Germany Booklet 5 Flashcards
Who became Chancellor of the FRG in 1969?
Willy Brandt
Which treaty happened in 1972?
Basic Treaty
What did the Basic Treaty do?
Confirmed the division of Germany as two legal states and led to economic cooperation between the FRG and the GDR
Who became leader of the USSR in 1985?
Gorbachev
Which policies did Gorbachev introduce?
Glasnost and Perestroika (Openness and Restructuring)
What are some of the things that Gorbachev did?
Reduced the amount of money being given to East Germany and Eastern European countries for propping up their governments
Reduced the number of troops and equipment in Eastern Europe
How much did the GDR borrow from the FRG in the early 1980s?
DM1.95 Billion
By 1988, how many application for emigration was the FRG received from the GDR?
100,000s
By 1988, how much did the number of East Germans allowed to emigrate increase to?
18,500 to 30,000
By 1989, how many people had emigrated to the FRG from the GDR?
48,000
By 1987-88 how many more East Germans were allowed to visit relatives?
5 million to 6.2 million (Increase of 1.2 million)
How did the FRG react to the increased emigration?
They didn’t support it because it was felt that if the GDR became too depleted, there would be repression there and a negative impact on the population of East Germany
Which eastern European country were people using to cross through to the West?
Hungary
What did Hungarian officials do on the 9th August 1989?
Said they were no longer going to stamp passports of GDR citizens crossing the border to Austria
How many refugees crossed into Austria on the 20th August alone?
500
How many refugees did the FRG announce they would take?
20,000
How many East German refugees were outside the West German embassy in Prague?
4000
How many refugees from the embassy in Prague did the West Germans allow in?
45,000
How did the GDR react to the refugee crisis?
Launched a verbal assault of West Germany for promoting the depletion of the GDR’s population and declared that he was unmoved by these leaving the GDR calling them traitors to communism
Why was Honecker unable to lead the GDR from August to September 1989?
He was ill
Where were the ‘Monday Protests’?
Leipzig
How many attended the ‘Monday Protests’?
10,000s and then it grew to 100,000s
By October 1989, how many were taking part in the weekly protests?
320,000
When did Honecker return from illness?
25th September
How many attended the 3 hour riot in Dresden?
10,000
How many East Germans did Honecker allow to camp at the FRG Embassy in Prague?
14,000
How many people tried to stop and climb on the train leaving Prague for West Germany?
10,000
By the 17th October 1989, how many were protesting in Leipzig again?
100,000
When Honecker was sacked, who replaced him?
Egon Krenz
What did Krenz try to introduce but was rejected?
A travel permit
By November 1989, how many East Germans were protesting?
750,000
When was the press conference of Gunter Schabowski announcing the greater travel rights for those with a passport?
November 9th 1989
When did border guards lift the barrier between East and West Berlin?
11.20pm on 9th November
How many Soviet soldiers were in Berlin?
1.5 million
Within a week of the Berlin Wall coming down, how many East Germans had left for the FRG?
17,000
When did Helmut Kohl, the leader of the FRG, announce his ten point plan?
28th November 1989
What did the SED rename itself when the wall fell down?
Party of Democratic Socialists
How did the FRG react to the fall of the Berlin wall?
Providing aid to the 100,000s of people from the GDR arriving in the FRD and preserve some form of structured relationship with the collapsing GDR government
What was Kohl’s Ten Point Plan?
Aimed to stabilise the situation by moving towards a confederate state linking the two Germanys, then move towards full unification in 5-10 years
He also promised immediate assistance for the GDR to stabilise the country and reduce the numbers leaving for the West
Why did Kohl announce the Ten Point Plan so suddenly?
The CDU’s polling was low and figured he could gain support from announcing it
How did Britain and France react to the Kohl’s announcements?
Worried that Germany would become an economic and military power in Europe again and invade countries for the third time
How did the USA react to Kohl’s announcements?
The USA didn’t mind that reunification could happen, but told Kohl to be careful
How did the USSR react to Kohl’s announcements?
Believed that it was a bad idea, but agreed to let it happen slowly
How many attended demonstrations on the 11th December 1989 in Leipzig?
300,000, calling for reunification
When did Kohl visit Dresden and how many people gathered to hear him talk?
19th December 1989, 100,000 gathered to hear him
When was Germany reunified?
Midnight on 2nd-3rd October 1990
When was the GDR getting huge loans from the FRG?
1983 and 1984
What did the GDR rely on for energy?
Brown coal, which was highly polluting as they were unable to afford oil
By 1989, how much lower was the life expectancy in the GDR than the FRG?
2 1/2 years lower for men and 7 years lower for women compared to in the FRG
How much did the GDR spend trying to create the world’s largest microchip?
DDM 1 Billion
In October 1989, how much would the GDR have needed to stabilise the country’s debt?
DDM 9 Million
What did Kohl’s foreign policy advisor claim the FRG’s main focus was in July 1989?
Stability, not altering borders
Who became the GDR’s leader on 3rd December 1989 following Krenz’s resignation?
Hans Modrow
What happened to the Stasi on the 15th January 1990?
The Stasi HQ in East Berlin was raided by protestors
What did Modrow announce on the 18th March 1990?
Elections for the GDR in an attempt to save it
Who was the FRG’s SPD leader?
Oskar Lafontaine
Who did Oskar Lafontaine encourage the GDR citizens to vote for?
The SPD, in order to slow down the unification process so that it could be carried out in a more organized fashion
What was Kohl’s CDU-led coalition called?
Alliance for Germany
How many seats did the ‘Alliance for Germany’ win?
192 of 400
How many seats did the PDS win in the GDR?
The PDS won 66 seats
How many seats did the SPD win in the GDR?
88 Seats
Who was Lothar de Maiziere?
The GDR’s CDU leader who formed a coalition government with the SPD and the League of Free democrats
How much were East Germans allowed to convert at a 1:1 rate into West German Marks?
DDM 4000
Who were the four occupying powers?
France, Britain, USSR, USA
When did the four powers meet?
11th December 1989
Why was West Germany angered about the four powers meeting?
Germany wasn’t invited to the meeting, similar to the Versailles treaty
What were the Two Plus Four Negotiations?
Began in March 1990, with a key focus on Germany joining NATO and the size of her military
What did Article 23 of the FRG’s constitution mean?
Reunification could take place if the GDR accepted unification under the terms and laws of the FRG
When did economic unification take place?
July 1990
What did Gorbachev request from the USA and Britain?
Loans to help the USSR’s economy
What did Gorbachev say in May 1990?
That the USSR would accept Germany as a member of NATO
What did Gorbachev meet with Kohl to discuss?
The withdrawal of soviet troops from the GDR, the eastern borders of the country and the size of the German Army
Which treaty was signed on the 12th September 1990 which resolved the issue of Western military activities in Germany?
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
What did the Hunagarian government announce on 2nd May, 1989?
Barbed wire fencing along the border with Austria was removed
What did people throw from the train going through Dresden?
Passports so other East Germans could escape
Give one result of the industrial growth in East Germany
They had the highest levels of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide in the world
