ABSTRACT
The German revolution of 1989/90 took place in two stages, as the peaceful revolution in East Germany passed over into the process of German reunification. A divided memory of 1989/90 yielded two national German legends. The first is the story of the "peaceful revolution", outlining the overthrow of the Communist regime by the civil movement and at the same time neglecting Gorbachev's politics and the international context, which had already undermined the sustainability of the Socialist state party's (SED) authorities. The second alternative arose from purely economic reasoning. West German economic experts foresaw the devastating consequences of a rapid economic unification, and suggested a gradual economic assimilation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) into the Federal Republic. The French interest in restricting the strength of the German currency and economy within an economic and monetary union met a readiness to Europeanise Germany's strength in Bonn.
