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147-628: The origin of the name has not been conclusively established. Kyffhäuser (formerly also Kiffhäuser ) probably stems from the Low German word cuf 'head' or 'peak', and huse 'house'. Other explanations refer to kiff 'quarrel' and the historic castles at the site. The Kyffhäuser is a small Mittelgebirge located in the Kyffhäuserkreis district of Thuringia and the Mansfeld-Südharz district of Saxony-Anhalt, not far from

294-602: A communist state with a planned and public economy which declared itself not the successor of the German Reich a legal-former German state, was established in the Soviet zone on 7 October 1949. It de jure did not include East Berlin, occupied by the Soviets, although the city was de facto its capital: the severe ideological conflict between German politicians and sociologists in their self-governing East-West society

441-606: A de facto part of West Germany, in order to form the city of Berlin , which joined the Federal Republic as its third city-state alongside Bremen and Hamburg . Berlin was still formally under Allied occupation (that would only be terminated later, as a result of the provisions of the Two Plus Four Treaty ), but the city's administrative merger and inclusion in the enlarged Federal Republic as its capital, effective on 3 October 1990, had been greenlit by

588-597: A national holiday in Germany since 1991. On the same date, East and West Berlin were also reunified into a single city, which eventually became the capital of Germany. The East German government , controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), started to falter on 2 May 1989, when the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain . The border

735-679: A nature park . Some parts of the range on the western and southern slopes are karstified and bare of trees, covered by calcareous grassland . The area shaped by numerous sandstone quarries today is the site of a geopark , comprising the Kyffhäuser Monument, the Barbarossa Cave near Rottleben , the Kaiserpfalz at Tilleda , and the Bilzingsleben Paleolithic site. The Schlachtberg hill on

882-588: A protectorate of France (1947–1956), united with West Germany (and thus rejoined Germany) as the 11th state of the Federal Republic; this was called "Little Reunification" although the Saar Protectorate itself was only one disputed territory , as its existence was opposed by the Soviet Union. The other option was set out in Article 146, which provided a mechanism for a permanent constitution for

1029-591: A wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence. However, the dismantling of the old Hungarian border facilities did not open the borders nor were the previous strict controls removed, and the isolation by the Iron Curtain was still intact over its entire length. The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion

1176-625: A "destabilizing rather than a stabilizing force in Europe". In December 1989, she warned fellow European Community leaders at a Council summit in Strasbourg which Kohl attended, "We defeated the Germans twice! And now they're back!". Although Thatcher had stated her support for German self-determination in 1985, she now argued that Germany's allies only supported reunification because they did not believe it would ever happen. Thatcher favored

1323-484: A "return to the nation-state of earlier times". In the 1980s, opposition to a united German country and support for lasting peaceful coexistence between the two German countries were very common amongst left-wing parties of West Germany, especially the SPD and Greens . The division of Germany was considered necessary to maintain peace in Europe, and the emergence of another German state was also seen as possibly dangerous to

1470-586: A French protectorate on 17 December 1947. Among the Allies, geo-political tension between the Soviet Union and Western Allies in occupied Germany as part of their tension in the world led the Soviets to de facto withdraw from the ACC on 20 March 1948 (four occupying countries restored the act of the ACC in 1971) and blockade West Berlin (after the introduction of a new currency in West Germany on 20 June of

1617-762: A Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany"); it came into force on 1 July 1990, with the West German Deutsche Mark replacing the East German mark as the official currency of East Germany. The Deutsche Mark had a very high reputation among the East Germans and was considered stable. While the GDR transferred its financial policy sovereignty to West Germany,

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1764-463: A course of quick unification was negotiated, the public responded with concern. In February 1990, two-thirds of West Germans considered the pace of unification as "too fast". West Germans were also hostile towards the newcomers from the East—according to an April 1990 poll, only 11% of West Germans welcomed the refugees from East Germany. After unification, the national divide persisted—a survey by

1911-568: A cultural defeat", as "blooming of German culture and philosophy is possible only at times of fruitful national disunity", and also cited Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's opposition to the first unification of Germany in 1871: Goethe wrote: "Frankfurt, Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck are large and brilliant, and their impact on the prosperity of Germany is incalculable. Yet, would they remain what they are if they were to lose their independence and be incorporated as provincial cities into one great German Empire? I have reason to doubt this." Grass also condemned

2058-465: A hidden chamber underneath the Kyffhäuser hills. He sits motionless at a stone table and his beard has supposedly grown so long over the centuries that it grew through the table. As in the similar legend of King Arthur , Barbarossa supposedly awaits Germany's hour of greatest need, when he will emerge once again from under the hill. The presence of ravens circling the Kyffhäuser summit is said to be

2205-497: A lengthening e or i , by doubling the following consonants (after short vowels) or by adding h after the following consonants. Lasch distinguished the following large dialect groups, emphasising that she based it strictly on the orthography, which may often omit strongly dialectal phenomena in favour of more prestigious/"standard" forms. Nevertheless, the dialect groups broadly correspond with modern ones. Westphalian ( HG : Westfälisch , Dutch : Westfaals ): Broadly speaking,

2352-788: A long stretch of coastal regions from the Zuiderzee in the West to East Prussia in the East. Its orthographic habits come closest to what was traditionally perceived as a MLG standard (the Lübeck standard , nowadays disputed). Some features: Short /e/ and /i/ in open syllables are stretched into a [ɛː] -like vowel. The personal suffixes -er and -ald appear as -ar and -old . The pronouns mî (1.sg.), dî (2.sg.) and jû (2.pl.) are used for both dative and accusative. Three subgroups can be distinguished: (1) East Frisian and Oldenburgish , i.e.

2499-685: A natural border. Main cities: Hanover , Hildesheim , Brunswick , Goslar , Göttingen , Magdeburg , Halle (early times). The area within the Elbe's drainage was established by colonisation and is in many ways special. The southern part of this Elbe Eastphalian ( HG : Elbostfälisch ) area switched to High German already in Late Medieval times. Some features : Umlaut is more productive, occurring before -ich and -isch (e.g. sessisch 'Saxon, Low German') and shifting also e to i (e.g. stidde for stêde 'place'). Diphthongised short /o/

2646-509: 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. Horst Teltschik, Kohl's foreign policy advisor, later recalled that Germany would have paid "100 billion deutschmarks" if

2793-468: A number of limitations stemming from their post- World War II status as occupation zones , though only on 31 August 1994 did the last Russian occupation troops leave Germany. After the end of World War II in Europe , the old German Reich was abolished and Germany was occupied and divided by the four Allied countries. There was no peace treaty. Two countries emerged. The American-occupied , British-occupied , and French-occupied zones combined to form

2940-601: A peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union , which was then headed by Karl von Habsburg , distributed thousands of brochures inviting them to a picnic near the border at Sopron . It

3087-523: A poll in July 1990 found that the main motivation for reunification was economic concern rather than nationalism. Opinion polls in the late 1980s showed that young East Germans and West Germans saw each other as foreign, and did not regard themselves as a single nation. Heinrich August Winkler observes that "an evaluation of the corresponding data in the Deutschland Archiv in 1989 showed that

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3234-565: A realistic possibility, however, significant NATO and European opposition emerged in private. 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,

3381-407: A reunified Germany. This route would have entailed a formal union between two German states that then would have had, among other things, to create a new constitution for the newly-established country. However, by the spring of 1990, it was apparent that drafting a new constitution would require protracted negotiations that would open up numerous issues in West Germany. Even without this to consider, by

3528-518: 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. 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. We defeated

3675-495: A separate state. However, SED members were overrepresented amongst the responders, constituting 13% of the population, but 23% of those polled. Reporting on a student protest in East Berlin on 4 November 1989, Elizabeth Pond  [ de ] noted that "virtually none of the demonstrators interviewed by Western reporters said they wanted unification with the Federal Republic". In West Germany, once it became clear that

3822-626: A sign of Barbarossa's continuing presence. Similar rapture legends refer to Emperor Frederick II or to Charlemagne sleeping in the Untersberg near Salzburg . The Barbarossa myth was first documented in the late 17th century and later popularized by the Brothers Grimm and a poem written in 1817 by Friedrich Rückert . Frequently taken up by Romantic authors, and satirized in Germany. A Winter's Tale by Heinrich Heine , it became

3969-445: A sign of length, like oi = /oː/ ). The "breaking" of old short vowels in open syllables and before /r/ was often marked in writing (e.g. karn instead of korn ). Old geminated /jj/ and sometimes /ww/ was hardened into [ɡ] ; /ft/ frequently shifted to /xt/ (sometimes reversed in writing); /s/ instead of /ʃ/ ( sal vs schal ). The native present plural verbs was -et but the written norm often impressed -en . Similarly,

4116-425: A similar way the oblique form mik ('me') with "standard" mî . Unusually, there is also a dative pronoun (1.sg. mê ). Lexically, close connections with Nordalbingian. Unusual plural menne ('men'). (South) Brandenburgish ( HG : (Süd-)Brandenburgisch ) and East Anhaltish ( HG : Ostanhaltisch ): Roughly between the middle Elbe and the middle Oder, and along the middle Havel, bordering old Sorbian territory to

4263-528: 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?", and the French ambassador in London reported that Thatcher told him, "France and Great Britain should pull together today in

4410-528: A united Germany". 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. Thatcher, who carried in her handbag a map of 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

4557-752: Is Low German but whose inhabitants already spoke mostly/exclusively High German when the Reformation set in). Sub-periods of Middle Low German are: Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League , spoken all around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea . It used to be thought that the language of Lübeck was dominant enough to become a normative standard (the so-called Lübecker Norm ) for an emergent spoken and written standard, but more recent work has established that there

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4704-520: Is a modern term used with varying degrees of inclusivity. It is distinguished from Middle High German , spoken to the south, which was later replaced by Early New High German . Though Middle Dutch is today usually excluded from MLG (although very closely related), it is sometimes, especially in older literature, included in MLG, which then encompasses the dialect continuum of all high-medieval Continental Germanic dialects outside MHG , from Flanders in

4851-710: Is a popular destination for hikers; the Kaiser Way leads across the Kyffhäuser northwards to the Harz mountains. Middle Low German Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German . It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225/34 ( Sachsenspiegel ). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Middle Low German

4998-661: Is no evidence for this and that Middle Low German was non-standardised. Middle Low German provided a large number of loanwords to languages spoken around the Baltic Sea as a result of the activities of Hanseatic traders. Its traces can be seen in the Scandinavian , Finnic , and Baltic languages , as well as Standard High German and English . It is considered the largest single source of loanwords in Danish , Estonian , Latvian , Norwegian and Swedish . Beginning in

5145-465: Is rarely marked as such, contrary to other dialects. Before /r/ , e and a are frequently interchanged for each other. Unstressed o (as in the suffix -schop ) frequently changes into u ( -schup ). The modal verb for 'shall/should' features /ʃ/ , not /s/ (i.e. schal ). The past participle's prefix was commonly spoken e- but mostly written ge- under prescriptive influence. The local form ek ('I' (pron. 1.sg.)) competed with "standard" ik ; in

5292-514: Is the eventual reunification of Germany. But in a realistic view of the world, this is a goal that could take generations beyond my own to achieve. Mikhail Gorbachev had led the country as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union since 1985. During this time, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation , and correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics . In 1987,

5439-790: The Wends along the lower Elbe until about 1700 or the Kashubians of Eastern Pomerania up to modern times. In the North, the Frisian -speaking areas along the North Sea diminished in favour of Saxon, esp. in East Frisia which largely switched to MLG since the mid-14th century. North of the Elbe , MLG advanced slowly into Sleswick , against Danish and North Frisian , although the whole region

5586-677: The Allensbach Institute in April 1993 found that only 22% of West Germans and 11% of East Germans felt they were one nation. Dolores L. Augustine  [ de ] observed that "the sense of oneness felt by East Germans and West Germans in the euphoric period after the fall of the wall proved all too transitory", as the old divisions persisted and Germans not only still saw themselves as two separate people, but also acted in accordance with their separate, regional interests. This state of mind became known as Mauer im Kopf ("wall in

5733-598: The Baltic Sea (the 'East Sea'), their territory being called Ôsterlant ('East-land'), their inhabitants Ôsterlinge ('Eastlings'). This appellation was later expanded to other German Hanseatic cities and it was a general name for Hanseatic merchants in the Netherlands, e.g. in Bruges where they had their komptôr (office; see Kontor ). In the 16th century, the term nedderlendisch (lit. 'Lowland-ish, Netherlandish ') gained ground, contrasting Saxon with

5880-779: The European Economic Community (EC) (later the European Union ) and in international organizations including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN), while relinquishing membership in the Warsaw Pact (WP) and other international organizations to which only East Germany belonged. The term "German reunification" was given to the process of the German Democratic Republic joining

6027-606: The European Economic Community to call for an extraordinary European summit in Dublin in April 1990 to calm the fears held of fellow members of the EEC. Haughey saw similarities between Ireland and Germany, and said "I have expressed a personal view that coming as we do from 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". Der Spiegel later described other European leaders' opinion of reunification at

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6174-623: The Foundation of the East German state . An alternative date to commemorate the reunification could have been the day the Berlin Wall came down, 9 November (1989), which coincided with the anniversary of the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918, and the defeat of Hitler's first coup in 1923. However, 9 November was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pogroms against Jews in 1938 ( Kristallnacht ), so

6321-502: The German dialects in the uplands to the south. It became dominant in the High German dialects (as ENHG niderländisch , which could also refer to the modern Netherlands ), while sassisch remained the most widespread term within MLG. The equivalent of 'Low German' ( NHG niederdeutsch ) seems to have been introduced later on by High German speakers and at first applied especially to Netherlanders. Middle Low German

6468-515: The Lower Rhine , MLG bordered on closely related Low Franconian dialects whose written language was mainly Middle Dutch . In earlier times, these were sometimes included in the modern definition of MLG (cf. Terminology ). In the South, MLG bordered on High German dialects roughly along the northern borders of Hesse and Thuringia . The language border then ran eastwards across the plain of

6615-654: The Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, also expressed his vehement opposition to the unification of Germany, citing his tragic memories of World War II as the reason. According to Grass, the emergence of National Socialism and the Holocaust had deprived Germany of its right to exist as a unified nation state: he wrote: "Historical responsibility dictates opposition to reunification, no matter how inevitable it may seem." He also claimed that "national victory threatens

6762-622: The Trizone occupied by three Western Allies and established on 1 August 1948. Its forerunner was the Bizone formed by the US and UK zones on 1 January 1947 before the inclusion of the French zone. The Trizone did not include West Berlin, which was also occupied by three Western Allies, although the city was de facto part of the West German state; the German Democratic Republic or "East Germany",

6909-443: The West German constitution ( Grundgesetz or Basic Law) of 1949 to facilitate eventual reunification. The Basic Law stated that it was only intended for temporary use until a permanent constitution could be adopted by the German people as a whole. Under that document's (then existing) Article 23, any new prospective Länder could adhere to the Basic Law by a simple majority vote. The initial 11 joining states of 1949 constituted

7056-426: The 15th century, Middle Low German fell out of favour compared to Early Modern High German, which was first used by elites as a written and, later, a spoken language. Reasons for this loss of prestige include the decline of the Hanseatic League, followed by political heteronomy of Northern Germany and the cultural predominance of Central and Southern Germany during the Protestant Reformation and Luther's translation of

7203-519: The 1930s, denouncing the emerging anti-Zionism , unification sentiments and reemergence of pan-Germanism . Hermann L. Gremliza , who left the SPD in 1989 because of its support for German unification, was repulsed by the universal support for unification amongst most major parties, stating that it reminded him of " Social Democrats joining the National Socialists (Nazis) in singing the German national anthem in 1933, following Hitler 's declaration of his foreign policy." Several thousand people joined

7350-410: The 1970 Treaty of Warsaw ) and East Germany in 1973 (with the 1972 Basic Treaty ) when applying a common policy to reconcile with the communist countries in the East . The East German government also had encouraged two-state status after initially denying the existence of the West German state, influenced by the Soviet policy of " peaceful coexistence ". The mutual recognition of the two Germanies paved

7497-409: The Anti-Germans' 1990 protests against German reunification. According to Stephen Brockmann, German reunification was feared and opposed by ethnic minorities, particularly those of East Germany. He observes that "right-wing violence was on the rise throughout 1990 in the GDR, with frequent instances of beatings, rapes, and fights connected with xenophobia", which led to a police lockdown in Leipzig on

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7644-408: The Basic Law as it then stood, but rather of the Basic Law as subsequently amended in line with the Unification Treaty. Legally, the reunification did not create a third state out of the two. Rather, West Germany effectively absorbed East Germany. Accordingly, on Unification Day, 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist, and five new federated states on its former territory joined

7791-409: The Basic Law was in force was simply extended to include its constituent parts. Thus, while legally East Germany as a whole acceded to the Federal Republic, the constituent parts of East Germany entered into the Federal Republic as five new states, which held their first elections on 14 October 1990. Nevertheless, although the Volkskammer's declaration of accession to the Federal Republic had initiated

7938-464: The Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the GDR's first free elections later on 18 March 1990 and then to negotiations between the two countries that culminated in a Unification Treaty. Other negotiations between the two Germanies and the four occupying powers in Germany produced the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany , which granted on 15 March 1991 full sovereignty to a reunified German state, whose two parts were previously bound by

8085-436: The Bible . The description is based on Lasch (1914) which continues to be the authoritative comprehensive grammar of the language but is not necessarily up-to-date in every detail. It is not rare to find the same word in MLG affected by one of the following phonological processes in one text and unaffected by it in another text because the lack of a written standard, the dialectal variation and ongoing linguistic change during

8232-427: The East. An influential part of the reunification opponents were the so-called Anti-Germans . Emerging from the student Left, Anti-Germans were supportive of Israel and strongly opposed German nationalism , arguing that an emergence of a united German state would also result in a return of fascism ( Nazism ). They considered the social and political dynamics of 1980s and 1990s Germany to be comparable to those of

8379-429: The FRG, i.e., West Germany, on 23 May 1949. The Soviet-occupied zone formed the GDR, i.e., East Germany, in October 1949. The West German state joined NATO in 1955. In 1990, a range of opinions continued to be maintained over whether a reunited Germany could be said to represent "Germany as a whole" for this purpose. In the context of the revolutions of 1989; on 12 September 1990, under the Two Plus Four Treaty with

8526-435: The Federal Republic as the five Länder (states) of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , and Thuringia . These states were the five original states of East Germany, but were abolished in 1952 in favor of a centralized system. As part of the 18 May treaty, the five East German states were reconstituted on 23 August. East Berlin , the capital of East Germany, reunited with West Berlin ,

8673-445: The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on the Establishment of German Unity), was approved by large majorities in the legislative chambers of both countries on 20 September 1990 (442–47 in the West German Bundestag and 299–80 in the East German Volkskammer). The Treaty passed the West German Bundesrat on the following day, 21 September 1990. The amendments to the Federal Republic's Basic Law that were foreseen in

8820-478: The Federal Republic of Germany with full German sovereignty from the four Allied-occupied countries to distinguish it from the process of unification of most of the German states into the German Empire (German Reich) led by the Kingdom of Prussia that took place from 18 August 1866 to 18 January 1871, 3 October 1990 was the day when Germany again became a single nation-state . However, for political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided

8967-412: The Federal Republic of Germany. East and West Berlin were reunited as the third full-fledged federated city-state of the enlarged Federal Republic. The reunited city became the capital of the enlarged Federal Republic. Under this model, the Federal Republic of Germany, now enlarged to include the five states of the former GDR plus the reunified Berlin, continued to exist under the same legal personality that

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9114-488: The GDR was perceived by a large portion of the younger generation as a foreign nation with a different social order which was no longer a part of Germany". Winkler argues that the reunification was not a product of popular opinion, but rather "crisis management on the highest level". Support for unified Germany fell once the prospect of it became a tangible reality in the fall of 1989. A December 1989 poll by Der Spiegel indicated strong support for preserving East Germany as

9261-479: The Germans twice ! And now they're back! 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

9408-432: The Middle Low German (MLG) era. General notes Specific notes on nasals (Indented notes refer to orthography.) Specific notes on stops and fricatives Specific notes on approximants Modern renderings of MLG (like this article) often use circumflex or macron to mark vowel length (e.g. â or ā ) to help the modern reader, but original MLG texts marked vowel length not by accents but by doubling vowels, by adding

9555-409: The President of the West German Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth , by means of a letter dated 25 August 1990. Thus, formally, the procedure of reunification by means of the accession of East Germany to West Germany, and of East Germany's acceptance of the Basic Law already in force in West Germany, was initiated as the unilateral, sovereign decision of East Germany, as allowed by the provisions of article 23 of

9702-426: The Southeast. Main cities: Berlin , Frankfurt/Oder , Zerbst . A colonial dialect strongly influenced by settlers speaking Low Franconian. Also strongly influenced by High German early on. Some features : Old long ê and ô were diphthongised into [iə] and [uə] , written i and u . Old Germanic coda /n/ is restored, contrary to Ingvaeonic sound changes , e.g. gans 'goose'. Present plural of verbs features

9849-400: The Soviet Union would abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine and allow the Eastern European countries to freely determine their own internal affairs. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring), and taken further by Gorbachev, the Solidarity movement took hold in Poland. Further inspired by other images of brave defiance ,

9996-430: The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, comprising the 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

10143-481: 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. This removed the last significant roadblock to Germany being free to choose its international alignments, though Kohl made no secret that he intended for

10290-453: The Strasbourg summit, Mitterrand and Thatcher discussed the fluidity of Germany's historical borders. On 20 January 1990, Mitterrand told Thatcher that a unified Germany could "make more ground than even Adolf had". He predicted that "bad" Germans would reemerge, who might seek to regain former German territory lost after World War II and would likely dominate Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia , leaving "only Romania and Bulgaria for

10437-420: The Trizone. West Berlin had been proposed as the 12th state, but this was legally inhibited by Allied objections since Berlin as a whole was legally a quadripartite occupied area. Despite this, West Berlin's political affiliation was with West Germany, and, in many fields, it functioned de facto as if it were a component state of West Germany. On 1 January 1957, before the reunification, the territory of Saarland ,

10584-704: The Unification Treaty or necessary for its implementation were adopted by the Federal Statute of 23 September 1990, that enacted the incorporation of the Treaty as part of the Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The said Federal Statute, containing the whole text of the Treaty and its Protocols as an annex, was published in the Bundesgesetzblatt (the official journal for the publication of

10731-633: The United States President Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate , challenging Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to " tear down this wall " which prevented freedom of movement in Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the " Iron Curtain ". Gorbachev announced in 1988 that

10878-723: The West German Basic Law as it then existed. In the wake of that resolution of accession, the "German reunification treaty", commonly known in German as " Einigungsvertrag " (Unification Treaty) or " Wiedervereinigungsvertrag " (Reunification Treaty), that had been negotiated between the two German states since 2 July 1990, was signed by representatives of the two governments on 31 August 1990. This Treaty, officially titled Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands (Treaty between

11025-801: The West German democracy. A German publicist Peter Bender wrote in 1981: "Considering the role Germany played in the origins of both World Wars, Europe cannot, and the Germans should not, want a new German Reich, a sovereign nation-state. That is the logic of history which is, as Bismarck noted, more exact than the Prussian government audit office." Opinion on reunification was not only highly partisan, but polarised along many social divides—Germans aged 35 or younger were opposed to unification, whereas older respondents were more supportive; likewise, low-income Germans tended to oppose reunification, whereas more affluent responders were likely to support it. Ultimately,

11172-466: The West started granting subsidies for the GDR budget and social security system. At the same time, many West German laws came into force in the GDR. This created a suitable framework for a political union by diminishing the huge gap between the two existing political, social, and economic systems. The Volkskammer , the Parliament of East Germany, passed a resolution on 23 August 1990 declaring

11319-725: The West to the eastern Baltic. Middle Low German covered a wider area than the Old Saxon language of the preceding period, due to expansion to the East and, to a lesser degree, to the North. In the East, the MLG-speaking area expanded greatly as part of the Ostsiedlung (settlement of the East) in the 12th to 14th century and came to include Mecklenburg , Brandenburg , Pomerania and (Old) Prussia , which were hitherto dominated by Slavic and Baltic tribes. Some pockets of these native peoples persisted for quite some time, e.g.

11466-513: The West". Opposition was also prevalent amongst Jewish circles, who had special status and rights in East Germany. Some Jewish intellectuals such as Günter Kunert expressed concern of Jews being portrayed as part of the East German socialist elites, given that the Jews had unique rights, such as being allowed to travel west. There was also a significant opposition to the unification in intellectual circles. Christa Wolf and Manfred Stolpe stressed

11613-625: The West." In particular, Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay considered whether Moscow would command the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary to intervene. But, with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the nonintervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus, the bracket of the Eastern Bloc

11760-558: The accession ( Beitritt ) of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, and the extension of the field of application of the Federal Republic's Basic Law to the territory of East Germany as allowed by Article 23 of the West German Basic Law, effective 3 October 1990. This Declaration of Accession ( Beitrittserklärung ) was formally presented by the President of the Volkskammer, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl , to

11907-731: The agreement (US, UK, France, and the USSR). The declaration also formed the Allied Control Council (ACC) of these four countries ruling Germany, and confirmed the German borders which had been in force before the annexation of Austria . With the Potsdam Agreement at the Potsdam Conference between the three main Allies defeating the European Axis (US, UK, and the USSR) on 2 August 1945, Germany

12054-423: The area between the middle Weser and lower Rhine . Main cities: Münster , Paderborn , Dortmund , Bielefeld , Osnabrück . Some Saxon dialects in the modern Netherlands (esp. modern Gelderland and Overijssel ) belonged to this group. Dutch influence on them strongly increased since the 15th century. Some features : In the West, strong influence from Low Franconian orthographic patterns (e.g. e or i as

12201-536: The areas further east, like Mecklenburg , Pomerania , northern Brandenburg (Prignitz, Uckermark, Altmark), Old Prussia , Livonia . Very close to Nordalbingian . While the Eastern dialects are today clearly distinguished from the West by their uniform present plural verb ending in -en (against Western uniform -(e)t ), in MLG times, both endings competed against each other in West and East. Main towns: Lübeck, Wismar , Rostock , Stralsund . High German influence

12348-472: The areas west of the lower Weser , in the North including dialects on Frisian substrate. As can be expected, there is much Westphalian, Dutch and Frisian influence ( hem next to em 'him'; plurals in -s ; vrent next to vrünt 'friend'). (2) Nordalbingian , between the lower Weser and the lower Elbe , and also Holstein on the right bank of the lower Elbe . main towns: Hamburg , Bremen , Lunenburg , Kiel . (3) East Elbian , including Lübeck and

12495-409: The border in Berlin, were physically fortified and tightly controlled by East Germany from 1952 and 1961, respectively. The flags of the two German countries were originally the same , but in 1959 East Germany changed its flag . The West German government initially did not recognize the new and de facto German–Polish border , nor East Germany, but later eventually recognized the border in 1972 (with

12642-450: The city for more than 30 years saw the East and the West develop their own distinct urban forms, with many of these differences still visible to this day. As urban planning in Germany is the responsibility of the city government, the integration of East and West Berlin was in part complicated by the fact that the existing planning frameworks became obsolete with the fall of the Wall. Prior to

12789-428: The consciousness and unique identity of both nations, with this newly developed culture being now endangered by looming reunification. David Gress remarked that there was "an influential view found largely, but by no means only, on the German and international left" which saw "the drive for unification as either sinister, masking a revival of aggressive nationalist aspirations, or materialist". Günter Grass , who won

12936-533: The day that marks the official unification of the former East and West Germany in 1990, 3 October has since then been the official national holiday of Germany, the German Unity Day ( Tag der deutschen Einheit ). It replaced the previous national holiday held in West Germany on 17 June commemorating the East German uprising of 1953 and the national holiday on 7 October in the GDR, that commemorated

13083-417: The day was considered inappropriate for a national holiday. Throughout the entire Cold War and until 1990, reunification did not appear likely, and the existence of two German countries was commonly regarded as an established, unalterable fact. Helmut Kohl briefly addressed this issue during the 1983 West German federal election , stating that despite his belief in German national unity, it would not mean

13230-570: The dictator Stalin of the Soviet Union. During and after the war, many ethnic Germans who lived in the traditionally German lands in Central and Eastern Europe , including territories east of the Oder–Neisse line, fled and were expelled to post-war German and Austrian territory. Saarland, an area in the French occupation zone , was separated from Germany when its own constitution took effect to become

13377-465: The dissolution of the GDR on 3 October 1990, all planning projects under the socialist-totalitarian regime were abandoned. Vacant lots, open areas, and empty fields in East Berlin were subject to redevelopment, in addition to space previously occupied by the Wall and associated buffer zone . Many of these sites were positioned in central, strategic locations of the reunified city. To commemorate

13524-486: The events of 1989–1990, and the collapse of the East German economy further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began on an emergency merger of the German economies. On 18 May 1990, the two German states signed a treaty agreeing on monetary, economic, and social union. This treaty is called Vertrag über die Schaffung einer Währungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialunion zwischen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("Treaty Establishing

13671-429: The exchange of notices regarding the completion of the respective internal constitutional requirements for the adoption of the treaty in both East Germany and West Germany. With that last step, and in accordance with article 1 of the Treaty, and in conformity with East Germany's Declaration of Accession presented to the Federal Republic, Germany was officially reunited at 00:00 CEST on 3 October 1990. East Germany joined

13818-624: The expression of the desire for the Old Empire 's re-emergence as a German nation state . When the Kyffhäuser Monument was built at the ruins of the Imperial Castle in 1890–1896, with a statue of Frederick Barbarossa and an Emperor William monument , the German Emperor William I was thought to have "laid to rest" Barbarossa by the 1871 unification of Germany . Today, the hills are a popular tourist site, featuring

13965-456: The face of the German threat." The pace of events surprised the French, whose Foreign Ministry had concluded in October 1989 that reunification "does not appear realistic at this moment". 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." At

14112-723: The fall of the Berlin Wall—West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a 10-point program calling for the two Germanies 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

14259-480: The four Allies, and were formally approved in the final meeting of the Allied Control Council on 2 October 1990. In an emotional ceremony, at the stroke of midnight on 3 October 1990, the black-red-gold flag of West Germany —now the flag of a reunited Germany—was raised above the Brandenburg Gate , marking the moment of German reunification. The process chosen was one of the two options set out in

14406-401: The four Allies, both East and West Germany committed to the principle that their joint pre-1990 boundary constituted the entire territory that could be claimed by a government of Germany. The reunited state is not a successor state , but an enlarged continuation of the 1949–1990 West German state. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany retained the West German seats in the governing bodies of

14553-561: The head"), suggesting that despite the fall of the Berlin Wall , a "psychological wall" still existed between East and West Germans. Augustine argues that despite resistance to the political regime of East Germany, it still represented the history and identity of East Germans. Unification caused backlash, and the Treuhandanstalt , an agency created to carry out privatization, was blamed for creating mass unemployment and poverty in

14700-527: The insurgent Welf duke Henry the Lion . In 1698 Count Albert Anton of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt had a Baroque hunting lodge erected at the hamlet of Rathsfeld in the centre of the Kyffhäuser range. Last used as a residence by Prince Günther Victor of Schwarzburg after his abdication in 1918, it was turned into a recreation home of the Kyffhäuserbund veterans' association in 1925. After World War II

14847-643: The larger Harz range to the northwest. The range has a length of 19 km (12 mi), from west to east, and a width of 7 km (4.3 mi). The highest point at the Kulpenberg, with the Kulpenburg TV tower , is located near the village of Steinthaleben in Thuringia. The range borders on the Hainleite hill chain and the fertile Goldene Aue basin in the south. Large portions are protected as

14994-515: The laws of the Federal Republic) on 28 September 1990. In the German Democratic Republic, the constitutional law ( Verfassungsgesetz ) giving effect to the Treaty was also published on 28 September 1990. With the adoption of the Treaty as part of its Constitution, East Germany legislated its own abolition as a separate state. Under article 45 of the Treaty, it entered into force according to international law on 29 September 1990, upon

15141-506: The middle Elbe until it met the (then more extensive) Sorb -speaking area along the upper Spree that separated it from High German. The border was never a sharp one, rather a continuum . The modern convention is to use the pronunciation of northern maken vs. southern machen ('to make') for determining an exact border. Along the middle Elbe and lower Saale rivers, Low German began to retreat in favour of High German dialects already during Late Medieval times (cf. Wittenberg whose name

15288-403: The need to forge an East German identity, while "citizens' initiatives, church groups, and intellectuals of the first hour began issuing dire warnings about a possible Anschluss of the GDR by the Federal Republic". Many East German oppositionists and reformers advocated for a "third path" of an independent, democratic socialist East Germany. Stefan Heym argued that the preservation of the GDR

15435-514: The night of reunification. Tensions with Poland were high, and many internal ethnic minorities such as the Sorbs feared further displacement or assimilationist policies; the Sorbs had received legal protection in the GDR and feared that the rights granted to them in East Germany would not be included in the law of an eventual united Germany. Ultimately, no provision on the protection of ethnic minorities

15582-497: The participle prefix ge- was usually written, though probably only spoken in the Southwest. Lexically, strong connections with adjacent dialects further north (East Frisian and Oldenburgish), e.g. godensdach ('Wednesday') instead of middeweke . Westphalian was and is often thought to be altogether the most conservative dialect group. North Low Saxon ( HG : Nordniedersächsisch , Dutch : Noord-Nedersaksisch ): Spoken in

15729-403: The people"; 'popular, vernacular') which could also be used for Low German if the context was clear. Compare also the modern colloquial term Platt(dütsch) (from platt 'plain, simple') denoting Low (or West Central ) German dialects in contrast to the written standard . Another medieval term is ôstersch (lit. 'East-ish') which was at first applied to the Hanseatic cities of

15876-470: The plan. The Americans did not share the Europeans' and Soviets' historical fears over German expansionism ; Condoleezza Rice later recalled, The United States—and President George H. W. Bush —recognized that Germany went through a long 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,

16023-464: The political, economic, and cultural environment of both East and West Berlin. However, the "scar" left by the Wall , which ran directly through the very heart of the city, had consequences for the urban environment that planning still needs to address. The unification of Berlin presented legal, political, and technical challenges for the urban environment. The political division and physical separation of

16170-503: The primary written language, speakers also referred to discourse in Saxon as speaking/writing to dǖde , i.e. 'clearly, intelligibly'. This contains the same root as dǖdisch 'German' (cf. High German : deutsch , Dutch duits ( archaically N(i)ederduytsche to mean the contemporary version of the Dutch language ) both from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz lit. "of

16317-574: The process of reunification, the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms, conditions, and qualifications, some of which required amendments to the Basic Law itself) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990; that is, through a binding agreement between the former GDR and the Federal Republic now recognizing each another as separate sovereign states in international law . This treaty

16464-471: The public in East and West that the Eastern European communist rulers had suffered a loss of power in their own sphere, and that they were no longer in control of events: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland , in which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Marks, and then they were persuaded to come to

16611-570: The quarrels and the castle was finally slighted by the Saxon Duke (and later Emperor) Lothair of Supplinburg in 1119. Lothair himself started the reconstruction in his later years and the Imperial Castle of Kyffhausen, one of the largest castle complexes in Germany, was completed under the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa . Tilleda was last mentioned as an Imperial castle in 1194, when Frederick's son Henry VI reconciled here with

16758-545: 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

16905-692: The remote site became a Young Pioneer camp and a training camp of the East German Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik ; since German reunification , the empty premises have decayed. According to a king asleep in mountain legend, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa , who actually drowned on 10 June 1190 in the Calycadnus River near Seleukeia in Asia Minor during the Third Crusade , is not in fact dead, but sleeps in

17052-672: 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". 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. Mitterrand still wanted Thatcher to publicly oppose unification, however, to obtain more concessions from Germany. I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two of them. Ireland 's Taoiseach , Charles Haughey , supported German reunification and he took advantage of Ireland's presidency of

17199-519: The restored medieval Reichsburg Kyffhausen complex, including a small museum and the castle well, at 176 m (577 ft) depth said to be "the deepest castle well in the world". The downhill Pfalz of Tilleda is an archaeological open-air museum and a stop on the scenic Romanesque Road . The range is also the site of an annual touring car hillclimbing and of the Kyffhäuser-Berglauf cross country running competition. The range

17346-521: The reunification of the city, the Land Use Plan of 1988 and General Development Plan of 1980 defined the spatial planning criteria for West and East Berlin, respectively. These were replaced by the new, unified Land Use Plan in 1994. Termed "Critical Reconstruction", the new policy aimed to revive Berlin's prewar aesthetic; it was complemented by a strategic planning document for downtown Berlin, entitled "Inner City Planning Framework". Following

17493-502: The same year) from 20 June 1948 to 12 May 1949, but the USSR could not force the three Western Allies to withdraw from West Berlin as they wanted; consequently, the foundation of a new German state became impossible. The Federal Republic of Germany, or "West Germany", a liberal democracy , was established in the US , UK , and French zones on 23 May 1949. West Germany was de jure established in

17640-491: The site is attested by the 972 Marriage Charter of Empress Theophanu . Numerous stays of her husband Otto II , as well as by his successors Otto III , Conrad II , and Henry III are documented by deeds they issued here. During the 11th century, Tilleda was superseded by a castle on the hill above the settlement that may have been erected by Emperor Henry IV during the Saxon Rebellion . His son Henry V inherited

17787-599: The southeastern rim near Bad Frankenhausen was the site of the decisive Battle of Frankenhausen during the German Peasants' War in 1525, commemorated in the monumental painting Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany by Werner Tübke . The settlement of Tilleda, located below the northern rim of the range, was already mentioned as Dullide in the early 9th century in the Breviarium Sancti Lulli register of Hersfeld Abbey . A Kaiserpfalz at

17934-414: The start of 1990 East Germany was in a state of economic and political collapse. In contrast, reunification under Article 23 could be implemented in as little as six months. Ultimately, when the treaty on monetary, economic, and social union was signed, it was decided to use the quicker process of Article 23. By this process, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and to join West Germany, and the area in which

18081-504: The suffix -en . Lack of negative determiner nên ('no' (attr.)), instead: keyn , similar to High German. The past participle retains the prefix ge- . Lack of gaderen ('to gather') and tőgen ('to show'); instead of them, forms close to High German, i.e. samenen and teigen . In East Anhaltish, distinction of dative and accusative pronouns (e.g. mi vs mik , cf. HG mir and mich ). German reunification German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung )

18228-600: The term Wende as it had been introduced by the SED Secretary General Egon Krenz . Some people have stated that the reunification can be classified as an annexation of the GDR by the FRG. Scholar Ned Richardson-Little from the University of Erfurt noted that the terminology of an annexation can be interpreted from backgrounds across the political spectrum. In 2015, a Russian proposal

18375-580: The term " reunification " during the runup to what Germans frequently refer to as Die Wende (roughly: "the turning point"). The 1990 treaty defines the official term as Deutsche Einheit ("German unity"); this is commonly used in Germany. After 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events (mostly in Eastern Europe) that led up to the actual reunification, and loosely translates to "the turning point". Anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected

18522-577: 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. Andreotti, quoting François Mauriac , joked "I love Germany so much that I prefer to see two of them". The victors of World War II—France,

18669-562: 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

18816-436: The two countries would never happen in the foreseeable future. The turning point in Germany, called Die Wende , was marked by the " Peaceful Revolution " leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall at the night of 9 November 1989, with East and West Germany subsequently entering into negotiations toward eliminating the division that had been imposed upon Germans more than four decades earlier. On 28 November 1989—two weeks after

18963-400: The unification as philistinist and purely materialist, calling it "the monetary fetish, by now devoid of all joy." Heiner Müller supported Grass' criticism of the unification process, warning East Germans: "We will be a nation without dreams, we will lose our memories, our past, and therefore also our ability to hope." British historian Richard J. Evans made a similar argument, criticizing

19110-513: The unification as driven solely by "consumerist appetites whetted by years of watching West German television advertisements". For decades, West Germany's allies stated their support for reunification. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , who speculated that 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

19257-467: The way for both countries to be widely recognized internationally. The two Germanies joined the United Nations as two separate country members in 1973 and East Germany abandoned its goal of reunification with their compatriots in the West in a constitutional amendment the following year . The principle is written in our Constitution – that no one has the right to give up a policy whose goal

19404-457: Was broken. Hungary was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms. By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East German citizens had escaped to the West before the GDR denied travel to Hungary, leaving Czechoslovakia as the only neighboring state to which East Germans could escape. Even then, many people within and outside Germany still believed that real reunification between

19551-486: Was divided by the Allies into occupation zones, each under the military government of one of these four countries. The agreement also modified Germany's border, with the country de facto losing its former territories east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland and the Soviet Union (most for Poland because the eastern territories of former Poland were annexed by the USSR). Germany's border decision came under pressure from

19698-460: Was divided, with the eastern part de facto managed by East Germany. East Germany originally also wanted to gain West Berlin and make the unified Berlin its capital. The Western Allies and West Germany rejected the Soviet Union's idea of neutral reunification in 1952, resulting in the two German governments continuing to exist side-by-side. Most of the border between two Germanies , and later

19845-518: 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. Although East Germany was long reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the removal of Communist hegemony revealed the ramshackle foundations of that system. The East German mark had been almost worthless outside East Germany for some time before

19992-522: Was founded in May 1949. While the Basic Law was modified, rather than replaced by a constitution as such, it still permits the adoption of a formal constitution by the German people at some time in the future. In the context of urban planning , in addition to a wealth of new opportunity and the symbolism of two former independent states being rejoined, the reunification of Berlin presented numerous challenges. The city underwent massive redevelopment , involving

20139-585: Was included in the post-unification reform of the Basic Law in 1994. While politicians called for acceptance of a new multiethnic society, many were unwilling to "give up its traditional racial definition of German nationality". Feminist groups also opposed the unification, as abortion laws were less restrictive in East Germany than in West Germany, and the progress that the GDR had made in regard to women's welfare such as legal equality , child care and financial support were "all less impressive or non-existent in

20286-542: Was made that classified it as an annexation. Mikhail Gorbachev named it 'nonsense'. In 2010, Matthias Platzeck referred to the reunification as an ' anschluss '. On 5 June 1945, with the Berlin Declaration, the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II was confirmed, and the German Reich was also de jure abolished. Germany was occupied by four countries representing the victorious Allies signing

20433-433: Was necessary to achieve the ideal of democratic socialism , urging East Germans to oppose "capitalist annexation" in favour of a democratic socialist society. Writers in both East and West were concerned about the destruction of the East German or West German cultural identity respectively; in "Goodbye to the Literature of the Federal Republic", Frank Schirrmacher states that the literature of both states had been central to

20580-468: Was preceded by the influence of higher foreign occupiers; however this only really rose to become official with the birth of the two countries of Germany in the context of the period of international tension during the Cold War . The capital of West Germany was Bonn ; however it was only considered provisional due to the West German aspiration to establish Berlin as its capital, although at the time Berlin

20727-455: Was ruled by Denmark . MLG exerted a huge influence upon Scandinavia (cf. History ), even if native speakers of Low German were mostly confined to the cities where they formed colonies of merchants and craftsmen. It was an official language of Old Livonia , whose population consisted mostly of Baltic and Finnic tribes. In the West, at the Zuiderzee , the forests of the Veluwe and close to

20874-399: Was still closely guarded, but the Pan-European Picnic and the indecisive reaction of the rulers of the Eastern Bloc set in motion an irreversible movement. It allowed an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany via Hungary . The Peaceful Revolution , part of the international revolutions of 1989 including a series of protests by East German citizens, led to the fall of

21021-586: Was strong in the Teutonic Order , due to the diverse regional origins of its chivalric elite, therefore MLG written culture was neglected early on. Eastphalian ( HG : Ostfälisch ): Roughly the area east of the middle Weser , north and partly west of the Harz mountains, reaching the middle Elbe , but leaving out the Altmark region. In the north, the sparsely populated Lunenburg Heath forms something of

21168-420: Was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall had been built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea of Karl's father Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary. The media reaction of Erich Honecker in the "Daily Mirror" of 19 August 1989 showed

21315-453: Was the leading written language in the north of Central Europe and served as a lingua franca in the northern half of Europe. It was used parallel to medieval Latin also for purposes of diplomacy and for deeds . While Middle Low German (MLG) is a scholarly term developed in hindsight, speakers in their time referred to the language mainly as sassisch (Saxon) or de sassische sprâke (the Saxon language). In contrast to Latin as

21462-522: Was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state , which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of its re-established constituent federated states into the Federal Republic of Germany to form present-day Germany . This date was chosen as the customary German Unity Day , and has thereafter been celebrated each year as

21609-522: Was then voted into effect by both the Volkskammer and the Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities, effecting on the one hand, the extinction of the GDR, and on the other, the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic. Hence, although the GDR declared its accession to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, this did not imply its acceptance of

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