Diplomatic documents · 1989–1990
A selection of telegrams, memos, minutes and letters from embassies and foreign ministries in eleven countries, set against the events from autumn 1989 to German unity.
Brandenburger Tor, 30 Jahre Mauerfall (2019): New York-air, CC BY-SA 4.0
Hungary opens its border to Austria for GDR citizens
Monday demonstration in Leipzig
Honecker is replaced by Egon Krenz as SED General Secretary
The Berlin Wall opens
Kohl presents his Ten-Point Plan
The Brandenburg Gate reopens
Ottawa: agreement on the Two-plus-Four talks
Unequivocally accepting the right of the German people to proceed with the unification of their country, the main conditions to be observed in this process by the USSR and its Western partners are summarized and then discussed in detail.
Eduard Shevardnadze, USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics · Ministry of Foreign Affairs–
Prague, 17 March 1990
Read documentFirst free elections to the GDR People’s Chamber
The main priorities of the USSR relating to the unification of Germany are discussed in detail with particular reference to the impermissibility of its membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.
Vyacheslav Ivanovich Kochemasov, USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics · Embassy in Berlin–
East Berlin, 29 March 1990
Read documentFirst Two-plus-Four ministerial meeting in Bonn
Monetary, economic and social union enters into force
Arkhyz, Caucasus: Kohl and Gorbachev agree on a united Germany in NATO
The Soviet Draft of an Agreement of the final legal settlement of the German issue to be confirmed and adopted at the Meeting of Heads of States-signatories to the Final Helsinki Act.
–Eduard Shevardnadze
Moscow, 6 August 1990
Read documentUnification Treaty signed
Two-plus-Four Treaty signed in Moscow
German reunification
German–Polish Border Treaty signed