allowed to goes on dunno what is here 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 honey boo boo bullishness a four amigos future in an City Frank remember France also got Alsace back from Germany woman and this border was inviolable impetus so the Polish border should be inviolable - it was like a balance in the south the English Phoenicians mine for sofa your mom my proposal was for the two German states and Poland to draw up a border treaty which would then be signed and ratified immediately after German unification coal was totally against it pepite cioud who voted us part to me em would cool artistas eeeh Xia Helmut Kohl really dragged his heels on this but it was of course very important the allies all of us the United States England France and the Soviet Union had all made it a condition for German unification kamov table astonished unfuck in addition this was not just a domestic issue for coal and the Americans unequivocally intervened in Bonn and said folks if you don't do it the deal is off descanse other evolved 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 order nice after four months of negotiations but less than a year after the wall came down the unification treaty was finalized 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 the International two plus four treaty was also signed in Moscow the four victorious powers returning full sovereignty to a united Germany forty five years after the end of the Second World War [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 changing European Commission offering possibilities for then Soviet Union and also possibilities for other Eastern European countries to me look like a pre good years work [Music] via the Hudson stems from - everyone has their moment of glory and my finest hour was to live and work in the Federal Republic at the time of reunification paulownia budgeted gaya in the kiss - dear 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 aside the digit is almost was with me did you score against well the zombie suga mocked he strung that off I drank 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 a good Feldon everything we are experiencing now is to all intents and purposes a break with those former hopes is it huge because I work a lot has been achieved but I think it will take just as long again until you no longer notice the difference there milk 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 because I'm good [Music] imbued upon you going reunification is the greatest story that you can experience as a journalist even Kahneman D I noticed no nine of us may know it not when the food is happening 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 election dominance and no OPA Arms is done for flu stitched we now have a paradox and because suddenly we've realised 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 German so Germans have become our best friends yeah yes you had a quiet revolution better than we French dude no heads rolled I salute you tea dodge sink new trendy all Germans are necessary without them you can't build your but they should not be overestimated either 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 two 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 and you know to witness that was enormous ly powerful to see what an end to your penance means which in effect it was [Music] [Music] you you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 922,441

Rating: 4.802949 out of 5

Keywords: Reunification, Germany, GDR, DDR, Helmut Kohl, German Reunification, Europe, Cold War, Deutsche Welle, DW, documentary, Berlin, Berlin Wall, history, West Germany, 30 Jahre Mauerfall, Mauerfall

Id: iNAxfWCwDsw

Length: 42min 40sec (2560 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2017