Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic’s incorporation into the Federal Republic of Germany, with the event becoming a key landmark in ending the Cold War.
The West’s triumphalist attitude after East and West Germany were reunified was a major mistake for which the world is continuing to pay, Gregor Gysi, president of the Party of the European Left, and prominent politician from the Die Linke (The Left) party in the Bundestag, has suggested.
At the stroke of midnight on 3 October 1990, in accordance with the treaty on unification signed in August of that year, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist, with its territories incorporated into the Federal Republic. Reunification was preceded by the so-called “Two Plus Four Agreement” negotiated and signed by the FRG and the GDR, plus the four powers which had occupied Germany since the end of the Second World War: the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and france. The latter document paved the way for unification.
According to Gysi, one example of the West’s triumphalism in the post-Cold War era was the continued presence of US forces in Germany long after Russia withdrew its troops in 1994.
“The USSR was ready to withdraw its troops, and the US, france and the UK similarly agreed to remove their forces. However, in the case of the US, the promise was mere tokenism, because many troops, as well as nuclear weapons, would remain on German territory,” Gysi…
