Germany reunified in 1990; its final treaty took effect in 1991

Germany was reunified on 3 October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and its territory acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany — less than eleven months after the Berlin Wall opened on 9 November 1989.

How long was the country divided? Both numbers you will see are right. The Allies carved Germany into occupation zones in 1945 — hence the “45 years of division” in US government accounts — but the two German states only came into being in 1949, so East and West existed as separate countries for 41 years.

The midnight party, held where the Berlin Wall had fallen, was the visible part. The legal work ran on two tracks, domestic and international, and the second was not formally in force until months after the fireworks.

• 18 March 1990: East Germans hold their first free election, which overwhelmingly backs Chancellor Helmut Kohl and parties tied to West German counterparts.
• 31 August 1990: The two governments sign the Unification Treaty, setting the domestic terms.
• 12 September 1990: In Moscow, the foreign ministers of both Germanys, the US, USSR, Britain and France sign the Two Plus Four Treaty, fixing Germany’s borders and future status; a united Germany could stay in NATO but accepted cuts to its armed forces.
• 1 October 1990: The four Allies renounce their occupation rights, effective on unity day.
• 3 October 1990: Accession takes effect. Kohl tells President Bush by phone that a million people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate.
• 2 December 1990: The first all-German elections since 1933.
• 15 March 1991: After a contested debate in the Supreme Soviet, Moscow’s ratification is handed over and the treaty enters into force.

“There were one million people here last night at the very spot where the Wall used to stand… Words can’t describe the feeling.” — Helmut Kohl to George H. W. Bush, 3 October 1990

So the state that East Germany’s founders created in 1949 vanished overnight, but the treaty that formally settled a united Germany’s sovereignty and borders only took force in spring 1991. 3 October has been the national holiday ever since.