Germany Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Reunification

On April 21, 1945, the Soviet Army broke into Berlin and raised the Victory Banner over the Reichstag on May 1. On May 2 the remaining German troops in Berlin capitulated.

During the Yalta Conference the Allies decided to divide Germany and Berlin into four parts: British, Soviet, US and French. Initially the borders were open and Germans could freely move from one sector to another sector.

The first crisis emerged in 1948 when the Soviet administration introduced pass tickets, seeking to prevent an influx of depreciated Deutschemarks. In 1949 the Western countries declared the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The Soviet Union proclaimed the creation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

In April 1953, the GDR increased sugar prices and cut down wages. On June 16, some 10,000 workers took to the streets demanding the GDR to scrap this decision. They succeeded but demonstrations continued.

The protests finally ended on June 23 after the military interfered in the conflict.

In August 1961 the GDR erected a wall separating the western and the eastern parts of Berlin. The situation exploded on October 28 when US tanks sought to demolish the wall but encountered the Soviet troops. The sides spent the whole night holding each other at gunpoint but luckily the tensions eased and on October 29 the both groups returned to their positions.

On June 26, 1963, US President John Kennedy delivered his famous speech in Western Berlin saying that after 18 years Germans deserved a right to live in one state. He said in German: “Ich bin ein Berliner” meaning “I am a Berlin citizen”.

Germans sometimes devised very tricky methods of fleeing the GDR, for example they dug underground tunnels or feigned documents.

Finally, in November 1989, the GDR announced that its citizens were allowed to immediately receive visas for travel to the FRG.

An unidentified West Berliner swings a sledgehammer, trying to destroy the Berlin Wall near Potsdamer Platz, on November 12, 1989, where a new passage was opened nearby. (AP Photo/John Gaps III)

Germans started dismantling the wall.

A part of the wall remained as a historic monument to the separation of a single nation

The two parts of Germany finally reunified on October 3, 1990. Five GDR regions acceded to the FRG.

“My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love!” is graffiti on the Berlin Wall by Russian painter Dmitri Vrubel, depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his GDR counterpart Erich Honecker. It is one of the best-known symbols of the epoch.

A monument dedicated to 1,065 people who died trying to cross the Berlin Wall was installed at Charlie Checkpoint in Berlin. The authorities ruled to remove it in 2005.

In 2015, Germany planned to hold almost 300 events in Frankfurt commemorating the anniversary.

Twenty-five years later specialists still observe differences between the former GDR and FRG. History is difficult to erase.