The Cold War Ends
from https://www.studying-in-germany.org/german-unity-day/
Flying today, is the flag of Germany, to celebrate German Unity Day, which does not actually commemorate re-unification of the previous German state, but the accession to West Germany by East Germany following the collapse of its government in 1990.
In 1945, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin agreed to an ambitious idea: they would jointly occupy and administer the territory and capital of the German nation until such time as the German people could form a new, peaceful state to rejoin the world in the centre of Europe. The Allies envisioned that following the end of World War II, they would de-Nazify and demilitarize the country and mold its institutions and government into a form that could never, ever again embark on programs of conflict and conquest that had twice ravaged the world and cost millions of lives within living memory.
Following Victory in May 1945, however, the four powers of France, the United Kingdom, The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics soon discovered that in the overwhelming destruction and collapse of the Third Reich, political bodies and public institutions had all but ceased to exist, and millions of hungry Germans, displaced refugees and captured Prisoners of War had to be cared for. Germany did not need to be modified: it needed to be completely rebuilt from the ground up.
Soon, ideological differences derailed joint efforts to administer the ravaged nation. The western military governors found that billions of tons of food had to be imported to sustain the civilian population while wrecked infrastructure urgently needed repair just to provide a basic standard of living. At the same time, the Soviets insisted on continuing their program of dismantling industrial works and removing assets from their zone in order to satisfy reparations payments to which they felt entitled. Monetary reform, The Marshal Plan and other initiatives in the west soon led to what the Germans themselves would come to call "Wirtschaftswunder," while the Soviet side of Germany was subjected to nationalization of businesses, central planning and the single-party rule of the SED. The four powers devolved into administrating their occupation sectors independently, with the Soviet zone opposing the west.
By 1949, currency, electoral and other reforms led to the western zones of Germany uniting to form the Federal Republic of Germany, while the Eastern Zone became the German Democratic Republic. The actual military occupation of these zones came to an end as domestic governments developed the capability and infrastructure to finally assume sovereignty by 1955. Unfortunately this did not relieve the unique situation in Berlin, where everything had to be agreed to in the Allied Control Council on a quadripartite basis in order to take effect. Unable to cooperate politically or economically and unwilling to abandon strategic security arrangements, the French, British, American and Soviet military occupation forces grew entrenched in their sectors and interests in Berlin. The Western Allies guaranteed the freedom of West Berlin by surviving the Berlin Blockade of 1948 through the Berlin Airlift, by remaining and investing in West Berlin through the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The Soviet Group of Forces grew to 400,000 troops with thousands of tanks in and around Berlin and eventually the two sides became locked in a stalemate that seemed to be permanently rooted, right up until the late 1980s.
The Eastern Communist system was, however, failing, and by 1989, several east bloc countries were undergoing liberalizing changes including the perestroika and glasnost that was spreading throughout the Soviet Union. The East German government became more and more unpopular as protests and demonstrations against the communist police state sparked unrest. One of the biggest and most obvious issues at the time was travel across the Berlin Wall and over the borders of East and West Germany. In response, the GDR government released redesigned travel regulations that it thought would appease the population. Unfortunately, the changes were obviously cosmetic and ended up enraging ordinary citizens and actually led to an increase in the flow of refugees through neighboring nations such as Czechoslovakia. Following the resignation of the Prime Minister and most of the Politburo, the government then redrafted its policy to gradually permit emigration and travel abroad without requiring people to meet the onerous and often arbitrary restrictions previously imposed.
On the 9th of November 1989, a routine daily press conference was held by the GDR government in Berlin. In response to a reporter's question, Politburo member Günter Schabowski unexpectedly announced that a new program of free travel would be coming into effect. As shocked reporters asked for clarification, and lacking the specifics for gradual implementation that the government had decided on earlier in the day, he again confirmed that he understood that travel would be permitted through any of the checkpoints into West Germany, "effective immediately, without delay." An unhappy and agitated population seized on this unscripted and accidental disclosure, and tens of thousands of Germans suddenly appeared on both sides of the border walls, demanding that the guards open the gates - as had been apparently authorized by the Government on the televised press conference. Overwhelmed and unprepared by sheer numbers, the border guards initially tried to maintain order but unwilling to use force, and in the absence of military intervention or government leadership, they eventually allowed the gates to open - people crossed in both directions all night long as swelling crowds released decades of tension in a party atmosphere.
A "Peaceful Revolution" occurred on the eve of "Die Wende" and following free elections, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik voted to dissolve itself and merge with the Federal Republic of Germany. An official day of celebration is held annually celebrate the effective date of the merger, which took place on 3 October 1990.
The Cold War is finally over!
Or is it?