IB History Reasons for Reunification Notes

German Reunification: Why Division Ended in 1990

Long-Term Conditions

1. Germany had been divided since 1945 and formally split into the FRG and GDR in 1949.
2. West Germany belonged to NATO and the European Community, while East Germany belonged to the Warsaw Pact and COMECON.
3. Reunification remained emotionally powerful but politically blocked because it threatened the European balance of power.
4. Ostpolitik, West German engagement from 1969, increased contact across the border without ending the existence of two German states.
5. East Germany survived through Soviet military backing, one-party rule, subsidies, and a closed border.
6. West German prosperity and political freedom kept pressure on the GDR because East Germans could compare their lives with the FRG.
7. Reunification became possible only when Soviet backing weakened and East German citizens could challenge the regime without a Soviet crackdown.

Gorbachev and Soviet Change

1. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and introduced glasnost, perestroika, and a less interventionist foreign policy.
2. By 1989 Moscow signalled, through what became known as the Sinatra Doctrine, that Eastern European states would have to find their own way rather than rely on Soviet tanks.
3. Gorbachev rejected the old Soviet practice, known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, of using force to keep communist governments in power across Eastern Europe.
4. The Soviet Union could no longer afford indefinite subsidies, military pressure, and confrontation with the West.
5. East German leader Erich Honecker lost the guarantee that Soviet force would rescue him from popular unrest.
6. Gorbachev did not initially plan German reunification, but his refusal to use force removed the main barrier to it.
7. Gorbachev made reunification possible by choosing restraint, even though East German protest and West German diplomacy shaped the final outcome.

Collapse of the GDR

1. The GDR faced debt, shortages, weak productivity, and growing dependence on West German loans and trade.
2. Honecker resisted reform even as Poland, Hungary, and the Soviet Union moved in different directions.
3. Hungary opened routes to Austria in 1989, allowing thousands of East Germans to escape westward.
4. East Germans occupied West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw, showing that the refugee crisis had become international.
5. The regime could no longer claim popular support when citizens were fleeing and protest crowds were growing.
6. Honecker was replaced by Egon Krenz in October 1989, but the change came too late to restore trust.
7. East Germany collapsed because it lost economic credibility, political consent, and the Soviet guarantee of coercive survival.

Popular Protest

1. The Monday demonstrations in Leipzig grew from small church-linked gatherings into mass protests against the SED regime.
2. The slogan Wir sind das Volk (We are the people) challenged the party's claim to speak for the population.
3. About 70,000 people demonstrated in Leipzig on 9 October 1989 while security forces avoided mass violence.
4. By late October and early November, demonstrations reached hundreds of thousands across East German cities.
5. Local commanders and officials hesitated to use force because Soviet backing was uncertain and public anger was too large.
6. The slogan shifted from We are the people to Wir sind ein Volk (We are one people) as demands moved from reforming the GDR to joining the FRG.
7. Popular pressure did not design the diplomatic settlement, but it destroyed the East German state that had blocked reunification.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

1. East German officials tried to announce new travel regulations on 9 November 1989 to reduce public pressure.
2. Gunter Schabowski mistakenly suggested at a press conference that the new rules applied immediately.
3. Thousands gathered at Berlin checkpoints, and confused guards opened the border rather than use force.
4. The wall opened because of bureaucratic confusion, public pressure, and a state that could no longer control events.
5. Images of Berliners crossing, celebrating, and breaking the wall transformed the political atmosphere overnight.
6. After the wall fell, gradual reform of the GDR became less likely because citizens could now compare options directly.
7. The fall of the wall did not legally reunify Germany, but it made the survival of a separate GDR much harder.

Kohl and West German Leadership

1. West German chancellor Helmut Kohl moved quickly to turn crisis into reunification before international opposition could harden.
2. Kohl announced a Ten-Point Plan in November 1989 that set out steps toward confederation and eventual unity.
3. Kohl offered rapid currency union, which appealed to East Germans who wanted West German wages, savings, and living standards.
4. East Germany's March 1990 election produced victory for parties favouring rapid reunification with the FRG.
5. West German money helped make unity attractive because many East Germans feared that reforming the GDR would not solve collapse quickly.
6. Kohl worked with George H. W. Bush and Gorbachev to keep reunification inside NATO and Western institutions.
7. Kohl did not cause the collapse of the GDR, but he shaped reunification into accession to the Federal Republic rather than a slow confederation.

International Diplomacy

1. The Two Plus Four settlement involved the two German states plus the four wartime occupying powers: the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, and France.
2. George H. W. Bush supported reunification inside NATO because it kept Germany anchored in Western institutions.
3. The Soviet Union still had about 380,000 troops in East Germany, so Soviet consent was essential.
4. West Germany offered financial assistance to the USSR, including support connected to Soviet troop withdrawal.
5. Gorbachev eventually accepted a united Germany in NATO after negotiations over security assurances and German payments.
6. Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand feared a stronger Germany but lacked a practical way to stop popular and diplomatic momentum.
7. International diplomacy mattered because it made reunification legal, peaceful, and acceptable to the powers that had divided Germany in 1945.

Formal Reunification

1. Monetary, economic, and social union began on 1 July 1990, bringing the Deutsche Mark to East Germany.
2. The September 1990 Two Plus Four Treaty restored full German sovereignty and arranged the withdrawal of Soviet forces by 1994.
3. On 3 October 1990, the GDR ceased to exist and its five federal states joined the Federal Republic of Germany.
4. A reunified Germany stayed in NATO and the European Community, which extended Western institutions eastward.
5. Germany confirmed the Oder-Neisse border with Poland, reducing fears of territorial revisionism.
6. Reunification happened within a year of the wall opening because East German collapse and public expectations made delay politically risky.
7. The final settlement was peaceful because domestic pressure, West German capacity, US support, and Soviet restraint aligned at the same moment.

Historical Judgement

1. East German citizens created the immediate crisis by protesting, fleeing, and withdrawing consent from the SED regime.
2. Gorbachev's refusal to use force removed the barrier that had kept Eastern Europe and Germany divided.
3. Kohl shaped the speed, method, and Western alignment of reunification through money, elections, and diplomacy.
4. East German economic weakness made rapid accession attractive because many citizens wanted the Deutsche Mark and West German living standards.
5. Reunification required consent from the four occupying powers because Germany's status still affected European security.
6. No single factor explains reunification because protest opened the possibility, Soviet restraint permitted it, and West German diplomacy organised it.
7. The strongest cause was the collapse of GDR authority under popular pressure, but reunification became possible only because Gorbachev and Kohl chose not to slow the process.