title: Royal Marines

text: The heraldic crest of the Royal Marines commemorates the history of the Corps. The Lion and Crown denotes a Royal regiment. King George III conferred this honour in 1802 "in consideration of the very meritorious services of the Marines in the late war." The "Great Globe itself" was chosen in 1827 by King George IV in place of battle honours to recognise the Marines' service and successes in multiple engagements in every quarter of the world. The laurels are believed to honour the gallantry they displayed during the investment and capture of Belle Isle, off Lorient, in April–June 1761. The word "Gibraltar" refers to the Capture of Gibraltar by a force of Anglo-Dutch Marines in 1704 and the subsequent defence of the strategic fortress throughout a nine-month siege against a numerically superior Franco-Spanish force. Their determination and valour throughout the siege led to a contemporary report published in "The Triumphs of Her Majesty's Arms" in 1707 to announce:


title: Royal Marines

text: There are no other battle honours displayed on the colours of the four battalion-sized units of the current Corps. The Latin motto "Per Mare Per Terram" translates into English as "By Sea By Land". Believed to have been first used in 1775, this motto describes the Royal Marines ability in fighting both afloat on-board ships of the Royal Navy as well as ashore in their many land engagements. The fouled anchor, incorporated into the emblem in 1747, is the badge of the Lord High Admiral, and shows that the Corps is part of the Naval Service.


title: Royal Marines

text: The regimental quick march of the Corps is "A Life on the Ocean Wave", while the slow march is the march of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, awarded to the Corps by Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma on the occasion of the Corps's tercentenary in 1964. Lord Mountbatten was Life Colonel Commandant of the Royal Marines until his murder by the IRA in 1979.


title: Royal Marines

text: The Royal Marines are allowed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London to march through the City as a regiment in full array. This dates to the charter of Charles II that allowed recruiting parties of the Admiral's Regiment of 1664 to enter the City with drums beating and colours flying.


title: Royal Marines

text: Modern Royal Marines uniforms are broadly similar to British Army uniforms but include a number of distinctive uniform items. These include the green "Lovat" shade of service dress uniform; the green beret (for those who have passed the commando course) or navy blue beret (for those who have not) with a scarlet patch behind the badge; dark blue parade dress worn with either the white Wolseley Pattern Helmet (commonly referred to as "pith helmet") or white and red peaked cap; the scarlet and blue mess dress for officers and senior non-commissioned officers; and the white hot-weather uniform of the Band Service.


title: Con Air

text: Con Air is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Simon West and starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. Written by Scott Rosenberg and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film centers on a prison break aboard a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System aircraft, nicknamed "con air". It features Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Dave Chappelle, Rachel Ticotin, Danny Trejo, and Monica Potter in supporting roles.


title: Con Air

text: "Con Air" was released theatrically on June 6, 1997, by Buena Vista Pictures through Touchstone Pictures and was a box office success, grossing over $224 million against a production budget of $75 million. The film received mixed reviews, though the cast, the score and action sequences were praised. The film gained a strong cult following among Nicolas Cage's aficionados. It received Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Original Song for "How Do I Live", performed on the soundtrack by Trisha Yearwood.


title: Con Air

text: Honorably discharged U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. Cameron Poe returns home from Desert Storm to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, and reunites with his pregnant wife Tricia. However, on the night of the reunion, three intoxicated men attempt to assault Tricia, which leads to him being given a ten-year prison sentence for accidentally killing one of them. Eight years later, Poe is paroled and boards a flight to Alabama on a Fairchild C-123 Provider known as the "Jailbird", a converted JPATS prison transport plane. Accompanying him is his diabetic cellmate Mike "Baby-O" O'Dell.


title: Con Air

text: Most of the inmates boarding the flight are being transferred to a supermax prison: mass murderer William "Billy Bedlam" Bedford, serial rapist John "Johnny 23" Baca, Black Guerrilla member Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones, and professional criminal Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom. The flight is overseen by U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin, who is approached by DEA agents Duncan Malloy and Willie Sims; the latter plans to go undercover to get information from drug kingpin Francisco Cindino, who is being picked up en route.


title: Con Air

text: After taking off, inmate Joe "Pinball" Parker sets another prisoner on fire using smuggled kerosene as a distraction, allowing Grissom and Diamond Dog to take over the plane. They plan to land at Carson Airport as scheduled, pick up and transfer other prisoners, and then fly to a non-extradition country. Sims tries to retake control, but Grissom kills him and takes his gun. Poe and Grissom also put a halt to Johnny 23's rape attempts on the plane's female guard, Sally Bishop.


title: Con Air

text: The plane arrives at Carson City and the inmate exchange commences. The ground crew is unaware that hijackers are disguised as guards and the real guards are forcibly disguised as inmates, gagged to prevent them from revealing the scheme. Amongst the new passengers are Cindino, pilot Earl "Swamp Thing" Williams, and serial killer Garland Greene. The authorities discover the hijacking upon finding evidence in Grissom's old cell and a tape recorder planted by Poe on one of the disguised guards, but are unable to stop the plane from taking off. Meanwhile, Pinball disposes of the plane's transponder, but dies trying to re-board during takeoff.


title: Con Air

text: The inmates plan to land at Lerner Airfield, a remote desert airstrip, and transfer onto another plane owned by Cindino and his cartel. Poe finds Pinball's corpse trapped in the landing gear and writes a message to Larkin on the body before throwing it out. Larkin learns of the news and heads to Lerner after contacting the National Guard. Bedford, raiding the cargo, discovers Poe's identity when reading his parole letter and finding the toy bunny Poe intends to give to his daughter, forcing Poe to kill him.


title: Con Air

text: The "Jailbird" is grounded at Lerner, with no sign of the transfer aircraft. Poe warns the others of Cindino's past acts of deceit and betrayal, and thus Grissom orders the others to fuel up the plane and get it ready for takeoff. Poe leaves to find Baby-O a syringe to give him insulin, meeting Larkin and informing him of the situation. They discover Cindino planning to escape on a hidden private jet, which Larkin sabotages. Grissom executes Cindino by igniting the plane's fuel. Meanwhile, Greene encounters a little girl, but resists the urge to kill her.


title: Con Air

text: As the other inmates prepare the plane, Johnny 23 spots a National Guard convoy approaching and gives the alarm. The inmates find a cache of fully loaded shotguns and rifles in the cargo hold and prepare an ambush. As the National Guard arrives, the inmates launch an assault, resulting in a number of casualties, but Larkin defends the surviving troops using a bulldozer as a makeshift shield, while the surviving inmates flee back onto the "Jailbird" and take flight.


title: Con Air

text: Poe's identity is revealed when Bedford's body is found. Grissom is about to execute him and Baby-O, when Larkin and Malloy arrive in attack helicopters, damaging the "Jailbird"s fuel tank. Though Larkin orders the plane to land at McCarran International Airport, Swamp Thing is forced to land it on the Las Vegas Strip, causing mass destruction and killing Johnny 23. Grissom, Diamond Dog, and Swamp Thing escape on a fire truck, pursued by Poe and Larkin on police motorcycles; the chase leads to the deaths of all three escapees. Poe and Larkin form a friendship before the former meets his daughter for the first time and gives her the bunny. As the surviving inmates are apprehended, the only one unaccounted for is Garland Greene, who gambles in a casino.


title: Con Air

text: Additional actors include Ty Granderson Jones as Blade, Emilio Rivera as Carlos, Doug Hutchison as Guard Donald, Jeris Lee Poindexter as Watts, David Ramsey as Londell, Conrad Goode as white supremacist inmate Viking, John Diehl as Poe's defense attorney, and Don S. Davis as the motorist whose car Pinball's corpse falls on. Powers Boothe makes an uncredited voice-over cameo in the opening credits as the Army officer at Poe's leaving ceremony. John Cusack's brother Bill Cusack appears as a Las Vegas EMT.


title: Con Air

text: With second unit work beginning on June 24, 1996, principal photography began shortly after at Salt Lake City, on July 1, 1996 and continued until October 29, 1996, at a number of locations. While most of the interiors of the Fairchild C-123 Provider transport aircraft were filmed in Hollywood Center Studios soundstage #7, Wendover Airport in Utah, as the stand in for the fictional Lerner Airfield, was used for the C-123 flying and taxi scenes. Director Simon West chose the barren and remote Wendover area "because it looked like the surface of the moon ... My idea was that it was perfect for the convicts who had been locked up for 10, 20, 30 years in little cells." The old wartime bomber base was also used for the aircraft boneyard scenes while the original swimming pool at the base was used in a scene where Garland Greene was talking to a young girl.


title: Con Air

text: On August 29, 1996, Phillip Swartz, a welder employed by Special Effects Unlimited, a Los Angeles-based firm, was crushed to death at Wendover when a static model of the C-123 used in the film fell on him. The film credits end with "In Memory of Phil Swartz".


title: Con Air

text: After filming, the filmmakers donated the "Jailbird" movie model used for the taxi scenes to the Historic Wendover Airfield Foundation, where it was on display at the ramp as an attraction for visitors.


title: Con Air

text: Other filming locations included Ogden Airport where the exchange of prisoners is seen. The scene where the aircraft's left wing hits the Fender Stratocaster sign of Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (which later played host to the film's premiere), was filmed using a replicated guitar sign and a "Jailbird" miniature model. The crash site was filmed in the Sands Hotel before its demolition on November 26, 1996.


title: Con Air

text: Producer Jerry Bruckheimer found the right spot for the climactic finale, originally planned for a crash at the White House, but Las Vegas was more in keeping with the theme and visual pun of convicts "cashing in". "We got very lucky ... The Sands was going to be demolished anyway. They blew up the tower on their own. We arranged to blow up the front of the building." The 2nd Street Tunnel in Los Angeles was also used for the tunnel chase scene near the end of the film.


title: Con Air

text: The "Jailbird" movie model used during flight scenes in the film had a series of both military and private owners. In December 2003 it was sold to All West Freight Inc. in Delta Junction, Alaska. On August 1, 2010, the C-123 was destroyed when it crashed into Mount Healy within Denali National Park in Alaska. The three member flight crew was killed in the crash.


title: Con Air

text: The film used several highly detailed models at 1/15th scale, and a multitude of military and private aircraft assembled for the desert boneyard scene.


title: Con Air

text: The film featured the Diane Warren-penned LeAnn Rimes hit single "How Do I Live", performed by Trisha Yearwood for the film.


title: Con Air

text: The "Con Air" soundtrack album omits two songs featured in the film: "How Do I Live", written by Diane Warren and performed by Trisha Yearwood and "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Although a key element of the film, Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" noted, "The soundtrack kicks into loud, obtrusive gear ... (and) remains so loud throughout the picture that it practically functions as a distancing device."


title: Con Air

text: "Con Air" opened June 6, 1997 on 2,824 screens in the United States and Canada and grossed $24.1 million in its opening weekend, topping the US box office. It also opened in the UK, Hong Kong, Israel and parts of Latin America including Brazil and Mexico grossing $5 million for the weekend, for a total worldwide opening of $29 million. In the US and Canada, it grossed $15.7 million in its second weekend and $10.4 million in its third, finishing second and third, respectively.


title: Con Air

text: The film grossed $101.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $122.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $224 million.


title: Con Air

text: According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of 71 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, ""Con Air" won't win any awards for believability – and all involved seem cheerfully aware of it, making some of this blockbuster action outing's biggest flaws fairly easy to forgive." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Con Air

text: Roger Ebert, reviewing the film for the "Chicago Sun-Times", awarded it three out of four stars, saying it "moves smoothly and with visual style and verbal wit." Janet Maslin, reviewer for "The New York Times" considered "Con Air" an exemplar of the "thrill ride genre". In contrast, "Rolling Stone" reviewer Peter Travers decried the "flip, hip" and ultimately, "depressing ... pandering" present in the treatment. Andrew Johnston, reviewer for "Time Out New York", stated: "Leaving "The Rock" last summer, I thought it seemed physically impossible for a more over-the-top action movie to be made. That was pretty short-sighted of me, since it was only a matter of time until producer Jerry Bruckheimer topped himself as he does with the wildly entertaining "Con Air"."


title: Con Air

text: "Maxim" put the film's climactic Las Vegas plane crash at the top of their 2007 list of "The Top Ten Most Horrific Movie Plane Crashes", a decision that was derided by "Wired".


title: Feral child

text: A feral child (also called wild child) is a young individual who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, with little or no experience of human care, social behavior, or language. The term is used to refer to children who have suffered severe abuse or trauma before being abandoned or running away. They are sometimes the subjects of folklore and legends, typically portrayed as having been raised by animals. While there are many cases of children being found in proximity to wild animals, there is no credible evidence for animals feeding or caring for children. The behaviors described as being "like an animal" have been found to be the result of misdiagnosed conditions such as autism, deafness, or intellectual disability. Some persistent conditions are the result of the children missing the critical period for neurological development.


title: Feral child

text: Feral children lack the basic social skills that are normally learned in the process of enculturation. For example, they may be unable to learn to use a toilet, have trouble learning to walk upright after walking on fours all their lives, or display a complete lack of interest in the human activity around them. They often seem mentally impaired and have almost insurmountable trouble learning a human language. The impaired ability to learn a natural language after having been isolated for so many years is often attributed to the existence of a critical period for language learning, and taken as evidence in favor of the critical period hypothesis.


title: Feral child

text: There is little scientific knowledge about feral children. One of the best-documented cases has supposedly been that of sisters Amala and Kamala, described by Reverend J. A. L. Singh in 1926 as having been "raised by wolves" in a forest in India. French surgeon Serge Aroles, however, has persuasively argued that the case was a fraud, perpetrated by Singh in order to raise money for his orphanage. Child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim states that Amala and Kamala were born mentally and physically disabled. Yet other scientific studies of feral children exist, such as the case of Genie.


title: Feral child

text: Prior to the 1600s, feral and wild children stories were usually limited to myths and legends. In those tales, the depiction of feral children included hunting for food, running on all fours instead of two, and not knowing language. Philosophers and scientists were interested in the concept of such children, and began to question if these children were part of a different species from the human family.


title: Feral child

text: The question was taken seriously as science tried to name and categorize the development of humans, and the understanding of the natural world in the 18th and 19th century. Around the 20th century, psychologists were attempting to differentiate between biological behavior and culture. Feral children who lived in isolation or with animals provided examples of this dilemma.


title: Feral child

text: The historian Herodotus wrote that Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus I (Psamtik) sought to discover the origin of language, and prove Egypt was the oldest people on Earth by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly, he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When both of the children cried ""becos"" with outstretched arms, the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was the sound of the Phrygian word for bread. Thus, they concluded that the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians.


title: Feral child

text: Following the 2008 disclosure by Belgian newspaper "Le Soir" that the bestselling book "" and movie "Survivre avec les loups" (""Surviving with Wolves"") was a media hoax, the French media debated the credulity with which numerous cases of feral children have been unquestioningly accepted. Although there are numerous books on these children, almost none of them have been based on archives; the authors instead have used dubious second- or third-hand printed information. According to the French surgeon Serge Aroles, who wrote a general study of feral children based on archives ("L'Enigme des Enfants-loups" or "The Enigma of Wolf-children", 2007), many alleged cases are totally fictitious stories:


title: Feral child

text: Myths, legends, and fiction have depicted feral children reared by wild animals such as wolves, apes, monkeys, and bears. Famous examples include Romulus and Remus, Ibn Tufail's Hayy, Ibn al-Nafis' Kamil, Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli, Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan, George of the Jungle and the legends of Atalanta and Enkidu.


title: Feral child

text: Roman legend has it that Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Rhea Silvia and Mars, were suckled by a she-wolf. Rhea Silvia was a priestess, and when it was found that she had been pregnant and had children, King Amulius, who had usurped his brother's throne, ordered her to be buried alive and for the children to be killed. The servant who was given the order set them in a basket on the Tiber river instead, and the children were taken by Tiberinus, the river god, to the shore where a she-wolf found them and raised them until they were discovered as toddlers by a shepherd named Faustulus. He and his wife Acca Larentia, who had always wanted a child but never had one, raised the twins, who would later feature prominently in the events leading up to the founding of Rome (named after Romulus, who eventually killed Remus in a fight over whether the city should be founded on the Palatine Hill or the Aventine Hill).


title: Feral child

text: Legendary and fictional children are often depicted as growing up with relatively normal human intelligence and skills and an innate sense of culture or civilization, coupled with a healthy dose of survival instincts. Their integration into human society is made to seem relatively easy. One notable exception is Mowgli, for whom living with humans proved to be extremely difficult.


title: Feral child

text: The book "Knowledge of Angels" involves a feral girl found on a fictional island based upon Mallorca. She is the subject of an experiment to see if the knowledge of God is learned or innate. Placed in a convent, while she is there the nuns are instructed not to teach her about God or even mention him in front of her. This is to see whether an atheist who washed up there should be condemned or not.


title: Feral child

text: The Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin mentions a brother and sister who were abandoned on a remote island as children, and thus grew up as feral children; in "A Wizard of Earthsea", Ged washes up on their island and is unable to communicate much with them, as they only know a few words in their native language (which he did not speak at the time). They were both elderly and very frightened of him, but the sister gives him one of her few possessions when he leaves. Later in "The Tombs of Atuan", Ged tells Tenar about the sister and brother (named Anthil and Ensar respectively), and Tenar explains their names, lineage, and how the abandonment was known about in their (and her) home country. Tenar and Ged agree that abandonment was kinder than the murder the children would have otherwise been victims of, but Ged remarks that it was still very cruel and "They scarcely knew human speech."


title: Feral child

text: The 2006 novel "Magic Hour" by Kristin Hannah is about a six-year-old feral child living during her formative years inside a cave in the Olympic National Forest. The girl wanders one day into the fictional small town of Rain Valley, Washington, searching for food and carrying her pet wolf pup and unable to speak. The police chief calls in her psychiatrist sister to teach the girl how to speak and to find the girl's family.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Paul Francis Pelosi Sr. (born April 15, 1940) is an American businessman who owns and operates Financial Leasing Services, Inc., a San Francisco-based real estate and venture capital investment and consulting firm. He was the owner of the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League. He is married to Nancy Pelosi, the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Pelosi was born and raised in San Francisco, the youngest in a family of three boys. He is the son of Corinne (Bianchi) and John Pelosi, a wholesale pharmacist. He attended St. Ignatius High School and graduated from Malvern Preparatory School in Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor of science (BS) in foreign service at Georgetown University, during which he met his future wife, Nancy D'Alesandro, who was attending a Roman Catholic women's college, Trinity College, in Washington, D.C. He earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He has been the chair of the Foreign Service Board at Georgetown since 2009.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Pelosi founded and runs the venture capital firm Financial Leasing Services, Inc., through which he and his wife have a personal fortune of about $114 million.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Having previously invested in the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League, he purchased the California Redwoods, a franchise in the United Football League, for $12 million in 2009. The Redwoods later moved to Sacramento to become the Sacramento Mountain Lions.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Pelosi's success in stock trading attracted media attention in the summer of 2021, leading to efforts to strictly control individual stock ownership by members of Congress.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: In 1957, at the age of 16, Pelosi lost control of a car that he was driving and crashed. His older brother David, who was a passenger in the car, died in the crash. Pelosi was subsequently acquitted of misdemeanor manslaughter.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Pelosi married Nancy Pelosi (), on September 7, 1963, at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore, Maryland. They have five children including Christine and Alexandra. Nancy served as the 52nd Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. She became the Speaker again in 2019.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: In May 2022, Pelosi was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Napa County after he crashed into another car at an intersection. Pelosi pleaded guilty in August 2022 and was sentenced to serving five days in jail, paying $6,800 in fines and restitution, completing a DUI program, as well as three years of probation.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: In the early hours of October 28, 2022, an assailant broke into Paul Pelosi's San Francisco home shouting "Where's Nancy?", and subsequently attacked him with a hammer. The suspect was taken into police custody, while Paul was hospitalized with blunt force injuries. Paul underwent skull surgery after the attack. An initial statement from Nancy's spokesperson said doctors expected him to make a full recovery. On October 31, Nancy reported he was "making steady progress on what will be a long recovery process." On November 3, Paul was discharged from hospital. The suspect, 42-year-old David DePape, told police he was on "a suicide mission" and wanted to take Nancy hostage, question her, and break her kneecaps if she lied. DePape was charged with multiple crimes including assault, attempted homicide, and attempted kidnapping. He pleaded not guilty to all state charges.


title: Paul Pelosi

text: Pelosi first returned to public view over a month later, when he appeared with his wife at the Kennedy Center Honors. He wore a hat and one glove to conceal his injuries.


title: German reunification

text: German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the German Reunification Treaty entered into force dissolving the German Democratic Republic (GDR; , DDR, or East Germany) and integrating its recently re-established constituent federated states into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; , BRD, or West Germany) to form present-day Germany, has been chosen as the customary "German Unity Day" () and has thereafter been celebrated each year from 1991 as a national holiday. East and West Berlin were united into a single city and eventually became the capital of reunited Germany.


title: German reunification

text: The East Germany's government led by Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) (a communist party) started to falter on 2 May 1989, when the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain. The border was still closely guarded, but the Pan-European Picnic and the indecisive reaction of the rulers of the Eastern Bloc set in motion an irreversible movement. It allowed an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany via Hungary. The Peaceful Revolution, a part of the Revolutions of 1989 and a series of protests by East Germans, led to the GDR's first free elections on 18 March 1990 and to the negotiations between the two countries that culminated in a Unification Treaty. Other negotiations between the two German countries and the four occupying powers in Germany produced the so-called "Two Plus Four Treaty" (Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany), granting on 15 March 1991 full sovereignty to a reunified German state, whose two parts were previously bound by a number of limitations stemming from their post-World War II status as occupied areas, though only on 31 August 1994 did the last Russian occupation troops leave Germany.


title: German reunification

text: After the end of World War II in Europe and the Berlin Declaration, the Potsdam Agreement was signed, specifying that a full peace treaty concluding World War II, including the exact delimitation of Germany's postwar boundary, was required to be "accepted by the Government of Germany when a government adequate for the purpose is established." The geopolitical tension between the occupying Allies ended their intention to establish a new government for all of Germany, with the founding of two German countries. The American, British, and French zones (Trizone) combined to form the FRG i.e. West Germany on 23 May 1949. The GDR i.e. East Germany was established in the Soviet zone on 7 October 1949, which means that Germany had been divided into the two independent territories since then. With the existence of two German states, West Germany maintained that no such government could be said to have been established until the two states had been united within a free and democratic state. The West German government of chancellor Konrad Adenauer had rejected the 1952 Stalin Note sent to the Western Allies to unify two Germanies under terms of neutrality. The government instead pursued a policy of West German rearmament while ending the process of denazification and declaring an amnesty, because West Germans did not trust the Soviets about a "neutral Germany" after reunification. This led to the 1952 establishment of the Western European Union, and West Germany joined NATO in 1955. In 1990, a range of opinions continued to be maintained over whether a unified country could be said to represent "Germany as a whole" for this purpose. On 12 September 1990, under the Two Plus Four Treaty with the four Allies, both East and West Germany committed to the principle that their joint pre-1990 boundary constituted the entire territory that could be claimed by a government of Germany, and hence that there were no further lands outside this boundary that were parts of "Germany as a whole". East Germany re-established its federated states and subsequently dissolved itself on 3 October 1990 while the new states joined the FRG and East Berlin unified with West Berlin (de facto part of the FRG) on the same day to form modern Germany.


title: German reunification

text: The reunited state is not a successor state, but an enlarged continuation of the West German state. The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany retained the West German seats in the governing bodies of the European Economic Community (EC) (later the European Union/EU) and in international organizations including North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations (UN), while reliquinshing membership in the Warsaw Pact (WP) and other international organizations to which only East Germany belonged. The reunification also marked Germany's return to great power status in the world.


title: German reunification

text: For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term "reunification" during the runup to what Germans frequently refer to as "die Wende" (roughly: "the turning point"). The 1990 treaty defines the official term as ("German unity"); this is commonly used in Germany.


title: German reunification

text: After 1990, the term became more common. The term generally refers to the events (mostly in Eastern Europe) that led up to the actual reunification, and loosely translates to "the turning point". Anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term as it had been introduced by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany's Secretary General Egon Krenz.


title: German reunification

text: Germany surrendered to the Allies on 8 May 1945, leading to the end of World War II in Europe and the de facto fall of Nazi Germany as well as its claim about annexing territories. The fall of Nazi Germany and occupation of the four Allies in Germany was confirmed by the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945. Germany was divided by the Allies into occupation zones under the four military governments of United States, United Kingdom, France, and Soviet Union as result of the Potsdam Agreement of Potsdam Conference on 1 August 1945; Germany's border framework as it is today was also completely fixed by the Potsdam Agreement. Saarland was separated from Germany from 1946 to 1956 but France did not completely annex it and it was also not an independent state as well as it was not recognized by other three Allies and later both Germanies. In and after World War II in Europe; Germans living in traditional lands in Eastern Europe including the former German territories east of Oder-Neisse line, fled and were expelled to Germany.


title: German reunification

text: With the tension between the Allies; Soviet Union chose not to join the Trizone created from 3 occupation zones of United States, United Kingdom, and France on 1 August 1948. Federal Republic of Germany or "West Germany", a liberal democracy, was established in the Trizone on 23 May 1949; German Democratic Republic or "East Germany", a communist state, was established in the Soviet zone on 7 October 1949. In the context of international conflict the reunification of Germany between the East and West was impossible, the West German government did not recognize the new German-Polish border nor East Germany at the beginning while East Germany encouraged two-state status after unification request of itself.


title: German reunification

text: In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence. However, the dismantling of the old Hungarian border facilities did not open the borders nor were the previous strict controls removed, and the isolation by the Iron Curtain was still intact over its entire length. The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction, at the end of which there was no longer a GDR and the Eastern Bloc had disintegrated. Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, which was then headed by Karl von Habsburg, distributed thousands of brochures inviting them to a picnic near the border at Sopron. It was the largest escape movement from East Germany since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. After the picnic, which was based on an idea by Karl's father Otto von Habsburg to test the reaction of the USSR and Mikhail Gorbachev to an opening of the border, tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans set off for Hungary. The media reaction of Erich Honecker in the "Daily Mirror" of 19 August 1989 showed the public in East and West that there had been a loss of power by the Eastern European communist rulers in their own sphere of power, and that they were no longer the designers of what was happening: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West." In particular, it was examined by Habsburg and the Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay, whether Moscow would give the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary the command to intervene. But, with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the nonintervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus, the bracket of the Eastern Bloc was broken.


title: German reunification

text: Tens of thousands of the media-informed East Germans now made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms. By the end of September 1989, more than 30,000 East Germans had escaped to the West before the GDR denied travel to Hungary, leaving Czechoslovakia as the only neighboring state to which East Germans could escape.


title: German reunification

text: Even then, many people within and without Germany still believed that real reunification would never happen in the foreseeable future. The turning point in Germany, called "Die Wende", was marked by the "Peaceful Revolution" leading to the removal of the Berlin Wall, with East and West Germany subsequently entering into negotiations toward eliminating the division that had been imposed upon Germans more than four decades earlier.


title: German reunification

text: On 28 November 1989—two weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall—West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a 10-point program calling for the two Germanies to expand their cooperation with a view toward eventual reunification.


title: German reunification

text: Initially, no timetable was proposed. However, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germany's first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohl's Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification. Second, East Germany's economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. Although East Germany was long reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the removal of Communist hegemony revealed the ramshackle foundations of that system. The East German mark had been almost worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–1990, and the collapse of the East German economy further magnified the problem.


title: German reunification

text: Discussions immediately began on an emergency merger of the German economies. On 18 May 1990, the two German states signed a treaty agreeing on monetary, economic, and social union. This treaty is called ("Treaty Establishing a Monetary, Economic and Social Union between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany"); it came into force on 1 July 1990, with the West German Deutsche Mark replacing the East German mark as the official currency of East Germany. The Deutsche Mark had a very high reputation among the East Germans and was considered stable. While the GDR transferred its financial policy sovereignty to West Germany, the West started granting subsidies for the GDR budget and social security system. At the same time, many West German laws came into force in the GDR. This created a suitable framework for a political union by diminishing the huge gap between the two existing political, social, and economic systems.


title: German reunification

text: The Volkskammer, the Parliament of East Germany, passed a resolution on 23 August 1990 declaring the accession () of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, and the extension of the field of application of the Federal Republic's Basic Law to the territory of East Germany as allowed by article 23 of the West German Basic Law, effective 3 October 1990. This Declaration of Accession () was formally presented by the President of the Volkskammer, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, to the President of the West German Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth, by means of a letter dated 25 August 1990. Thus, formally, the procedure of reunification by means of the accession of East Germany to West Germany, and of East Germany's acceptance of the Basic Law already in force in West Germany, was initiated as the unilateral, sovereign decision of East Germany, as allowed by the provisions of article 23 of the West German Basic Law as it then existed.


title: German reunification

text: In the wake of that resolution of accession, the "German reunification treaty", commonly known in German as "" (Unification Treaty) or "" (Reunification Treaty), that had been negotiated between the two German states since 2 July 1990, was signed by representatives of the two governments on 31 August 1990. This Treaty, officially titled (Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on the Establishment of German Unity), was approved by large majorities in the legislative chambers of both countries on 20 September 1990 (442–47 in the West German Bundestag and 299–80 in the East German Volkskammer). The Treaty passed the West German Bundesrat on the following day, 21 September 1990. The amendments to the Federal Republic's Basic Law that were foreseen in the Unification Treaty or necessary for its implementation were adopted by the Federal Statute of 23 September 1990, that enacted the incorporation of the Treaty as part of the Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The said Federal Statute, containing the whole text of the Treaty and its Protocols as an annex, was published in the (the official journal for the publication of the laws of the Federal Republic) on 28 September 1990. In the German Democratic Republic, the constitutional law () giving effect to the Treaty was also published on 28 September 1990. With the adoption of the Treaty as part of its Constitution, East Germany legislated its own abolition as a State.


title: German reunification

text: Under article 45 of the Treaty, it entered into force according to international law on 29 September 1990, upon the exchange of notices regarding the completion of the respective internal constitutional requirements for the adoption of the treaty in both East Germany and West Germany. With that last step, and in accordance with article 1 of the Treaty, and in conformity with East Germany's Declaration of Accession presented to the Federal Republic, Germany was officially reunited at 00:00 CEST on 3 October 1990. East Germany joined the Federal Republic as the five (states) of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. These states were the five original states of East Germany but were abolished in 1952 in favor of a centralized system. As part of 18 May treaty, the five East German states were reconstituted on 23 August. At the same time, East and West Berlin reunited into one city, which became a city-state along the lines of the existing city-states of Bremen and Hamburg. Berlin was still formally under Allied occupation (that would only be terminated later, as a result of the provisions of the Two Plus Four Treaty), but the city's administrative merger and inclusion in the Federal Republic of Germany, effective on 3 October 1990, had been greenlit by the Allies, and were formally approved in the final meeting of the Allied Control Council on 2 October 1990. In an emotional ceremony, at the stroke of midnight on 3 October 1990, the black-red-gold flag of West Germany—now the flag of a reunited Germany—was raised above the Brandenburg Gate, marking the moment of German reunification.


title: German reunification

text: The process chosen was one of two options implemented in the West German constitution ( or Basic Law) of 1949 to facilitate eventual reunification. The Basic Law stated that it was only intended for temporary use until a permanent constitution could be adopted by the German people as a whole. Via that document's (then-existing) Article 23, any new prospective could adhere to the Basic Law by a simple majority vote. The initial 11 joining states of 1949 constituted the Trizone. West Berlin had been proposed as the 12th state but was legally inhibited by Allied objections since Berlin as a whole was legally a quadripartite occupied area. Despite this, West Berlin's political affiliation was with West Germany, and, in many fields, it functioned de facto as if it were a component state of West Germany. In 1957, the Saar Protectorate, which was separated from Allied-occupied Germany by France, rejoined (West) Germany under the Article 23 procedure as Saarland, although the Saar Protectorate was not fully incorporated into France but only one disputed area.


title: German reunification

text: The other option was Article 146, which provided a mechanism for a permanent constitution for a reunified Germany. This route would have entailed a formal union between two German states that then would have had to, among other things, create a new constitution for the newly established country. However, by the spring of 1990, it was apparent that drafting a new constitution would require protracted negotiations that would open up numerous issues in West Germany. Even without this to consider, by the start of 1990, East Germany was in a state of economic and political collapse. In contrast, reunification under Article 23 could be implemented in as little as six months.


title: German reunification

text: Ultimately, when the treaty on monetary, economic, and social union was signed, it was decided to use the quicker process of Article 23. By this process, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and to join West Germany, and the area in which the Basic Law was in force simply extended to include them. Thus, while legally East Germany as a whole acceded to the Federal Republic, the constituent parts of East Germany entered into the Federal Republic as five new states, which held their first elections on 14 October 1990.


title: German reunification

text: Nevertheless, although the Volkskammer's declaration of accession to the Federal Republic had initiated the process of reunification, the act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms, conditions, and qualifications, some of which required amendments to the Basic Law itself) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990; that is, through a binding agreement between the former GDR and the Federal Republic now recognizing each another as separate sovereign states in international law. This treaty was then voted into effect by both the Volkskammer and the Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities, effecting on the one hand, the extinction of the GDR, and on the other, the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic. Hence, although the GDR declared its accession to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, this did not imply its acceptance of the Basic Law as it then stood, but rather, of the Basic Law as subsequently amended in line with the Unification Treaty.


title: German reunification

text: Legally, the reunification did not create a third state out of the two. Rather, West Germany effectively absorbed East Germany. Accordingly, on Unification Day, 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist, and five new federated states on its former territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany. East and West Berlin were reunited and joined the Federal Republic as a full-fledged federated city-state. Under this model, the Federal Republic of Germany, now enlarged to include the five states of the former GDR plus the reunified Berlin, continued legally to exist under the same legal personality that was founded in May 1949.


title: German reunification

text: While the Basic Law was modified, rather than replaced by a constitution as such, it still permits the adoption of a formal constitution by the German people at some time in the future.


title: German reunification

text: In the context of urban planning, in addition to a wealth of new opportunity and the symbolism of two former independent states being rejoined, the reunification of Berlin presented numerous challenges. The city underwent massive redevelopment, involving the political, economic, and cultural environment of both East and West Berlin. However, the "scar" left by the Wall, which ran directly through the very heart of the city, had consequences for the urban environment that planning still needs to address.


title: German reunification

text: The unification of Berlin presented legal, political, and technical challenges for the urban environment. The political division and physical separation of the city for more than 30 years saw the East and the West develop their own distinct urban forms, with many of these differences still visible to this day.


title: German reunification

text: East and West Berlin were directed by two separate political and urban agendas. East Berlin developed a monocentric structure around government buildings and open spaces, while West Berlin was polycentric in nature, with central neighbourhoods that were higher-density but less residential. The two political systems allocated funds to postwar reconstruction differently, based on political priorities, and this had consequences for the reunification of the city. West Berlin had received considerably more financial assistance for reconstruction and refurbishment. There was considerable disparity in the general condition of many of the buildings: at the time of reunification, East Berlin still contained many leveled areas, which were previous sites of destroyed buildings from World War II, as well as damaged buildings that had not been repaired.


title: German reunification

text: An immediate challenge facing the reunified city was the need for physical connectivity between the East and the West, specifically the organization of infrastructure. In the period following World War II, approximately half of the railway lines were removed in East Berlin. Urban rail required substantial work over more than a decade to fully reconnect the two halves of the city, and the tram network had been removed from the West, leaving it entirely in the East.


title: German reunification

text: As urban planning in Germany is the responsibility of the city government, the integration of East and West Berlin was in part complicated by the fact that the existing planning frameworks became obsolete with the fall of the Wall. Prior to the reunification of the city, the Land Use Plan of 1988 and General Development Plan of 1980 defined the spatial planning criteria for West and East Berlin, respectively. These were replaced by the new, unified Land Use Plan in 1994. Termed "Critical Reconstruction", the new policy aimed to revive Berlin's prewar aesthetic; it was complemented by a strategic planning document for downtown Berlin, entitled "Inner City Planning Framework".


title: German reunification

text: Following the dissolution of the GDR on 3 October 1990, all planning projects under the socialist regime were abandoned. Vacant lots, open areas, and empty fields in East Berlin were subject to redevelopment, in addition to space previously occupied by the Wall and associated buffer zone. Many of these sites were positioned in central, strategic locations of the reunified city.


title: German reunification

text: To commemorate the day that marks the official unification of the former East and West Germany in 1990, 3 October has since then been the official German national holiday, the Day of German Unity (). It replaced the previous national holiday held in West Germany on 17 June commemorating the East German uprising of 1953 and the national holiday on 7 October in the GDR, that commemorated the foundation of the East German state.


title: German reunification

text: For decades, West Germany's allies stated their support for reunification. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who speculated that a country that "decided to kill millions of Jewish people" in the Holocaust "will try to do it again", was one of the few world leaders to publicly oppose it. As reunification became a realistic possibility, however, significant NATO and European opposition emerged in private.


title: German reunification

text: A poll of four countries in January 1990 found that a majority of surveyed Americans and French supported reunification, while British and Poles were more divided: 69 percent of Poles and 50 percent of French and British stated that they worried about a reunified Germany becoming "the dominant power in Europe". Those surveyed stated several concerns, including Germany again attempting to expand its territory, a revival of Nazism, and the German economy becoming too powerful. While British, French, and Americans favored Germany remaining a member of NATO, a majority of Poles supported neutrality for the reunified state.


title: German reunification

text: The key ally was the United States. Although some top American officials opposed quick unification, Secretary of State James A. Baker and President George H. W. Bush provided strong and decisive support to Kohl's proposals.


title: German reunification

text: Margaret Thatcher was one of the most vehement opponents of German reunification. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev that neither the United Kingdom nor, according to her, Western Europe, wanted the reunification of Germany. Thatcher also clarified she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it, telling Gorbachev "We do not want a united Germany". Although she welcomed East German democracy, Thatcher worried that a rapid reunification might weaken Gorbachev and favored Soviet troops staying in East Germany as long as possible to act as a counterweight to a united Germany.


title: German reunification

text: Thatcher, who carried in her handbag a map of Germany's 1937 borders to show others the "German problem", feared that its "national character", size, and central location in Europe would cause the country to be a "destabilizing rather than a stabilizing force in Europe". In December 1989, she warned fellow European Community leaders at a Council summit in Strasbourg that Kohl attended, "We defeated the Germans twice! And now they're back!". Although Thatcher had stated her support for German self-determination in 1985, she now argued that Germany's allies only supported reunification because they did not believe it would ever happen. Thatcher favored a transition period of five years for reunification, during which the two Germanies would remain separate states. Although she gradually softened her opposition, as late as March 1990, Thatcher summoned historians and diplomats to a seminar at Chequers to ask "How dangerous are the Germans?", and the French ambassador in London reported that Thatcher told him, "France and Great Britain should pull together today in the face of the German threat."


title: German reunification

text: The pace of events surprised the French, whose Foreign Ministry had concluded in October 1989 that reunification "does not appear realistic at this moment". A representative of French President François Mitterrand reportedly told an aide to Gorbachev, "France by no means wants German reunification, although it realises that in the end, it is inevitable." At the Strasbourg summit, Mitterrand and Thatcher discussed the fluidity of Germany's historical borders. On 20 January 1990, Mitterrand told Thatcher that a unified Germany could "make more ground than even Adolf had". He predicted that "bad" Germans would reemerge, who might seek to regain former German territory lost after World War II and would likely dominate Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, leaving "only Romania and Bulgaria for the rest of us". The two leaders saw no way to prevent reunification, however, as "None of us was going to declare war on Germany". Mitterrand recognized before Thatcher that reunification was inevitable and adjusted his views accordingly; unlike her, he was hopeful that participation in a single currency and other European institutions could control a united Germany. Mitterrand still wanted Thatcher to publicly oppose unification, however, to obtain more concessions from Germany.


title: German reunification

text: Ireland's Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, supported German reunification and he took advantage of Ireland's presidency of the European Economic Community to call for an extraordinary European summit in Dublin in April 1990 to calm the fears held of fellow members of the EEC. Haughey saw similarities between Ireland and Germany, and said "I have expressed a personal view that coming as we do from a country which is also divided many of us would have sympathy with any wish of the people of the two German States for unification". "Der Spiegel" later described other European leaders' opinion of reunification at the time as "icy". Italy's Giulio Andreotti warned against a revival of "pan-Germanism" and the Netherlands's Ruud Lubbers questioned the German right to self-determination. They shared Britain's and France's concerns over a return to German militarism and the economic power of a reunified country. The consensus opinion was that reunification, if it must occur, should not occur until at least 1995 and preferably much later.


title: German reunification

text: The victors of World War II—France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, comprising the Four-Power Authorities—retained authority over Berlin, such as control over air travel and its political status. From the onset, the Soviet Union sought to use reunification as a way to push Germany out of NATO into neutrality, removing nuclear weapons from its territory. However, West Germany misinterpreted a 21 November 1989 diplomatic message on the topic to mean that the Soviet leadership already anticipated reunification only two weeks after the Wall's collapse. This belief, and the worry that his rival Genscher might act first, encouraged Kohl on 28 November to announce a detailed "Ten Point Program for Overcoming the Division of Germany and Europe". While his speech was very popular within West Germany, it caused concern among other European governments, with whom he had not discussed the plan.


title: German reunification

text: The Americans did not share the Europeans' and Soviets' historical fears over German expansionism; Condoleezza Rice later recalled,


title: German reunification

text: The United States wished to ensure, however, that Germany would stay within NATO. In December 1989, the administration of President George H. W. Bush made a united Germany's continued NATO membership a requirement for supporting reunification. Kohl agreed, although less than 20 percent of West Germans supported remaining within NATO. Kohl also wished to avoid a neutral Germany, as he believed that would destroy NATO, cause the United States and Canada to leave Europe, and cause Britain and France to form an anti-German alliance. The United States increased its support of Kohl's policies, as it feared that otherwise Oskar Lafontaine, a critic of NATO, might become Chancellor.


title: German reunification

text: Horst Teltschik, Kohl's foreign policy advisor, later recalled that Germany would have paid "100 billion deutschmarks" if the Soviets demanded it. The USSR did not make such great demands, however, with Gorbachev stating in February 1990 that "[t]he Germans must decide for themselves what path they choose to follow". In May 1990, he repeated his remark in the context of NATO membership while meeting Bush, amazing both the Americans and Germans. This removed the last significant roadblock to Germany being free to choose its international alignments, though Kohl made no secret that he intended for the reunified Germany to inherit West Germany's seats in NATO and the EC.


title: German reunification

text: During a NATO–Warsaw Pact conference in Ottawa, Canada; Genscher persuaded the four powers to treat the two Germanies as equals instead of defeated junior partners and for the six nations to negotiate alone. Although the Dutch, Italians, Spanish, and other NATO powers opposed such a structure, which meant that the alliance's boundaries would change without their participation, the six nations began negotiations in March 1990. After Gorbachev's May agreement on German NATO membership, the Soviets further agreed that Germany would be treated as an ordinary NATO country, with the exception that former East German territory would not have foreign NATO troops or nuclear weapons. In exchange, Kohl agreed to reduce the sizes of the militaries of both West and East Germany, renounce weapons of mass destruction, and accept the postwar Oder–Neisse line as Germany's eastern border. In addition, Germany agreed to pay about 55 billion deutschmarks to the Soviet Union in gifts and loans, the equivalent of eight days of the West German GDP. To oppose German reunification, the British insisted to the end, against Soviet opposition, that NATO be allowed to hold maneuvers in the former East Germany. Thatcher later wrote that her opposition to reunification had been an "unambiguous failure".


title: German reunification

text: On 15 March 1991, the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany—that had been signed in Moscow back on 12 September 1990 by the two German states that then existed (East and West Germany) on one side and by the four principal Allied powers (the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States) on the other—entered into force, having been ratified by the Federal Republic of Germany (after the unification, as the united Germany) and by the four Allied states. The entry into force of that treaty (also known as the "Two Plus Four Treaty", in reference to the two German states and four Allied governments that signed it) put an end to the then-remaining limitations on German sovereignty that resulted from the post-World War II arrangements. After the Americans intervened, both the United Kingdom and France ratified the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in September 1990. The Treaty entered into force on 15 March 1991, In accordance with Article 9 of the Two Plus Four Treaty, it entered into force as soon as all ratifications were deposited with the Government of Germany. thus finalizing the reunification for purposes of international law. The last party to ratify the treaty was the Soviet Union, that deposited its instrument of ratification on 15 March 1991. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR only gave its approval to the ratification of the treaty on 4 March 1991, after a hefty debate. Even prior to the ratification of the Treaty, the operation of all quadripartite Allied institutions in Germany was suspended, with effect from the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 and pending the final ratification of the Two Plus Four Treaty, pursuant to a declaration signed in New York on 1 October 1990 by the foreign ministers of the four Allied Powers, that was witnessed by ministers of the two German states then in existence, and that was appended text of the Two Plus Four Treaty. However, the Soviets cited their occupation rights for the last time as late as on 13 March 1991, just two days before the Treaty became effective, when the Honeckers were enabled by Soviet hardliners to flee Germany on a military jet to Moscow from the Soviet-controlled Sperenberg Airfield, with the German Federal Government being notified of this in advance of just one hour.


title: German reunification

text: Under the treaty on final settlement (which should not be confused with the Unification Treaty that was signed only between the two German states), the last Allied forces still present in Germany left in 1994, in accordance with article 4 of the treaty, that set 31 December 1994 as the deadline for the withdrawal of the remaining Allied forces. The bulk of Russian ground forces left Germany on 25 June 1994 with a military parade of the 6th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade in Berlin. This was followed by the closure of the United States Army Berlin command on 12 July 1994, an event that was marked by a casing of the colors ceremony witnessed by President Bill Clinton. The withdrawal of the last Russian troops (the Russian Army's "Western Group of Forces") was completed on 31 August 1994, and the event was marked by a military ceremony in the Treptow Park in Berlin, with the presence of Russian President Yeltsin and German Chancellor Kohl. Although the bulk of the British, American, and French Forces had left Germany even before the departure of the Russians, the Western Allies kept a presence in Berlin until the completion of the Russian withdrawal, and the ceremony marking the departure of the remaining Forces of the Western Allies was the last to take place: on 8 September 1994, a Farewell Ceremony in the courtyard of the Charlottenburg Palace, with the presence of British Prime Minister John Major, American Secretary of State Warren Christopher, French President François Mitterrand, and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, marked the withdrawal of the British, American and French Occupation Forces from Berlin, and the termination of the Allied occupation in Germany. Thus, the removal of the Allied presence took place a few months before the final deadline.


title: German reunification

text: Article 5 banned the deployment of nuclear weapons in the territory previously controlled by the DDR and well as a ban on stationing non-German military personnel.


title: German reunification

text: On 14 November 1990, Germany and Poland signed the German–Polish Border Treaty, finalizing Germany's boundaries as permanent along the Oder–Neisse line, and thus, renouncing any claims to Silesia, East Brandenburg, Farther Pomerania, and the southern area of the former province of East Prussia. The subsequent German–Polish Treaty of Good Neighbourship that supplemented the Border Treaty also granted certain rights for political minorities on either side of the border. The following month, the first all-German free elections since 1932 were held, resulting in an increased majority for the coalition government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.


title: German reunification

text: As for the German–Polish Border Treaty, it was approved by the Polish Sejm on 26 November 1991 and the German Bundestag on 16 December 1991, and entered into force with the exchange of the instruments of ratification on 16 January 1992. The confirmation of the border between Germany and Poland was required of Germany by the four Allied countries in the Two Plus Four Treaty.


title: German reunification

text: The practical result of that model is that the now-expanded Federal Republic of Germany inherited the old West Germany's seats at the UN, NATO, the European Communities, and other international organizations. It also continued to be a party to all the treaties the old West Germany signed prior to the moment of reunification. The Basic Law and statutory laws that were in force in the Federal Republic, as amended in accordance with the Unification Treaty, continued automatically in force but now applied to the expanded territory. Also, the same President, Chancellor (Prime Minister), and Government of the Federal Republic remained in office, but their jurisdiction now included the newly acquired territory of the former East Germany.


title: German reunification

text: To facilitate this process and to reassure other countries, fundamental changes were made to the German constitution. The Preamble and Article 146 were amended, and Article 23 was replaced, but the deleted former Article 23 was applied as the constitutional model to be used for the 1990 reunification. Hence, prior to the five "New Länder" of East Germany joining, the Basic Law was amended to indicate that all parts of Germany would then be unified such that Germany could now no longer consider itself constitutionally open to further extension to include the former eastern territories of Germany, that were now Polish, Russian, or Lithuanian. The changes effectively formalized the Oder–Neisse line as Germany's permanent eastern border. These amendments to the Basic Law were mandated by Article I, section 4 of the Two Plus Four Treaty.


title: German reunification

text: Vast differences between former East Germany and West Germany in lifestyle, wealth, political beliefs, and other matters remain, and it is therefore still common to speak of eastern and western Germany distinctly. It is often referred to as the "wall in the head" (). (Easterners) are stereotyped as racist, poor, and largely influenced by Russian culture, while (Westerners) are usually considered snobbish, dishonest, wealthy, and selfish. East Germans indicate a dissatisfaction with the status quo and cultural alienation from the rest of Germany, and a sense that their cultural heritage is not acknowledged enough in the now unified Germany. The West, on the other hand, has become uninterested in what the East has to say, and this has led to more resentment toward the East, exacerbating the divide. Both the West and the East have failed to sustain an openminded dialogue, and the failure to grasp the effects of the institutional path dependency has increased the frustration each side feels.


title: German reunification

text: The economy of eastern Germany has struggled since unification, and large subsidies are still transferred from west to east. Economically, eastern Germany has had a sharp rise of 10 percent to West Germany’s 5 percent. Western Germany also still holds 56 percent of the GDP. Part of this disparity between the East and the West lies in the Western labor Unions' demand for high-wage pacts in an attempt to prevent "low-wage zones". This caused many Germans from the East to be outpriced in the market, adding to the slump in businesses in eastern Germany as well as the rising unemployment. The former East German area has often been compared to the underdeveloped Southern Italy and the Southern United States during Reconstruction after the American Civil War. While the economy of eastern Germany has recovered recently, the differences between East and West remain present.


title: German reunification

text: Politicians and scholars have frequently called for a process of "inner reunification" of the two countries and asked whether there is "inner unification or continued separation". "The process of German unity has not ended yet", proclaimed Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, in 2009. Nevertheless, the question of this "inner reunification" has been widely discussed in the German public, politically, economically, culturally, and also constitutionally since 1989.


title: German reunification

text: Politically, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the successor party of the former East German socialist state party has become a major force in German politics. It was renamed PDS, and, later, merged with the Western leftist party WASG to form the party The Left ().


title: German reunification

text: Constitutionally, the Basic Law of West Germany () provided two pathways for unification. The first was the implementation of a new all-German constitution, safeguarded by a popular referendum. Actually, this was the original idea of the in 1949: it was named a "basic law" instead of a "constitution" because it was considered provisional. The second way was more technical: the implementation of the constitution in the East, using a paragraph originally designed for the West German states () in case of internal reorganization like the merger of two states. While this latter option was chosen as the most feasible one, the first option was partly regarded as a means to foster the "inner reunification".


title: German reunification

text: A public manifestation of coming to terms with the past () is the existence of the so-called Birthler-Behörde, the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, which collects and maintains the files of the East German security apparatus.


title: German reunification

text: The economic reconstruction of former East Germany following the reunification required large amounts of public funding which turned some areas into boom regions, although overall unemployment remains higher than in the former West. Unemployment was part of a process of deindustrialization starting rapidly after 1990. Causes for this process are disputed in political conflicts up to the present day. Most times bureaucracy and lack of efficiency of the East German economy are highlighted and the deindustrialization is seen as an inevitable outcome of the . But many critics from East Germany point out that it was the shock-therapy style of privatization that did not leave room for East German enterprises to adapt, and that alternatives like a slow transition had been possible.


title: German reunification

text: Reunification did, however, lead to a large rise in the average standard of living in former East Germany, and a stagnation in the West as $2 trillion in public spending was transferred East. Between 1990 and 1995, gross wages in the east rose from 35 percent to 74 percent of western levels, while pensions rose from 40 percent to 79 percent. Unemployment reached double the western level as well. West German cities close to the former border of East and West Germany experienced a disproportionate loss of market access relative to other West German cities which were not as greatly affected by the reunification of Germany.


title: German reunification

text: In terms of media usage and reception, the country remains partially divided especially among the older generations. Mentality gaps between East and West persist, but so does sympathy. Additionally, the integration between Easterners and Westerners is not happening on as large a scale as was expected. Young people have on average very little knowledge of former East Germany. Some people in Eastern Germany engage in , which is a certain nostalgia for the time before the Wall came down.


title: German reunification

text: Today, there are several prominent people of East German origin, including Michael Ballack, Katarina Witt, Till Lindemann and Paul van Dyk.


title: German reunification

text: While the fall of the Berlin Wall had broad economic, political, and social impacts globally, it also had significant consequence for the local urban environment. In fact, the events of 9 November 1989 saw East Berlin and West Berlin, two halves of a single city that had ignored one another for the better part of 40 years, finally "in confrontation with one another". There was a belief in the city that, after 40 years of division, the unified city would be well placed to become a major metropolis.


title: German reunification

text: Berlin's urban organization experienced significant upheaval following the physical and metaphorical collapse of the Wall, as the city sought to "re-invent itself as a 'Western' metropolis".


title: German reunification

text: Redevelopment of vacant lots, open areas, and empty fields, as well as space previously occupied by the Wall and associated buffer zone, were based on land use priorities as reflected in "Critical Reconstruction" policies. Green space and recreational areas were allocated 38 percent of freed land; six percent of freed land was dedicated to mass-transit systems to address transport inadequacies.


title: German reunification

text: Unification of the city initiatives also included the construction of major office and commercial projects, as well as the renovation of housing estates in East Berlin.


title: German reunification

text: Another key priority was reestablishing Berlin as the seat of government of Germany, and this required buildings to serve government needs, including the "redevelopment of sites for scores of foreign embassies".


title: German reunification

text: With respect to redefining the city's identity, emphasis was placed on restoring Berlin's traditional landscape. "Critical Reconstruction" policies sought to disassociate the city's identity from its Nazi and socialist legacy, though some remnants were preserved, with walkways and bicycle paths established along the border strip to preserve the memory of the Wall. In the center of East Berlin, much of the modernist heritage of the East German state was gradually removed. Unification of Berlin saw the removal of politically motivated street names and monuments in the East in an attempt to reduce the socialist legacy from the face of East Berlin.


title: German reunification

text: Immediately following the fall of the Wall, Berlin experienced a boom in the construction industry. Redevelopment initiatives saw Berlin turn into one of the largest construction sites in the world through the 1990s and early 2000s.


title: German reunification

text: The fall of the Wall also had economic consequences. Two German systems covering distinctly divergent degrees of economic opportunity suddenly came into intimate contact. Despite development of sites for commercial purposes, Berlin struggled to compete in economic terms with Frankfurt which remained the financial capital of the country, as well as with other key West German centers such as Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf. The intensive building activity directed by planning policy resulted in the over-expansion of office space, "with a high level of vacancies in spite of the move of most administrations and government agencies from Bonn".


title: German reunification

text: Berlin was marred by disjointed economic restructuring, associated with massive deindustrialisation. Economist Hartwich asserts that, while the East undoubtedly improved economically, it was "at a much slower pace than [then Chancellor Helmut] Kohl had predicted". Wealth and income inequality between former East and West Germany continued for decades after reunification. On average, adults in the former West Germany had assets worth 94,000 euros in 2014 as compared to the adults in the former communist East Germany which had just over 40,000 euros in assets.


title: German reunification

text: Facilitation of economic development through planning measures failed to close the disparity between East and West, not only in terms of the economic opportunity, but also housing conditions and transport options. Tölle states that "the initial euphoria about having become one unified people again was increasingly replaced by a growing sense of difference between Easterners ("Ossis") and Westerners ("Wessis")". The fall of the Wall also instigated immediate cultural change. The first consequence was the closure in East Berlin of politically oriented cultural institutions.


title: German reunification

text: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the factors described above led to mass migration from East Berlin and East Germany, producing a large labor supply shock in the West. Emigration from the East, totaling 870,000 people between 1989 and 1992 alone, led to worse employment outcomes for the least-educated workers, for blue-collar workers, for men, and for foreign nationals.


title: German reunification

text: At the close of the century, it became evident that despite significant investment and planning, Berlin was unlikely to retake "its seat between the European Global Cities of London and Paris", primarily due to the fact that Germany's financial and commercial capital is located elsewhere (Frankfurt) than the administrative one (Berlin), in resemblance of Italy (Milan vs Rome), Switzerland (Zürich vs Bern), Canada (Toronto vs Ottawa), Australia (Sydney vs Canberra), the USA (New York City vs Washington, DC) or the Netherlands (Amsterdam vs The Hague), as opposed to London, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Warsaw or Moscow which combine both roles.


title: German reunification

text: Yet, ultimately, the disparity between East and West portions of Berlin has led to the city achieving a new urban identity. A number of locales of East Berlin, characterized by dwellings of in-between use of abandoned space for little to no rent, have become the focal point and foundation of Berlin's burgeoning creative activities. According to Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, "the best that Berlin has to offer, its unique creativity. Creativity is Berlin's future." Overall, the Berlin government's engagement in creativity is strongly centered on marketing and promotional initiatives instead of creative production.


title: German reunification

text: Creativity has been the catalyst for the city's "thriving music scene, active nightlife, and bustling street scene", all of which have become important attractions for the German capital. The industry is a key component of the city's economic makeup with more than 10 percent of all Berlin residents employed in cultural sectors.


title: German reunification

text: The subsequent economic restructuring and reconstruction of eastern Germany resulted in significant costs, especially for western Germany, which paid large sums of money in the form of the (Solidarity Surcharge) in order to rebuild the east German infrastructure. In addition, the immensely advantageous exchange rate of 1:1 between the West German Deutschmark to the East German mark meant that East Germans could trade in their almost worthless marks for and receive wages in West German currency. This dealt a major blow to the West German budget in the coming few years. Peer Steinbrück is quoted as saying in a 2011 interview, "Over a period of 20 years, German reunification has cost 2 trillion euros, or an average of 100 billion euros a year. So, we have to ask ourselves 'Aren't we willing to pay a tenth of that over several years for Europe's unity?


title: German reunification

text: According to a 2019 survey conducted by Pew Research Center, approximately 90 percent of Germans living in both the West and East believe that reunification was good for Germany, with slightly more in East than West Germany supporting it. Around 83 percent of East Germans approve of and 13 percent disapprove of eastern Germany's transition to a market economy, with the rest saying they weren't sure. Life satisfaction in both the East and West has substantially increased since 1991, with 15 percent of East Germans placing their life satisfaction somewhere between 7 to 10 on a 0 to 10 scale in 1991, changing to 59 percent in 2019. For West Germans, this change over the same time period was from 52 to 64 percent.


title: German reunification

text: Additionally, the fall of the Berlin Wall was useful in generating wealth at the household level in both the East and the West. Those who lived in West Germany and had social ties to the East experienced a six percent average increase in their wealth in the six years following the fall of the Wall, which more than doubled that of households who didn't possess the same connections. Entrepreneurs who worked in areas with strong social ties to the East saw their incomes increase at an even more rapid rate. Incomes for this group increased at an average rate of 8.8 percent over the same six year period following reunification. Similarly, those in the East who possessed connections to the West saw their household income increase at a positive rate in each of the six years following reunification. Those in their regions who lacked the same ties did not see the same benefit. More broadly, commercial firms, in the same way as households and individuals, also saw profits increase in the years following reunification. Specifically, gains in the form of increased profits were the greatest for firms in the service sector who invested in the East relative to those which did not. The reunification served to increase economic growth in the region through rising household income and commercial profit due to the ability to utilize social connections that were previously restricted by the border.


title: German reunification

text: Germany was not the only country that had been separated through the aftermath of World War II which led to the Cold War. For example, Korea (1945–present), China (1949–present), Yemen (1967-1990), and Vietnam (1954–1976) have been separated through the occupation of "Western-Capitalistic" and "Eastern-Communistic" forces, after the defeat of Japan. Both countries suffered severely from this separation in the Chinese Civil War (1927–1950), Korean War (1950–1953), the Vietnam War (1955–1975), respectively, which caused heavy economic and civilian damage. However, German separation did not result in another war. Moreover, Germany is the only one of these countries that has managed to absolutely achieve a peaceful reunification. For instance, Vietnam achieved reunification after Vietnam War but under communist regime in 1976, Yemen achieved peaceful reunification under capitalist regime in 1990 but then suffered a civil war due to the internal conflict, while North and South Korea as well as Mainland China and Taiwan still struggle with high political tensions and huge economic and social disparities, making a possible reunification an enormous challenge. The Taiwan independence movement also makes Chinese unification more difficult. The West-East Germany also have differences in thinking, which is similar to the North-South Vietnam.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958. It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the invasion by Europeans during the late 19th century. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. The novel was first published in the UK in 1962 by William Heinemann Ltd, and became the first work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo ("Ibo" in the novel) man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of European colonialism and Christian missionaries on Okonkwo, his family, and the wider Igbo community.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: "Things Fall Apart" was followed by a sequel, "No Longer at Ease" (1960), originally written as the second part of a larger work along with "Arrow of God" (1964). Achebe states that his two later novels "A Man of the People" (1966) and "Anthills of the Savannah" (1987), while not featuring Okonkwo's descendants, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: The novel's protagonist, Okonkwo, is famous in the villages of Umuofia for being a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed "Amalinze The Cat" (because he never lands on his back). Okonkwo is strong, hard-working, and strives to show no weakness. He wants to dispel his father Unoka's tainted legacy of unpaid debts, a neglected wife and children, and cowardice at the sight of blood. Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own, as Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. He is also obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise to this is swiftly destroyed. As a result, he often beats his wives and children, and is unkind to his neighbours. However, his drive to escape the legacy of his father leads him to be wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his village. He is a leader of his village, having attained a position in his society for which he has striven all his life.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken by the clan as a peace settlement between Umuofia and another clan after Ikemefuna's father killed an Umuofian woman. The boy lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him, although Okonkwo does not show his fondness so as not to appear weak. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a second father. The Oracle of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village, warns Okonkwo that he should have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child – but to avoid seeming weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo disregards the warning from the old man, striking the killing blow himself even as Ikemefuna begs his "father" for protection. For many days after killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo feels guilty and saddened.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. He falls into a great depression, as he has been greatly traumatized by the act of murdering his own adopted son. His sickly daughter Ezinma falls unexpectedly ill and it is feared she may die; during a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are exiled to his motherland, the nearby village Mbanta, for seven years to appease the gods he has offended.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: While Okonkwo is away in Mbanta, he learns that white men are living in Umuofia with the intent of introducing their religion, Christianity. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows and a new government is introduced. The village is forced to respond with either appeasement or resistance to the imposition of the white people's nascent society. Okonkwo’s son Nwoye starts getting curious about the missionaries and the new religion. After he is beaten by his father for the last time, he decides to leave his family behind and live independently. He wants to be with the missionaries because his beliefs have changed while being introduced to Christianity by Mr. Brown. In the last year of his exile, Okonkwo instructs his best friend Obierika to sell all of his yams and hire two men to build him two huts so he can have a house to go back to with his family. He also holds a great feast for his mother's kinsmen, where an elderly attendee bemoans the current state of their tribe and its future.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village changed by the presence of the white men. After a convert commits an evil act by unmasking an elder as he embodies an ancestral spirit of the clan, the village retaliates by destroying a local Christian church. In response, the District Commissioner representing the colonial government takes Okonkwo and several other native leaders prisoner pending payment of a fine of two hundred bags of cowries. Despite the District Commissioner's instructions to treat the leaders of Umuofia with respect, the native "court messengers" humiliate them, doing things such as shaving their heads and whipping them. As a result, the people of Umuofia finally gather for what could be a great uprising. Okonkwo, a warrior by nature and adamant about following Umuofian custom and tradition, despises any form of cowardice and advocates war against the white men. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo beheads one of them. Because the crowd allows the other messengers to escape and does not fight alongside Okonkwo, he realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia are not going to fight to protect themselves – his society's response to such a conflict, which for so long had been predictable and dictated by tradition, is changing. The District Commissioner Gregory Irwin then comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself to avoid being tried in a colonial court. Among his own people, Okonkwo's actions have tarnished his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide. As Irwin and his men prepare to bury Okonkwo, Irwin muses that Okonkwo's death will make an interesting chapter for his written book: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger."


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Most of the story takes place in the fictional village of Iguedo, which is in the Umuofia clan. The place name Iguedo is only mentioned three times in the novel. Achebe more frequently uses the name Umuofia to refer to Okonkwo's home village of Iguedo. Umuofia is located west of the actual city of Onitsha, on the east bank of the Niger River in Nigeria. The events of the novel unfold in the 1890s. The culture depicted, that of the Igbo people, is similar to that of Achebe's birthplace of Ogidi, where Igbo-speaking people lived together in groups of independent villages ruled by titled elders. The customs described in the novel mirror those of the actual Onitsha people, who lived near Ogidi, and with whom Achebe was familiar.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Within forty years of the colonization of Nigeria, by the time Achebe was born in 1930, the missionaries were well established. He was influenced by Western culture but he refused to change his Igbo name Chinua to Albert. Achebe's father Isaiah was among the first to be converted in Ogidi, around the turn of the century. Isaiah Achebe himself was an orphan raised by his grandfather. His grandfather, far from opposing Isaiah's conversion to Christianity, allowed his Christian marriage to be celebrated in his compound.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Achebe wrote his novels in English because the written standard Igbo language was created by combining various dialects, creating a stilted written form. In a 1994 interview with "The Paris Review", Achebe said, "the novel form seems to go with the English language. There is a problem with the Igbo language. It suffers from a very serious inheritance which it received at the beginning of this century from the Anglican mission. They sent out a missionary by the name of Dennis. Archdeacon Dennis. He was a scholar. He had this notion that the Igbo language—which had very many different dialects—should somehow manufacture a uniform dialect that would be used in writing to avoid all these different dialects. Because the missionaries were powerful, what they wanted to do they did. This became the law. But the standard version cannot sing. There's nothing you can do with it to make it sing. It's heavy. It's wooden. It doesn't go anywhere."


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Achebe's choice to write in English has caused controversy. While both African and non-African critics agree that Achebe modelled "Things Fall Apart" on classic European literature, they disagree about whether his novel upholds a Western model, or, in fact, subverts or confronts it. Achebe continued to defend his decision: "English is something you spend your lifetime acquiring, so it would be foolish not to use it. Also, in the logic of colonization and decolonization it is actually a very powerful weapon in the fight to regain what was yours. English was the language of colonization itself. It is not simply something you use because you have it anyway."


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Achebe is noted for his inclusion of and weaving in of proverbs from Igbo oral culture into his writing. This influence was explicitly referenced by Achebe in "Things Fall Apart": "Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."


title: Things Fall Apart

text: "Things Fall Apart" is regarded as a milestone in African literature. It has come to be seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and is read in Nigeria and throughout Africa. It is studied widely in Europe, India, and North America, where it has spawned numerous secondary and tertiary analytical works. It has achieved similar status and repute in Australia and Oceania. Considered Achebe's magnum opus, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. "Time" magazine included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". The novel has been translated into more than 50 languages, and is often used in literature, world history, and African studies courses across the world.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Achebe is now considered to be the essential novelist on African identity, nationalism, and decolonization. Achebe's main focus has been cultural ambiguity and contestation. The complexity of novels such as "Things Fall Apart" depends on Achebe's ability to bring competing cultural systems and their languages to the same level of representation, dialogue, and contestation.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Reviewers have praised Achebe's neutral narration and have described "Things Fall Apart" as a realistic novel. Much of the critical discussion about "Things Fall Apart" concentrates on the socio-political aspects of the novel, including the friction between the members of Igbo society as they confront the intrusive and overpowering presence of Western government and beliefs. Ernest N. Emenyonu commented that ""Things Fall Apart" is indeed a classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism, takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another civilization."


title: Things Fall Apart

text: Achebe's writing about African society, in telling from an African point of view the story of the colonization of the Igbo, tends to extinguish the conception that African culture had been savage and primitive. In "Things Fall Apart", western culture is portrayed as being "arrogant and ethnocentric," insisting that the African culture needed a leader. As it had no kings or chiefs, Umuofian culture was vulnerable to invasion by western civilization. It is felt that the repression of the Igbo language at the end of the novel contributes greatly to the destruction of the culture. Although Achebe favours the African culture of the pre-western society, the author attributes its destruction to the "weaknesses within the native structure." Achebe portrays the culture as having a religion, a government, a system of money, and an artistic tradition, as well as a judicial system.


title: Things Fall Apart

text: The publication of Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" helped pave the way for numerous other African writers. Novelists who published after Achebe were able to find an eloquent and effective mode for the expression of the particular social, historical, and cultural situation of modern Africa. Before "Things Fall Apart" was published, most of the novels about Africa had been written by European authors, portraying Africans as savages who were in need of western enlightenment.