ABSTRACT
The peaceful unification of the two German states took place within the remarkably short period of time of less than twelve months. In October 1989, when the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) celebrated with a fanfare the fortieth anniversary of the ‘first workers’ and peasants’ state on German soil’, nobody could foresee the imminent collapse of the communist regime in East Germany. Certainly, during the preceding months a mounting wave of discontent and creeping opposition had turned against the dictatorial power structure within the GDR and its authorities, who stubbornly denied any need for long overdue farreaching reforms. Moreover, the hundreds and thousands of (mainly) young East Germans, who fled their country via the embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in Prague, Warsaw, and above all, by way of Hungary, sounded the tocsin.
