"German exodus was continuing apace; more than 117,000 left in January and February 1990. In early February 1990, the Modrow government's proposal for a unified, neutral German state was rejected by Chancellor Kohl, who affirmed that a unified Germany must be a member of NATO. Finally, on 18 March, the first free elections were held in East Germany, and a government led by Lothar de Maizière (CDU) was formed under a policy of expeditious unification with West Germany. The freely elected representatives of the ""Volkskammer"" held their first session on 5 April, and East Germany peacefully evolved from a communist"
"alignment and affiliation to Western alliances like NATO and the European Union. The official German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990 was held at the building, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others. One day later, the parliament of the united Germany would assemble in an act of symbolism in the Reichstag building. However, at that time, the role of Berlin had not yet been decided upon. Only after a fierce debate, considered by many as one of the most memorable sessions of parliament, the concluded on 20 June 1991, with quite"
"144 deputies in the chamber who on 3 October 1990, as part of the German reunification process, became members of the Bundestag (National Assembly) of the reunited Germany. In the following two national elections, in December 1990 and in October 1994, he was elected to the Bundestag as a deputy for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Ortleb remained a member of the Bundestag till 1998. On 3 October 1990 Rainer Ortleb was one of the formerly East German political leaders to join the cabinet of the newly reunified Germany, under Federal Chancellor Kohl. Initially he served as a Minister without portfolio, but following the"
"Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963. He was co-founder and first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) (till 1966), a Christian Democratic party that under his leadership became one of the most influential parties in the country. In the early years of the Federal Republic he switched focus from denazification to recovery and led his country from the ruins of World War II to a productive and prosperous nation"
"because of the presence of the DSU in de Maizière's grouping; the SPD had originally been willing to govern alongside all parties other than the PDS and DSU. On 5 April 1990, the new Volkskammer elected the CDU's Sabine Bergmann-Pohl as its president. As the State Council was at the same time dissolved, she became East Germany's interim head of state. Four days later, de Maizière announced that he had reached an agreement for a grand coalition consisting of the Alliance parties (the CDU, DSU and DA), the SPD, the liberal Association of Free Democrats (BFD), and one non-attached member."
"leader of East Germany until free elections were held on 18 March 1990—the first held in that part of Germany since 1933. The SED, renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism, was heavily defeated. Lothar de Maizière of the East German Christian Democratic Union became Prime Minister on 4 April 1990 on a platform of speedy reunification with the West. The two Germanies were reunified on 3 October 1990. The Kremlin's willingness to abandon such a strategically vital ally marked a dramatic shift by the Soviet superpower and a fundamental paradigm change in international relations, which until 1989 had been dominated"
"had not received instructions from Moscow to engage in violent suppression of any uprising, as they had done back in 1953. That opened the way for a series of changes which led to an end for one-party dictatorship and then, formally in October 1990, German reunification. The state for which Felgner and her Stasi handlers had worked no longer existed. Armed with an (apparently embellished) background as a qualified nurse with a school graduation certicate and some kind of degree in business administration from the Free University of Berlin, Felgner launched herself in the new Germany as a business woman."
"in October 1990, German reunification. At the hitherto important Carola Bluhm's career prospects disappeared. In 1990 she was informed succinctly in writing that she was being temporarily laid off (""""in Warteschleife geschickt"""") and six months later, her job disappeared permanently (although according to her own website she remained, at least formally, an employee of the Berlin Economics Academy till early in 1991). Unemployment, hitherto a theoretical issue that she had researched and on which she had taught as an academic, became her personal reality. The old Socialist Unity Party (""""Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands"""" / SED), hitherto the ruling party in the"
"the CDU meant that the task of forming a new East German government fell to the party chairman, Lothar de Maizière. In April Christa Schmidt was appointed as a minister, mandated to head up the newly formed Ministry for Family and Women (""""Ministerium für Familie und Frauen""""). The ended in the context of German reunification on 3 October 1990, when what had been East Germany was incorporated into the German Federal Republic. 144 of the 400 members who had sat as members of the now defunct East German Volkskammer since March 1990 now became members of a newly enlarged Bundestag"
"under the Chancellor of West Germany Helmut Kohl, who also announced the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, it was decided to refurbish the area around the Bundestag into a modern government complex. As part of this effort, there were plans to extend the U5 from its current western terminus at Alexanderplatz through the city centre, past the Brandenburg Gate and the Bundestag, to the new central train station, Berlin Hauptbahnhof. This ""Kanzlerlinie"" (Chancellor Line), so nicknamed because it passed through the government quarter, was originally planned since the as a diagonal line through central Berlin, continuing to Turmstraße"
"On 3 October 1990 East Germany and West Germany were reunified, hence East Germany became part of the Community in the new reunified Germany (not increasing the number of states). A key person in the Community creation process was Jean Monnet, regarded as the ""founding father"" of the European Union, which is seen as the dominant force in European integration. Martin Schulz proposed the abolition of the National parliaments of the European Union and their replacement by the European Parliament for the establishment of the United States of Europe where every Head of government will be appointed by the representative"
"since Karl Dönitz in May 1945. At midnight on 3 October 1990, during the official festivities held before the Reichstag building in Berlin to mark the moment of the reunification of Germany, President Weizsäcker delivered the only speech of the night, immediately after the raising of the flag, and before the playing of the National Anthem. His brief remarks, however, were almost inaudible, due to the sound of the bells marking midnight, and of the fireworks that were released to celebrate the moment of reunification. In those remarks he praised the accomplishment of German unity in freedom and in peace."
"Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak and Konrad Adenauer; the three most important figures of the founding fathers of the European Union. Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963. He was co-founder and first leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) (till 1966), a Christian Democratic party that under his leadership became one of the most influential parties in the country. In the early years of the Federal Republic he switched focus from"
"German Bundestag. The governing CDU/CSU-FDP coalition was returned to office with a landslide majority, and Helmut Kohl remained chancellor. The CDU did exceptionally well in the former East Germany, which had been the heartland of the SPD before the Nazi era. 1990 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 2 December 1990 to elect the members of the 12th Bundestag. They were the first competitive and universal all-German election since the elections of March 1933, which cemented Adolf Hitler's power. The result was a comprehensive victory for the governing coalition of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union"
"the Berlin/Bonn Act, adopted in 1994, Berlin once again became the capital of the reunified Germany, while Bonn obtained the unique status of a ""Bundesstadt"" (federal city) retaining some federal ministries. The relocation of the government was completed in 1999. Following the 1998 elections, SPD politician Gerhard Schröder became the first Chancellor of a red–green coalition with the Alliance '90/The Greens party. Among the major projects of the two Schröder legislatures was the Agenda 2010 to reform the labour market to become more flexible and reduce unemployment. The modernisation and integration of the eastern German economy is a long-term process"
"de Maizière (CDU). In his term of office, he frequently worked with Hans Dietrich Genscher, as he was one of the representatives of the two German states during the ""Two Plus Four Negotiations"" with the victors of the Second World War over a Final Peace Treaty. It was this treaty which paved the way to the reunification of Germany. On 20 August 1990, Meckel, together with the Social Democratic ministers, withdrew from the cabinet. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was taken over by de Maizière himself. After Germany was reunified on 3 October 1990, Meckel became a member of German"
"He gave a longer speech at the act of state at the Berliner Philharmonie later that day. In 1990, Weizsäcker became the first head of state of the German Federal Republic to visit Poland. During his four-day visit, he reassured Poles that the newly unified German state would treat their western and northern borders, which included prewar German lands, as inviolable. In 1992, Weizsäcker gave the eulogy at the state funeral of former Chancellor Willy Brandt at the ""Reichstag"", the first state funeral for a former chancellor to take place in Berlin since the death of Gustav Stresemann in 1929."
"served as private residence of the Chancellor and his family 1964-1999. Nearly ten years after the German reunification in 1990, in the summer of 1999, most of the German government moved to Berlin. The Chancellery was temporarily housed in the former GDR State Council building ""(Staatsratsgebäude)"" as the new Chancellery building was not yet finished at the time. The spectacular as well as controversial monumental building ensemble of the new Federal Chancellery was designed by the Berlin architects Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank by a joint venture of Royal BAM Group's subsidiary Wayss & Freytag and the Spanish Acciona, during"
"context of reunification, the parliament was subsumed into an enlarged version of the (hitherto West) German Bundestag. As part of the arrangements agreed, 144 of the 400 Volkskammer members - including 33 from the SDP - transferred to the enlarged Bundestag, but Lippmann was not among them. During 1990 Lippmann also became a member of the SPD party executive for Thuringia, which was formally reinstated as a federal state (""""Bundesland"""") in October. The restoration of Thuringia's status as a political region was accompanied by the return of the regional parliament (""""Landtag""""). Elections were held on 14 October 1990: Frieder Lippmann"
"decision by Merkel to authorize unrestricted entry led to heavy criticism in Germany as well as within Europe. In that period, Berlin was affected by a truck ramming incident in a Christmas market in December 2016. In 2017, Angela Merkel was elected to a fourth term as Chancellor. The FDP reenters the Bundestag and for the first time, the right-wing conservative AfD also enters. History of Germany since 1990 The history of Germany since 1990 spans the period following the Reunification of Germany, when West Germany and East Germany were reunited after being divided during the Cold War. Germany after"
"the coalition government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. On 15 March 1991, the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany—that had been signed in Moscow back on 12 September 1990 by the two German states that then existed (East and West Germany) on one side, and by the four principal Allied powers (the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and the United States) on the other—entered into force, having been ratified by the Federal Republic of Germany (after the unification, as the united Germany) and by the four Allied nations. The entry into force of that treaty (also known"
"importance and merely oversaw the transition to the parliamentary elections of March 1990. The new People's Chamber, the first that emerged from free elections, constituted on 5 April 1990. Among its first measures was an amendment to the constitution abolishing the State Council. As provided in the constitution, the president of the People's Chamber, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, served as interim head of state until reunification with West Germany on 3 October. State Council of East Germany The State Council (German: ""Staatsrat"") was the collective head of state that governed East Germany (German Democratic Republic) from 1960 to 1990. When the German"
"Helmut Kohl was reelected as Chancellor for his fifth and last term. The ruling liberal-conservative coalition government, consisting of the CDU/CSU and the FDP, lost the German federal election, 1998, and Gerhard Schröder was elected as Chancellor, the head of a coalition government consisting of his own SPD party and The Greens. Joschka Fischer, a leading Green politician, became Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Shortly after the formation of the government, Minister of Finance Oskar Lafontaine, a former SPD chairman and rival of Schröder, resigned from the cabinet. He was succeeded as Minister of Finance by Hans Eichel. In 1998,"
"with opposition groups, similar to the processes that had led to multi-party elections in Hungary and Poland. When the first free elections were held in March 1990, the former SED, which had renamed itself PDS, was swept out of power and replaced by a pro-reunification Alliance for Germany coalition led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Chancellor Kohl's party. Now that the CDU was in power on both sides of the border, the two countries progressed rapidly towards reunification, while international diplomacy paved the way abroad. In July 1990, monetary reunification was achieved and the Western Deutsche Mark replaced the"
"event known as the German Reunification. Elections for new state parliaments were held in the five states on October 14, and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany became the largest party in all states except Brandenburg, where the Social Democratic Party of Germany became the largest party. The reunified Berlin became the capital of Germany on October 3, although the government continued to have its seat in Bonn until 1999. December 2 marks the first elections for the city parliament after reunification. The first federal election after reunification, the German federal election, 1990, took place on December 2 in that"
"chairman Theodor Heuss in the second ballot. Schumacher died on 20 August 1952 of the long-term consequences of his concentration camp imprisonment during the Nazi years. Adenauer had favoured the formation of a smaller centre-right coalition from the beginning. Nominated by the CDU/CSU faction, he was elected the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany on 15 September 1949 by an absolute majority of 202 of 402 votes. Adenauer had ensured that the votes of the predominantly Social Democrat West Berlin deputies did not count and later stated that he ""naturally"" had voted for himself. On 20 September, he"
"Brandenburg Gate border crossing was reopened when Helmut Kohl, the West German chancellor, walked through to be greeted by Hans Modrow, the East German prime minister. Demolition of the rest of the wall around the area took place the following year. During 1990, the quadriga was removed from the gate as part of renovation work carried out by the East German authorities following the fall of the wall in November 1989. Germany was officially reunified in October 1990. The Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished on 21 December 2000, at a cost of six million euros. It was once again opened"
"West German counterpart, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). From February 1990, Angela Merkel served as the party's spokeswoman. After the mergers, Merkel was elected in the post-unification election as a member of the all-German Bundestag for the CDU, and eventually became Chancellor of Germany in 2005. Democratic Awakening Democratic Awakening () was an East German political movement and political party that was active during the Fall of Communism and in the period leading up to the German reunification. While it was a relatively minor party, it took part in the first democratically elected government in East Germany in 1990, and"
"the former Allies of World War II to allow German reunification. He received assurances from Gorbachev that a reunified Germany would be able to choose which international alliance it wanted to join, although Kohl made no secret that he wanted the reunified Germany to inherit West Germany's seats at NATO and the EC. A reunification treaty was signed on 31 August 1990, and was overwhelmingly approved by both parliaments on 20 September 1990. On 3 October 1990, East Germany officially ceased to exist, and its territory joined the Federal Republic as the five states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and"
"calling for the two Germanys to expand their cooperation with a view toward eventual reunification. Initially, no timetable was proposed. However, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germany's first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohl's Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification. Second, East Germany's economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany was long reckoned as having the most"
"that time, he was widely considered to be one of Kohl's closest advisers. In a cabinet reshuffle Schäuble was made Minister of the Interior on 21 April 1989. In this role he also led the negotiations on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany for reunification with the GDR in 1990. He and East German State Secretary Günther Krause signed the Unification Treaty on 31 August 1990. In a speech to parliament in 1991, Schäuble clinched the argument in favour of moving the German capital from Bonn to Berlin. In the 1990s Schäuble was one of the most popular politicians"
"History of Germany since 1990 The history of Germany since 1990 spans the period following the Reunification of Germany, when West Germany and East Germany were reunited after being divided during the Cold War. Germany after 1990 is referred to by historians as the Berlin Republic (""Berliner Republik""). This time period is also determined by the ongoing process of the ""inner reunification"" of the formerly divided country. On October 3, 1990, the German Democratic Republic was dissolved, five states were recreated (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia) and the new states became part of the Federal Republic of Germany, an"
"Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German politician, and served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005, during which his most important political project was the Agenda 2010. As a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor he served as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (1990–1998). Following the 2005 federal election, which his party lost, after three weeks of negotiations he stood down as Chancellor in"