Editing German reunification (section)

== Foreign support and opposition ==
For decades, West Germany's allies stated their support for reunification. [[Israeli Prime Minister]] [[Yitzhak Shamir]], who speculated that [[Nazi Germany|a country]] that "decided to kill millions of [[Jewish people]]" in the [[Holocaust]] "will try to do it again", was one of the few world leaders to publicly oppose it. As reunification became a realistic possibility, however, significant NATO and European opposition emerged in private.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929">{{cite news|last=Wiegrefe|first=Klaus|title=An Inside Look at the Reunification Negotiations|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,druck-719848,00.html|access-date=4 October 2010|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=29 September 2010|archive-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107092119/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-s-unlikely-diplomatic-triumph-an-inside-look-at-the-reunification-negotiations-a-719848-druck.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:RIAN archive 850809 General Secretary of the CPSU CC M. Gorbachev (crop).jpg|thumb|190px|[[Soviet leader]] Mikhail Gorbachev had initially called for a united but [[Neutral country|neutral]] Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2020-10-02 |title=Russia and German reunification: Opposing views on Mikhail Gorbachev's legacy |url=https://www.dw.com/en/mikhail-gorbachev-germany-reunification/a-55082979 |access-date=2022-03-06 |website=www.dw.com |publisher=Deutsche Welle |language=en-GB |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316213645/https://www.dw.com/en/mikhail-gorbachev-germany-reunification/a-55082979 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
A poll of four countries in January 1990 found that a majority of surveyed Americans and French supported reunification, while British and Poles were more divided: 69 percent of Poles and 50 percent of French and British stated that they worried about a reunified Germany becoming "the dominant power in Europe". Those surveyed stated several concerns, including Germany again attempting to expand its territory, a revival of Nazism, and the [[German economy]] becoming too powerful. While British, French, and Americans favored Germany remaining a member of NATO, a majority of Poles supported neutrality for the reunified state.<ref name="skelton19900126">{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-26-mn-704-story.html | title=The Times Poll : One Germany: U.S. Unfazed, Europeans Fret | work=Los Angeles Times | date=26 January 1990 | access-date=16 June 2012 | author=Skelton, George | archive-date=7 April 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407104440/https://www.latimes.com/archives | url-status=live }}</ref>

The key ally was the United States. Although some top American officials opposed quick unification, Secretary of State [[James A. Baker]] and President [[George H. W. Bush]] provided strong and decisive support to Kohl's proposals.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Geoffrey K. |last2=Baker |first2=James A. |date=1996 |title=The Politics of Diplomacy, Revolution: War and Peace, 1989–1992 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40203129 |journal=International Journal |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=214–216 |doi=10.2307/40203129 |jstor=40203129 |issn=0020-7020 |access-date=6 March 2022 |archive-date=28 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528040451/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40203129?origin=crossref |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Kathleen E. |date=2019-10-01 |title=William Taubman. Gorbachev: His Life and Times. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhz834 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=124 |issue=4 |pages=1419–1422 |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhz834 |issn=0002-8762 |access-date=6 March 2022 |archive-date=13 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213043506/https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/124/4/1419/5581123?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Efn|[[Kristina Spohr]] reports that German historian [[Werner Weidenfeld]] says that Bush fully trusted Kohl and made the United States his most important ally in the unification process.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spohr |first=Kristina |date=2000 |title=German Unification: Between Official History, Academic Scholarship, and Political Memoirs |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020982 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=869–888 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X99001387 |jstor=3020982 |s2cid=85525353 |issn=0018-246X |access-date=6 March 2022 |archive-date=6 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306014609/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020982 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

===United Kingdom and France===
{{blockquote|[[United Kingdom|We]] [[Military history of Germany#World War I (1914–1918)|defeated the Germans twice]]! And now they're back!|Margaret Thatcher, December 1989<ref name="volkery20091109">{{cite news|last=Volkery|first=Carsten|title=The Iron Lady's Views on German Reunification/'The Germans Are Back!'|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,648364,00.html|access-date=5 October 2010|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=9 November 2009|archive-date=18 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518033937/http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,648364,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>}}

[[British Prime Minister]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] was one of the most vehement opponents of German reunification. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Thatcher told [[Soviet General Secretary]] Mikhail Gorbachev that neither the United Kingdom nor, according to her, Western Europe, wanted the reunification of Germany. Thatcher also clarified that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it, telling Gorbachev, "We do not want a united Germany".<ref name="Times2009.9.11">{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6829735.ece |title=Thatcher told Gorbachev Britain did not want German reunification |access-date=8 November 2009 |date=11 September 2009 |author=Michael Binyon |work=The Times |location=London |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716101355/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6829735.ece |url-status=dead }}</ref> Although she welcomed East German democracy, Thatcher worried that a rapid reunification might weaken Gorbachev, and she favored Soviet troops staying in East Germany as long as possible to act as a counterweight to a united Germany.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /><ref name="kundnani20091028">{{cite news|last=Kundnani|first=Hans|title=Margaret Thatcher's German war|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6893915.ece|access-date=5 October 2010|newspaper=The Times|date=28 October 2009|archive-date=27 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527223003/https://the-tls.co.uk/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Thatcher, who carried in her handbag a map of [[Territorial changes of Germany#Interbellum|Germany's 1937 borders]] to show others the "German problem", feared that Germany's "national character", size, and central location in Europe would cause it to be a "destabilizing rather than a stabilizing force in Europe".<ref name="kundnani20091028" /> In December 1989, she warned fellow European Community leaders at a [[European Council|Council]] summit in [[Strasbourg]] which Kohl attended, "We defeated the Germans twice! And now they're back!".<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /><ref name="volkery20091109" /> Although Thatcher had stated her support for German [[self-determination]] in 1985,<ref name="kundnani20091028" /> she now argued that Germany's allies only supported reunification because they did not believe it would ever happen.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> Thatcher favored a transition period of five years for reunification, during which the two Germanies would remain separate states. Although she gradually softened her opposition, as late as March 1990, Thatcher summoned historians and diplomats to a seminar at [[Chequers]] to ask "How dangerous are the Germans?",<ref name="kundnani20091028" /><ref name="volkery20091109" /> and the French ambassador in London reported that Thatcher told him, "France and Great Britain should pull together today in the face of the German threat."<ref name="CalgaryHerald" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6480413/Margaret-Thatcher-was-horrified-by-the-prospect-of-a-reunited-Germany.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6480413/Margaret-Thatcher-was-horrified-by-the-prospect-of-a-reunited-Germany.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |author=Peter Allen |work=The Daily Telegraph |title=Margaret Thatcher was 'horrified' by the prospect of a reunited Germany |date=2 November 2009 |access-date=9 November 2009 | location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
[[Image:Oder-neisse.gif|right|thumb|300px|[[Former eastern territories of Germany]] (yellow and orange)]]
The pace of events surprised the French, whose Foreign Ministry had concluded in October 1989 that reunification "does not appear realistic at this moment".<ref name="DW-world2009.11.08">{{cite web |url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4861759,00.html |title=Germany's neighbors try to redeem their 1989 negativity |first=Ben |last=Knight |date=8 November 2009 |access-date=9 November 2009 |work=Deutsche Welle |archive-date=11 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111174630/http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4861759,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A representative of [[French President]] [[François Mitterrand]] reportedly told an aide to Gorbachev, "France by no means wants German reunification, although it realises that in the end, it is inevitable."<ref name="Times2009.9.11" /> At the Strasbourg summit, Mitterrand and Thatcher discussed the fluidity of Germany's historical borders.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> On 20 January 1990, Mitterrand told Thatcher that a unified Germany could "make more ground than even [[Adolf Hitler|Adolf]] had".<ref name="CalgaryHerald">{{cite web |author=Anne-Laure |first=Mondesert (AFP) |date=31 October 2009 |title=London and Paris were shocked by German reunification |url=https://calgaryherald.com/news/London+Paris+were+shocked+German+reunification/2168902/story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104100738/http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/London+Paris+were+shocked+German+reunification/2168902/story.html |archive-date=4 November 2009 |access-date=9 November 2009 |work=Calgary Herald}}</ref> He predicted that "bad" Germans would reemerge,<ref name="volkery20091109" /> who might seek to regain [[Former eastern territories of Germany#Post World War II|former German territory lost after World War II]] and would likely dominate Hungary, Poland, and [[Czechoslovakia]],<ref name="kundnani20091028" /> leaving "only [[Romania]] and [[Bulgaria]] for the rest of us". The two leaders saw no way to prevent reunification, however, as "None of us was going to declare war on Germany".<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> Mitterrand recognized before Thatcher that reunification was inevitable and adjusted his views accordingly; unlike her, he was hopeful that participation in a single currency and other European institutions could control a united Germany.<ref name="kundnani20091028" /> Mitterrand still wanted Thatcher to publicly oppose unification, however, to obtain more concessions from Germany.<ref name="volkery20091109" />

===Rest of Europe===
{{blockquote|I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two of them.|Giulio Andreotti, Prime Minister of Italy, quoting [[François Mauriac]]<ref name="folli20130507">{{cite news | url=http://mobile.ilsole24ore.com/solemobile/main?fn=srchFd&id=SEARCH%2FNEWS24%2FAbguVhtH | title=The Incarnation of Politics Is Gone | work=Il Sole 24 Ore | date=2013-05-07 | access-date=21 October 2014 | author=Folli, Stefano | archive-date=26 October 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026204453/http://mobile.ilsole24ore.com/solemobile/main?fn=srchFd&id=SEARCH%2FNEWS24%2FAbguVhtH | url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

[[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]'s [[Taoiseach]], [[Charles Haughey]], supported German reunification and he took advantage of Ireland's presidency of the [[European Economic Community]] to call for an extraordinary [[List of European Council meetings|European summit]] in Dublin in April 1990 to calm the fears held of fellow members of the EEC.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 April 1990 |title=Special Meeting of the European Council – Presidency Conclusions |url=https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=European Commission |location=Dublin |language=en |archive-date=25 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200825095835/https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=28 April 1990 |title=Special meeting of the European Council |url=http://aei.pitt.edu/1397/1/Dublin_april_1990.pdf |access-date=5 March 2022 |publisher=The European Council |location=Dublin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402231916/http://aei.pitt.edu/1397/1/Dublin_april_1990.pdf |archive-date=2 April 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Scally |first=Derek |date=29 April 2010 |title=Germany will 'never forget' Ireland's help |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/germany-will-never-forget-ireland-s-help-1.658399 |access-date=5 March 2022 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111193746/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/germany-will-never-forget-ireland-s-help-1.658399 |url-status=live }}</ref> Haughey saw similarities between Ireland and Germany, and said "I have expressed a personal view that coming as we do from [[Partition of Ireland|a country which is also divided]] many of us would have sympathy with any wish of the people of the two German States for unification".<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2022-03-03 |title=Find a Debate – Houses of the Oireachtas |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/find |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=www.oireachtas.ie |publisher=Houses of the Oireachtas |language=en-ie |archive-date=17 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217045724/http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20050623.xml&Node=H10-1 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' later described other European leaders' opinion of reunification at the time as "icy". Italy's [[Giulio Andreotti]] warned against a revival of "[[pan-Germanism]]" and the Netherlands's [[Ruud Lubbers]] questioned the German right to self-determination. They shared Britain's and France's concerns over a return to German militarism and the economic power of a reunified country. The consensus opinion was that reunification, if it must occur, should not occur until at least 1995 and preferably much later.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> Andreotti, quoting [[François Mauriac]], joked "I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two of them".{{r|folli20130507}}