Geography News Network

DAY OF GERMAN UNITY: CELEBRATING 25 YEARS "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall!' " -President Ronald Reagan On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, a symbolic end to the Cold War that paved the way for German reunification eleven months later. The “Two-Plus-Four” Treaty permitted the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to become a united country for the first time since the end of World War II. On October 3, 1990, reunification took place and became the Day of German Unity...