Editing German reunification (section)

== Final settlement ==
The victors of World War II—France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, comprising the [[Allied Control Council|Four-Power Authorities]]—retained authority over [[Berlin]], such as control over air travel and its political status. From the onset, the Soviet Union sought to use reunification as a way to push Germany out of NATO into neutrality, removing nuclear weapons from its territory. However, West Germany misinterpreted a 21 November 1989 diplomatic message on the topic to mean that the Soviet leadership already anticipated reunification only two weeks after the Wall's collapse. This belief, and the worry that his rival Genscher might act first, encouraged Kohl on 28 November to announce a detailed "Ten Point Program for Overcoming the Division of Germany and [[Europe]]". While his speech was very popular within West Germany, it caused concern among other European governments, with whom he had not discussed the plan.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /><ref name="kohl19891128">{{cite web |author=Kohl |first=Helmut |date=29 November 1989 |others=Translated by Jeremiah Riemer |title=Helmut Kohl's Ten-Point Plan for German Unity |url=http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=223 |access-date=16 June 2012 |publisher=German History in Documents and Images |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801015258/http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=223 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Americans did not share the Europeans' and Soviets' historical fears over German [[expansionism]]; [[Condoleezza Rice]] later recalled,<ref name=rice20100929>{{cite news| url= http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,719444,00.html| title= I Preferred To See It as an Acquisition| date= 29 September 2010| work= Der Spiegel| access-date= 7 October 2010| archive-date= 3 October 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101003115054/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,719444,00.html| url-status= live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The United States—and President [[George H. W. Bush]]—recognized that Germany went through a long [[democratization|democratic transition]]. It was a good friend, it was a member of NATO. Any issues that existed in 1945, it seemed perfectly reasonable to lay them to rest. For us, the question wasn't should Germany unify? It was how and under what circumstances? We had no concern about a resurgent Germany...}}

The United States wished to ensure, however, that Germany would stay within NATO. In December 1989, the administration of President [[George H. W. Bush]] made a united Germany's continued NATO membership a requirement for supporting reunification. Kohl agreed, although less than 20 percent of West Germans supported remaining within NATO. Kohl also wished to avoid a neutral Germany, as he believed that would destroy NATO, cause the United States and Canada to leave Europe, and cause Britain and France to form an anti-German alliance. The United States increased its support of Kohl's policies, as it feared that otherwise [[Oskar Lafontaine]], a critic of NATO, might become Chancellor.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" />
Horst Teltschik, Kohl's foreign policy advisor, later recalled that Germany would have paid "100 billion deutschmarks" if the Soviets demanded it. The USSR did not make such great demands, however, with Gorbachev stating in February 1990 that "[t]he Germans must decide for themselves what path they choose to follow". In May 1990, he repeated his remark in the context of NATO membership while meeting Bush, amazing both the Americans and Germans.<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> This removed the last significant roadblock to Germany being free to choose its international alignments, though Kohl made no secret that he intended for the reunified Germany to inherit West Germany's seats in NATO and the EC.

During a NATO–Warsaw Pact conference in [[Ottawa]], Canada; Genscher persuaded the four powers to treat the two Germanies as equals instead of defeated junior partners and for the six nations to negotiate alone. Although the Dutch, Italians, Spanish, and other NATO powers opposed such a structure, which meant that the alliance's boundaries would change without their participation, the six nations began negotiations in March 1990. After Gorbachev's May agreement on German NATO membership, the Soviets further agreed that Germany would be treated as an ordinary NATO country, with the exception that former East German territory would not have foreign NATO troops or [[nuclear weapons]]. In exchange, Kohl agreed to reduce the sizes of the militaries of both West and East Germany, renounce [[weapons of mass destruction]], and accept the postwar Oder–Neisse line as Germany's eastern border. In addition, Germany agreed to pay about 55 billion deutschmarks to the Soviet Union in gifts and loans, the equivalent of eight days of the [[Economy of Germany|West German GDP]].<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> To oppose German reunification, the British insisted to the end, against Soviet opposition, that NATO be allowed to hold maneuvers in the former East Germany. Thatcher later wrote that her opposition to reunification had been an "unambiguous failure".<ref name="kundnani20091028" />

===German sovereignty and withdrawal of the Allied Forces===
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F086568-0046, Leipzig, ausgeschlachteter PKW Trabant (Trabbi).jpg|thumb|Many [[Trabant]] vehicles were abandoned in Germany after 1989 (this one photographed in [[Leipzig]], 1990). A [[Volkswagen Golf Mk2|Volkswagen Golf]] can be seen parked in the background. Private brands like [[Volkswagen]] spilled over into East Germany after its state-owned auto industry collapsed.]]
[[File:Deutschland politisch 2010.png|thumb|250px|right|[[States of Germany|Current administrative map of Germany]]]]
On 15 March 1991, the [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany]]—which had been signed in [[Moscow]] 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 states. The entry into force of that treaty (also known as the "Two Plus Four Treaty", in reference to the two German states and four Allied governments that signed it) put an end to the remaining limitations on German sovereignty and the ACC that resulted from the post-World War II arrangements. After the Americans intervened,<ref name="wiegrefe20100929" /> both the United Kingdom and France ratified the [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany]] in September 1990. The Treaty entered into force on 15 March 1991, in accordance with Article 9 of the Two Plus Four Treaty, it entered into force as soon as all ratifications were deposited with the Government of Germany, thus finalizing the reunification for purposes of international law. The last party to ratify the treaty was the Soviet Union, which deposited its instrument of ratification on 15 March 1991. The [[Supreme Soviet of the USSR]] only gave its approval to the ratification of the treaty on 4 March 1991, after considerable debate. Even before the ratification of the Treaty, the operation of all quadripartite Allied institutions in Germany was suspended, with effect from the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 and pending the final ratification of the Two Plus Four Treaty, pursuant to a declaration signed in New York on 1 October 1990 by the foreign ministers of the four Allied Powers, which was witnessed by ministers of the two German states then in existence, and to which was appended the text of the Two Plus Four Treaty.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 September 1990 |title=Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany |url=http://treaties.fco.gov.uk/docs/fullnames/pdf/1991/TS0088%20%281991%29%20CM-1756%201990%201%20OCT%2C%20NEW%20YORK%3B%20TREATY%20ON%20GERMANY%20DECLARATION%20SUSPENDING%20OPERATION%20OF%20QUADRIPARTITE%20RIGHTS%20%26%20RESPONSIBILITIES.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709171829/http://treaties.fco.gov.uk/docs/fullnames/pdf/1991/TS0088%20%281991%29%20CM-1756%201990%201%20OCT%2C%20NEW%20YORK%3B%20TREATY%20ON%20GERMANY%20DECLARATION%20SUSPENDING%20OPERATION%20OF%20QUADRIPARTITE%20RIGHTS%20%26%20RESPONSIBILITIES.pdf |archive-date=9 July 2017 |access-date=16 December 2018}}</ref> However, the Soviets cited their occupation rights for the last time as late as 13 March 1991, just two days before the Treaty became effective, when the Honeckers were enabled by Soviet hardliners to flee Germany on a military jet to Moscow from the Soviet-controlled [[Sperenberg Airfield]], with the German Federal Government being given just one hour's advance notice.<ref>{{cite news|title=Soviets may return Honecker to West|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=26 August 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-26-mn-809-story.html|access-date=13 December 2022|archive-date=20 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220062826/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-08-26/news/mn-809_1_erich-honecker|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Brandenburger Tor abends.jpg|thumb|[[Brandenburg Gate]] in [[Berlin]], national symbol of present-day Germany and its reunification in 1990]]

Under the treaty on final settlement (which should not be confused with the Unification Treaty which was signed only between the two German states), the last Allied forces still present in Germany left in 1994, in accordance with article 4 of the treaty, which set 31 December 1994 as the deadline for the withdrawal of the remaining Allied forces. The bulk of [[Russian ground forces]] left Germany on 25 June 1994 with a military parade of the [[6th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade|6th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade]] in Berlin. This was followed by the closure of the [[United States Army Berlin]] command on 12 July 1994, an event that was marked by a [[Casing of the Colors]] ceremony witnessed by President [[Bill Clinton]]. The withdrawal of the last Russian troops (the Russian Army's ''[[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|Western Group of Forces]]'') was completed on 31 August 1994, and the event was marked by a military ceremony in the [[Treptow Park]] in Berlin, in the presence of Russian President [[Yeltsin]] and German Chancellor Kohl.<ref name=":4">{{cite web |title=Resources for The 1990 reunification – Historical events in the European integration process (1945–2014) |url=http://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-d4686a3e68ff/6f67f1a0-bf3b-4ed9-b3a0-0cfc5aa01ac7/Resources#17f1ddfe-cd1d-4018-904c-a994051b4145_en&overlay |access-date=9 October 2016 |website=Cvce.eu |publisher=CVCE |archive-date=21 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021094357/http://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-d4686a3e68ff/6f67f1a0-bf3b-4ed9-b3a0-0cfc5aa01ac7/Resources#17f1ddfe-cd1d-4018-904c-a994051b4145_en&overlay |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the bulk of the British, American, and French Forces had left Germany even before the departure of the Russians, the Western Allies kept a presence in Berlin until the completion of the Russian withdrawal, and the ceremony marking the departure of the remaining Forces of the Western Allies was the last to take place: on 8 September 1994,<ref>{{cite news |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |date=9 September 1994 |title=Allies' Departure Leaves Berlin Without Foreign Troops |newspaper=NYTimes.com |location=Berlin, Germany |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/09/world/allies-departure-leaves-berlin-without-foreign-troops.html |access-date=5 April 2017 |archive-date=11 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311191915/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/09/world/allies-departure-leaves-berlin-without-foreign-troops.html |url-status=live }}</ref> a Farewell Ceremony in the courtyard of the [[Charlottenburg Palace]], in the presence of British Prime Minister John Major, American Secretary of State [[Warren Christopher]], French President François Mitterrand, and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, marked the withdrawal of the British, American and French Occupation Forces from Berlin, and the termination of the Allied occupation in Germany.<ref name=":4" /> Thus, the Allied presence was removed a few months before the final deadline.

Article 5 banned the deployment of nuclear weapons in the territory previously controlled by the GDR, and also the stationing of non-German military personnel.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pifer |first=Steven |date=2001-11-30 |title=Did NATO Promise Not to Enlarge? Gorbachev Says "No" |url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/11/06/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/ |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=Brookings |language=en-US |archive-date=1 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101214156/https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/11/06/did-nato-promise-not-to-enlarge-gorbachev-says-no/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Polish border===
[[File:Oder-Neisse line between Germany and Poland.jpg|thumb|right|[[Oder–Neisse line]] between [[Germany]] and [[Poland]]]]
[[File:18-09-29-Görlitz-RalfR-DJI 0418.jpg|thumb|[[German-Polish border]] along the [[Western Neisse|Western Neisse river]] between [[Zgorzelec]] of Poland and [[Görlitz]], a city of Germany which belonged to the former [[Province of Lower Silesia]]]]
On 14 November 1990, [[Germany]] and [[Poland]] signed the [[German–Polish Border Treaty (1990)|German–Polish Border Treaty]], finalizing Germany's eastern boundary as permanent along the Oder–([[Lusatian Neisse|Lusatian/Western]]) Neisse line, and thus, renouncing any claims<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Schmemann |first1=Serge |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1990-02-28 |title=UPHEAVAL IN THE EAST: KOHL'S POLITICAL MATH; His Evasions on Poland's Border Are Seen As an Attempt to Avoid Alienating Voters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/28/world/upheaval-east-kohl-s-political-math-his-evasions-poland-s-border-are-seen.html |access-date=2024-05-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> to most of [[Silesia]], [[East Brandenburg]], [[Farther Pomerania]], and the southern area of the former province of [[East Prussia]] (they are called the "[[Recovered Territories]]" by Poland as they were once ruled by [[Piast Poland]]).{{Efn|The territory of the [[League of Nations]] mandate of the [[Free City of Danzig]], annexed by Poland in 1945 and comprising the city of [[Gdańsk]] (Danzig) and a number of neighboring cities and municipalities, had never been claimed by any official side because West Germany followed the legal position of Germany in its borders of 1937, thus before the [[Anschluss|13 March 1938 Nazi annexation of Austria]].}} The following month, the first [[1990 German federal election|all-German free elections]] since 1932 were held, resulting in an increased majority for the coalition government of Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]].

As for the German–Polish Border Treaty, it was approved by the Polish [[Sejm]] on 26 November 1991 and the German Bundestag on 16 December 1991, and entered into force with the exchange of the instruments of ratification on 16 January 1992. The confirmation of the border between Germany and Poland was required of Germany by the four Allied countries in the Two Plus Four Treaty. The Treaty was later supplemented by the [[Treaty of Good Neighbourship]] between the two countries which took effect on 16 January 1992 and ensured the [[German minority in Poland|few remaining Germans in Poland]] (in [[Upper Silesia]]) were treated better by the government.