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GERMANY COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM - Coggle Diagram
GERMANY COLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM
CAUSES
Hungary Miklos Nemeth removed the border fence on May 2 1989, allowing GDR citizens to (illegally) cross and seek asylum in FRG
popular demand for reform - hardline Communist Eric Honecker didn't enact reforms that Gorbachev had, so Egon Krenz replaced him in October 1989
USSR didn't offer economic aid to struggling GDR
EVENTS
public unhappy with minimal easing of travel restrictions so 9 November announced free FRG-GDR transit, 10 November Berlin Wall came down
3 December - Egon Krenz and Central Committee resigned
REUNIFICATION
PROCESS
Two-Plus-Four Treaty - September 12 1990 - ended residual rights of occupying allies and ended the partition of Germany
2 October 1990 - Germany officially reunified
WEST ATTITUDES
UK and France worried that unified Germany would be too dominant in European affairs
wanted Germany to join NATO
USSR attitudes
wanted to receive loans from Germany - didn't
Gorbachev initially opposed to reunification, acquiesced due to popular demand
CONCLUSIONS
GDR, as the strongest pillar of Communism outside USSR, was seen as a stalwart in the Communist Bloc - its fall not only weakened USSR militarily and economically but also politically, as destroyed the Iron Curtain and opened the country up to the tempting forces of capitalism that it had resisted for so long