1200 Ch. 29 • Democracy and the Collapse of Communism
When Egon Krenz announced that East Germans could travel where and when
they wanted, people gathered at the Berlin Wall to forge openings with whatever
tools they had.
Krenz still hoped that his promise to hold free elections would keep the
Communists in power. But lacking popular support, Krenz’s government fell
on December 3 and was succeeded by a series of committees until elections
were held in March 1990. Conservatives favoring German reunification
(led by the equivalent of the West German Christian Democrats) won an
easy victory over Social Democrats and the remnants of the (now renamed)
Communist Party. A number of East German leaders already expressed
eagerness for German reunification. Here, again, there would be no Rus
sian opposition to what had seemed for decades to be unthinkable because
of Russian fear that one day a united Germany might again threaten the
peace. In the meantime, the German Democratic Republic began selling off
state-owned companies and the West German mark became the currency of
both Germanys. In September, Britain, France, and the United States,
viewing reunification as inevitable, renounced their rights in Berlin. Unifi
cation took effect on October 3, 1990. In December, the first elections in
the newly unified Germany returned the Christian Democrats to power.
The former German Federal Republic would for years have to allocate a
substantial part of its budget to modernize the former Communist state and
to provide public services to new citizens (including unemployment benefits
in the wake of the collapse of state-run industries). In 1999, Berlin again
became the capital of Germany.