9
9
0
Representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union sign an agreement giving up all occupation rights in Germany. The largely symbolic action cleared the way for East and West Germany to reunite.
In 1945, the Allied Powers–America, England, France, and the Soviet Union–agreed that defeated Nazi Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation, one for each nation. Berlin would be likewise divided. The separation was intended to be temporary, but Cold War animosities quickly developed after World War II and the division between the Russian zone and those controlled by the other three nations became permanent. In the late 1940s, the American, French, and English zones were consolidated into West Germany and the Soviet zone became East Germany. The division came to symbolize the Cold War, and the divided Germany was the scene of many Cold War dramas, like the Berlin Airlift. In 1961, East German authorities began construction of the Berlin Wall, physically dividing East and West Berlin.
By 1989, however, the communist grip on East Germany was rapidly slipping away. The Soviet Union, facing its own severe economic and political problems, could do little to prop up the East German communist regime. In November 1989, the East German government announced that the Berlin Wall would be torn down. The next year, representatives from East and West Germany began negotiations to finally reunite their country. Among the many obstacles to overcome was the historical legacy of occupation by the Allied forces. Although the four Allies had long since removed their occupation forces and given up most of their occupation rights, some treaty rights still technically remained–for instance, the four countries still had the right to “oversee” Berlin. On September 12, 1990, representatives from the four nations met in Moscow and formally gave up all remaining occupation rights in Germany. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze declared, “We are going through emotional and historic events…We have drawn a line under World War II and we have started keeping the time of a new age.” In October 1990, East and West Germany formally reunited under a democratic government.
In 1945, the Allied Powers–America, England, France, and the Soviet Union–agreed that defeated Nazi Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation, one for each nation. Berlin would be likewise divided. The separation was intended to be temporary, but Cold War animosities quickly developed after World War II and the division between the Russian zone and those controlled by the other three nations became permanent. In the late 1940s, the American, French, and English zones were consolidated into West Germany and the Soviet zone became East Germany. The division came to symbolize the Cold War, and the divided Germany was the scene of many Cold War dramas, like the Berlin Airlift. In 1961, East German authorities began construction of the Berlin Wall, physically dividing East and West Berlin.
By 1989, however, the communist grip on East Germany was rapidly slipping away. The Soviet Union, facing its own severe economic and political problems, could do little to prop up the East German communist regime. In November 1989, the East German government announced that the Berlin Wall would be torn down. The next year, representatives from East and West Germany began negotiations to finally reunite their country. Among the many obstacles to overcome was the historical legacy of occupation by the Allied forces. Although the four Allies had long since removed their occupation forces and given up most of their occupation rights, some treaty rights still technically remained–for instance, the four countries still had the right to “oversee” Berlin. On September 12, 1990, representatives from the four nations met in Moscow and formally gave up all remaining occupation rights in Germany. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze declared, “We are going through emotional and historic events…We have drawn a line under World War II and we have started keeping the time of a new age.” In October 1990, East and West Germany formally reunited under a democratic government.
German occupation rights are relinquished
Posted from history.comPosted in these groups: 
Cold War
Cold War
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 6
7
7
0
CNN Oct 1 1990 German unification, Signing of the Declaration by the four powers
Signing of the Declaration by the four powers suspending the operation of quadripartite rights and responsibilities The Governments of the French Republic, t...
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for reminding us that on September 12, 1990, representatives from United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union met in Moscow and formally gave up all remaining occupation rights in Germany. Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze declared, “We are going through emotional and historic events…We have drawn a line under World War II and we have started keeping the time of a new age.” In October 1990, East and West Germany formally reunited under a democratic government.
Background from articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-09-13/news/ [login to see] _1_new-german-state-occupation-rights-allied-powers
"Allies Relinquish Hold On Germany
September 13, 1990|By George de Lama, Chicago Tribune.
MOSCOW — The four major Allied powers that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II signed a historic treaty Wednesday that formally ends their postwar occupation of Germany and removes the last obstacle to German unification next month.
With Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev looking on, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union, Britain, France and the two Germanys signed the agreement spelling out German commitments that it will never again become a threat to world peace.
``We have closed the book on World War II and started a new age,`` said Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. ``We cannot continue to live in the past. . . . We are now dealing with a new Germany that has drawn its lessons from history.``
The agreement, coming less than a year after the fall of East Germany`s Communist government, clears the way for German sovereignty over its own soil after 45 years of division on the front lines of the Cold War.
West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher vowed the powerful new German state in the heart of Europe will be a source of stability and peace for the continent, and he apologized to Jews and the millions of other victims of the Nazis.
``In this hour we remember the victims of war and totalitarianism,``
Genscher said in a joint news conference after the signing ceremony. ``We are particularly thinking about the Jewish people. We would not want their agony ever to be repeated.``
Under the agreement, a united Germany will be a member of the NATO alliance and the 370,000 Soviet troops in what is now East Germany will withdraw by the end of 1994.
In return, the new German state pledges never to possess nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. It also pledges to restrict the size of its armed forces to 370,000 troops, less than the current combined size of the two German armies.
In addition, Germany can station only ``territorial defense`` forces in what is now East Germany until the Soviets withdraw. Afterward, German forces assigned to NATO can be stationed in the eastern portion of the country but only with conventional weapons.
A last-minute compromise worked out by Baker with Shevardnadze and Genscher allows foreign NATO forces to enter what is now East Germany only for temporary periods, such as military maneuvers, beginning in 1995, U.S. officials said.
The four Allied powers will formally suspend their occupation rights over Berlin and postwar Germany on Oct. 1, two days before the nation officially reunites.
Technically, the Allied occupation rights remain until the legislatures of the four nations ratify the agreement. But the four powers decided it was important symbolically for Germany to have full sovereignty from the day of its unification.
The three Western powers will maintain no more than their current level of troops in Berlin at the invitation of the new German government but will depart when the last Soviet troops leave the country.
A senior State Department official said the Bush administration has not yet decided whether it will regard the accord as a formal treaty and submit it to the Senate for ratification as required by the Constitution.
Congressional leaders have already served notice they expect to review the agreement, this official said. Talks are continuing with key lawmakers, he said.
The accord puts an end to the ``two-plus-four`` talks that charted the security framework for German unification during eight months of intensive negotiations.
The treaty will be presented for approval to a summit in Paris in November of the heads of the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an organization that will be transformed into a new East-West security framework for the continent.
Baker and the other Western foreign ministers singled out Gorbachev and Shevardnadze for praise, citing their flexibility in allowing the final agreement to go forward after months of Soviet resistance to the idea of a united Germany`s membership in NATO.
Shevardnadze, under fire from some Soviet military officers for
``losing`` Moscow`s post-war empire in Eastern Europe, sought to have the final agreement signed in the Soviet capital to provide a stage for framing the treaty in positive terms for a skeptical Soviet public, Western diplomats said.
The Soviet foreign minister, whose brother was among the 27 million Soviets killed during the war against Nazi Germany, acknowledged that Moscow had a difficult time accepting the reality of losing its main ally in the Warsaw Pact and seeing a united German state in a hostile alliance.
``It is no secret that the German issue, for well-known reasons, has always been a sensitive issue to the people of the Soviet Union and the people of all Europe,`` he said. ``There has been widespread concern that a united Germany could damage the security of the Soviet Union.``
But he said the Soviet leadership was satisfied it had received ``the proper safeguards`` and that a united Germany is the key to erasing East-West tensions and providing stability in Europe.
Gorbachev`s decision was also helped along by West German pledges of massive economic assistance. Bonn has agreed to pay Moscow about $7.5 billion to finance the presence and withdrawal of Soviet troops on East German soil and to build housing for them in the USSR when they get home.
The two nations are to sign a broad agreement setting out the terms of their new cooperative relationship Thursday, Shevardnadze said.
To assuage Soviet fears, Genscher gave Shevardnadze a separate letter promising the new German state
will permanently ban the Nazi Party and will preserve all grave sites of Hitler`s victims and monuments to heroes of the anti-Nazi struggle.
On a related subject, Baker said the U.S. and the Soviet Union will not include troop levels in a conventional arms reduction treaty now under negotiation. Another difficult issue in the talks, how to count and reduce combat aircraft, also may be left out of the treaty.
President Bush has insisted that a conventional arms accord be completed before the 35-nation Paris summit."
CNN Oct 1 1990 German unification, Signing of the Declaration by the four powers
https://youtu.be/TJHLcOCEmWw
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi LTC (Join to see) LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Jeff S. CPT Jack Durish MSgt Robert C Aldi SFC Stephen King MSgt Danny Hope SGT Gregory Lawritson Cpl Craig Marton SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT (Join to see) Maj Marty Hogan
Background from articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-09-13/news/ [login to see] _1_new-german-state-occupation-rights-allied-powers
"Allies Relinquish Hold On Germany
September 13, 1990|By George de Lama, Chicago Tribune.
MOSCOW — The four major Allied powers that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II signed a historic treaty Wednesday that formally ends their postwar occupation of Germany and removes the last obstacle to German unification next month.
With Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev looking on, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union, Britain, France and the two Germanys signed the agreement spelling out German commitments that it will never again become a threat to world peace.
``We have closed the book on World War II and started a new age,`` said Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze. ``We cannot continue to live in the past. . . . We are now dealing with a new Germany that has drawn its lessons from history.``
The agreement, coming less than a year after the fall of East Germany`s Communist government, clears the way for German sovereignty over its own soil after 45 years of division on the front lines of the Cold War.
West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher vowed the powerful new German state in the heart of Europe will be a source of stability and peace for the continent, and he apologized to Jews and the millions of other victims of the Nazis.
``In this hour we remember the victims of war and totalitarianism,``
Genscher said in a joint news conference after the signing ceremony. ``We are particularly thinking about the Jewish people. We would not want their agony ever to be repeated.``
Under the agreement, a united Germany will be a member of the NATO alliance and the 370,000 Soviet troops in what is now East Germany will withdraw by the end of 1994.
In return, the new German state pledges never to possess nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. It also pledges to restrict the size of its armed forces to 370,000 troops, less than the current combined size of the two German armies.
In addition, Germany can station only ``territorial defense`` forces in what is now East Germany until the Soviets withdraw. Afterward, German forces assigned to NATO can be stationed in the eastern portion of the country but only with conventional weapons.
A last-minute compromise worked out by Baker with Shevardnadze and Genscher allows foreign NATO forces to enter what is now East Germany only for temporary periods, such as military maneuvers, beginning in 1995, U.S. officials said.
The four Allied powers will formally suspend their occupation rights over Berlin and postwar Germany on Oct. 1, two days before the nation officially reunites.
Technically, the Allied occupation rights remain until the legislatures of the four nations ratify the agreement. But the four powers decided it was important symbolically for Germany to have full sovereignty from the day of its unification.
The three Western powers will maintain no more than their current level of troops in Berlin at the invitation of the new German government but will depart when the last Soviet troops leave the country.
A senior State Department official said the Bush administration has not yet decided whether it will regard the accord as a formal treaty and submit it to the Senate for ratification as required by the Constitution.
Congressional leaders have already served notice they expect to review the agreement, this official said. Talks are continuing with key lawmakers, he said.
The accord puts an end to the ``two-plus-four`` talks that charted the security framework for German unification during eight months of intensive negotiations.
The treaty will be presented for approval to a summit in Paris in November of the heads of the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an organization that will be transformed into a new East-West security framework for the continent.
Baker and the other Western foreign ministers singled out Gorbachev and Shevardnadze for praise, citing their flexibility in allowing the final agreement to go forward after months of Soviet resistance to the idea of a united Germany`s membership in NATO.
Shevardnadze, under fire from some Soviet military officers for
``losing`` Moscow`s post-war empire in Eastern Europe, sought to have the final agreement signed in the Soviet capital to provide a stage for framing the treaty in positive terms for a skeptical Soviet public, Western diplomats said.
The Soviet foreign minister, whose brother was among the 27 million Soviets killed during the war against Nazi Germany, acknowledged that Moscow had a difficult time accepting the reality of losing its main ally in the Warsaw Pact and seeing a united German state in a hostile alliance.
``It is no secret that the German issue, for well-known reasons, has always been a sensitive issue to the people of the Soviet Union and the people of all Europe,`` he said. ``There has been widespread concern that a united Germany could damage the security of the Soviet Union.``
But he said the Soviet leadership was satisfied it had received ``the proper safeguards`` and that a united Germany is the key to erasing East-West tensions and providing stability in Europe.
Gorbachev`s decision was also helped along by West German pledges of massive economic assistance. Bonn has agreed to pay Moscow about $7.5 billion to finance the presence and withdrawal of Soviet troops on East German soil and to build housing for them in the USSR when they get home.
The two nations are to sign a broad agreement setting out the terms of their new cooperative relationship Thursday, Shevardnadze said.
To assuage Soviet fears, Genscher gave Shevardnadze a separate letter promising the new German state
will permanently ban the Nazi Party and will preserve all grave sites of Hitler`s victims and monuments to heroes of the anti-Nazi struggle.
On a related subject, Baker said the U.S. and the Soviet Union will not include troop levels in a conventional arms reduction treaty now under negotiation. Another difficult issue in the talks, how to count and reduce combat aircraft, also may be left out of the treaty.
President Bush has insisted that a conventional arms accord be completed before the 35-nation Paris summit."
CNN Oct 1 1990 German unification, Signing of the Declaration by the four powers
https://youtu.be/TJHLcOCEmWw
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Orlando Illi LTC (Join to see) LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Seid Waddell Capt Jeff S. CPT Jack Durish MSgt Robert C Aldi SFC Stephen King MSgt Danny Hope SGT Gregory Lawritson Cpl Craig Marton SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT (Join to see) Maj Marty Hogan
(7)
(0)
5
5
0
My youngest has a birth cert that says West Germany which no longet exists
(5)
(0)
3
3
0
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google