On 13 June 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, sign a Joint Declaration in Bonn concerning the right of peoples and States to self-determination.

On 13 June 1989, meeting in Bonn, Mikhail Gorbachev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, sign a joint declaration affirming the right of peoples and States to self-determination.

On 8 November 1989, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), delivers an address to the Bundestag on the state of the nation in a divided Germany.

On 28 November 1989, Chancellor Helmut Kohl presents to the Bundestag his Ten-Point Plan designed to result in the reunification of Germany.

On 28 November 1989, Wolfgang Meyer, spokesman for the East German Government, expresses reservations about the Ten-Point Plan devised by Chancellot Helmut Kohl to facilitate the reunification of Germany.

In his memoirs, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, former West German Foreign Minister, describes the reactions to the presentation, on 28 November 1989, of Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s 10-point plan for German reunification.

On 30 November 1989, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit considers whether the application of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's 10-point plan might ultimately lead to the reunification of Germany.

On 28 November 1989, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from 1982 to 1998, presents a ten-point plan for the unification of the two German States.

Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1974 and then again from 1982 to 1992, the Liberal politician Hans-Dietrich Genscher is among the architects of German reunification.

‘National anthem.’ In 1989, German cartoonist Walter Hanel takes an ironic look at the fears of the leaders of the Four Powers — the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union — regarding Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s 10-point programme for the reunification of Germany. From left to right: US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, French President François Mitterrand and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Operating the handle of the barrel organ is German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, accompanied by his Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

On 17 February 1990, the German Conservative-Liberal daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung analyses the issue of the cost of German reunification.

On 6 April 1990, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit analyses the arguments for and against the application of a 1:1 rate for the conversion of the East German mark into the West German mark after the reunification of Germany.

On 24 April 1990, the Bavarian daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung comments on the decision taken by Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), to apply the exchange rate of one East German mark to one West German mark.

On 18 May 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) sign in Bonn the Treaty establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union.

On 18 May 1990, in Bonn, in the presence of Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the FRG, and Lothar de Maizière, Head of the East German Government, the Finance Ministers Walter Romberg (GDR) and Theodor Waigel (FRG) sign the Treaty establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the two German states. From left to right (foreground): Walter Romberg and Theodor Waigel; (background): Lothar de Maizière and Helmut Kohl

On 18 May 1990, in Bonn, to the applause of Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the FRG, and Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German Government, the Finance Ministers Theodor Waigel (FRG) and Walter Romberg (GDR) sign the Treaty establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union. From left to right: Lothar de Maizière, Walter Romberg, Helmut Kohl and Theodor Waigel.

On 18 May 1990, at the signing of the Treaty establishing an economic, monetary and social union between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Chancellor Helmut Kohl emphasises the historic impact of the agreement.

On 18 May 1990, at the signing of the Treaty establishing an economic, monetary and social union between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Lothar de Maizière, Prime Minister in the East German Government, emphasises the importance of the agreement for the reunification of Germany.

On 29 June 1990, the British left-wing daily newspaper The Guardian expresses its fears about the optimism of the Bundesbank and the OECD with regard to the monetary, economic and social union between the two Germanys.

In his memoirs, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), recalls the signing of the Treaty establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the FRG and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on 18 May 1990.

‘This way, Helmut …’ In 1990, faced with vexed European countries and partners, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), puts his full weight behind the decision to replace the former East German mark with the Deutschmark in the territories of the German Democratic Republic.

On 11 November 1989, the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the British left-wing daily newspaper The Guardian speculates on European security and on the future of NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

On 15 February 1990, the German Conservative-Liberal daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung describes the European Parliament’s decision on the reunification of the two Germanies.

On 21 June 1990, the German Bundestag adopts a resolution which confirms the course of the Oder-Neisse Line as the border between the united Germany and the Republic of Poland.

‘Epilogue — "Is it all right if I switch off the light myself?"' asks Lothar de Maizière, first and last democratically elected Head of Government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In July 1990, Opland, Dutch cartoonist announces the end of the German Democratic Republic.

On 23 August 1990, the day after the Declaration by the People's Chamber on the accession of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the Federal Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, outlines to the Bundestag the stages of German reunification and addresses the question of economic aid for the GDR.

On 31 August 1990, in Berlin, Wolfgang Schäuble, Interior Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and Günther Krause, Junior Minister to Lothar de Maizière, Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), sign the Unification Treaty establishing a single federal democratic state.

On 2 October 1990, at the ceremony on the eve of German unity, Lothar de Maizière, Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), gives an address in which he describes the historic impact of the creation of a reunified German state.

On 3 October 1990, Roland Dumas, French Foreign Minister, and his German counterpart, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, confirm in an exchange of letters the importance of the unification of Germany and emphasise their commitment to Franco-German friendship.

On 3 October 1990, the European Commission comments on the reunification of Germany and expresses the hope that this event might pave the way for the unity of Europe as a whole.

On 3 October 1990, commenting on the official reunification of Germany, the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique emphasises the historic importance of the event and speculates on the political future of the reunified, democratic Germany.

On 4 October 1990, in his first government declaration to the Bundestag of the reunified Germany, Chancellor Helmut Kohl assesses the country’s economic situation and indicates the correct paths to follow in order to overcome the difficulties associated with the harmonisation of two economic systems which, for a long period of time, had been separate.

In his memoirs, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl describes the conversations he had in the early 1990s with Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, concerning the process of German reunification.

‘German unity: Viva Germania? A new Reich? The great takeover or the end of a long separation?’ In 1990, the cartoonist, Fritz Behrendt, interprets in his own inimitable fashion the various meanings that may be attributed to German reunification.

In 1990, the German cartoonist, Walter Hanel, takes an ironic look at the way in which the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, and his Foreign Minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, present the reunified Germany to the world together as their ‘newborn child'.

On 9 November 1989, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) opens its frontiers to West Berlin and to the remainder of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), a move which prompts large numbers of mass demonstrations in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

On 8 September 1994, a military parade is held in the courtyard of Charlottenburg Palace to mark the departure of Western Allied troops from the City of Berlin. The parade is attended by Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Warren Christopher, US Secretary of State, John Major, British Prime Minister, and François Mitterrand, President of the French Republic.

On 31 August 1994, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), welcomes Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, to Berlin on the occasion of the departure of the troops from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) stationed in Berlin. A ceremony is held at the Neue Wache, a memorial dedicated to the victims of all wars and oppressive regimes.