Kohl elected West German chancellor - Mar 06, 1983 - HISTORY.com Kohl elected West German chancellor Share this: Kohl elected West German chancellor Author Kohl elected West German chancellor URL Publisher A+E Networks Helmut Kohl, the interim chancellor of West Germany since the fall of Helmut Schmidt’s Social Democrat government in 1982, is elected German chancellor as his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is voted back into power. Elected as Rhine-Palatinate state premier in 1969, Kohl served the post until 1976, when he became federal chairman of the CDU and led the opposition to Chancellor Schmidt’s government. In 1982, with Germany suffering under persistent economic difficulties, he organized a successful no-confidence vote in the West German Parliament against Schmidt and was subsequently named interim chancellor. In March 1983, the West German people confirmed him as chancellor, and in 1987 German economic recovery led to his reelection. In the fall of 1989, the communist government of East Germany collapsed, and Kohl led the efforts to reunify the two Germanys.

In March 1990, in the first all-German elections in six decades, Kohl was elected the first chancellor of a reunified Germany. During his third term as chancellor, Kohl oversaw the formidable task of absorbing East Germany’s crippled economy into the West and was an advocate of the movement for a united Europe. In 1994, Kohl was elected to a fourth term, but increasing unemployment in Germany and his cuts to the country’s welfare system led to his defeat by Gerhard Schroder and the Social Democrats in 1998. Related Videos Angela Merkel | chancellor of Germany | Britannica.com chancellor of Germany Alternative Title: Angela Dorothea Kasner Angela Merkel Angela Merkel, née Angela Dorothea Kasner (born July 17, 1954, Hamburg, West Germany ), German politician who in 2005 became the first female chancellor of Germany. Angela Merkel, 2012. Office of the Prime Minister of Greece Early life Merkel’s parents, Horst and Herlind Kasner, met in Hamburg , where her father was a theology student and her mother was a teacher of Latin and English.

After completing his education, her father accepted a pastorate in Quitzow, Brandenburg , and the family relocated to East Germany (German Democratic Republic) just weeks after Merkel’s birth. In 1957 they moved again to Templin, where Merkel finished high school in 1973. Later that year she went to Leipzig to study physics at Karl Marx University (now the University of Leipzig). There she met her first husband, fellow physics student Ulrich Merkel, and the two were married in 1977. After earning her diploma in 1978, she worked as a member of the academic faculty at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin . In 1982 Merkel and her husband divorced, though she kept his last name. She was awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986. As was the case for most children growing up in the German Democratic Republic, Merkel participated in the state’s youth organizations. She was a member of the Young Pioneers (from 1962) and the Free German Youth (from 1968).

Her involvement with the Free German Youth has led to controversy, as some of her former colleagues from the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry claimed that she was active as a secretary for agitation and propaganda at the institute, though Merkel maintained that she was responsible for cultural affairs (e.g., procuring theatre tickets). Merkel was not nor did she apply to be a member of the Socialist Unity Party , and when approached by personnel of the Ministry for State Security ( Stasi ) to become an informant, she refused. Political career After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Merkel joined the newly founded Democratic Awakening and in February 1990 became the party’s press spokesperson. That month the party joined the conservative Alliance for Germany, a coalition with the German Social Union (DSU) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Several days prior to East Germany’s first and only free election in March 1990, it was revealed that Democratic Awakening’s chairman, Wolfgang Schnur, had been working as a Stasi informant for years. Although the news shook Alliance supporters, the coalition was victorious, and Democratic Awakening became part of the government, despite having won a mere 0.9 percent of the votes.

Merkel became deputy spokesperson of the government of Lothar de Maizière (CDU). She joined the CDU in August 1990; that party merged with its western counterpart on October 1, the day before the reunification of Germany. The first free parliamentary elections in East Germany, 1990. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Britannica Stories 2017 Rock Hall Inductees Announced In the first postreunification election, in December 1990, Merkel won a seat in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) representing Stralsund-Rügen-Grimmen. She was appointed minister for women and youth by Chancellor Helmut Kohl in January 1991. Kohl’s choice of the young female political newcomer from East Germany appealed to several demographics and earned Merkel the nickname “Kohls Mädchen” (“Kohl’s girl”). Maizière, who had become the CDU’s deputy chairman after the eastern and western parties merged, resigned from his position on September 6, 1991, because of accusations of having worked for the Stasi. Merkel was elected to replace him in December of the same year.

After the 1994 election Merkel became minister of environment , conservation, and reactor safety, and she presided over the first United Nations Climate Conference in Berlin in March–April 1995. In September 1998 the CDU was ousted by Gerhard Schröder and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Merkel was elected secretary-general of the CDU on November 7. She married her longtime companion, chemistry professor Joachim Sauer, on December 30 of that year. Structures of Government: Fact or Fiction? In late 1999 a finance scandal hit the CDU, and Kohl was implicated in the acceptance and use of illegal campaign contributions. In an open letter published on December 22, Merkel, Kohl’s former protégée, called upon the party to make a fresh start without its honorary chairman. Merkel’s stance greatly increased her visibility and popularity with the German public, although it upset Kohl loyalists. On April 10, 2000, Merkel was elected head of the CDU, becoming the first woman and the first non- Catholic to lead the party.

As CDU leader, Merkel faced the lingering effects of the finance scandal and a divided party. Although Merkel had hoped to stand as a candidate for chancellor in the 2002 election, a majority of her party expressed a preference for Edmund Stoiber of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s sister party in Bavaria . After the CDU-CSU narrowly lost the election, Merkel became leader of the opposition. Chancellorship Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies As support for the SPD wavered, Schröder called for an early general election to be held in September 2005, and the result was a virtual stalemate. The CDU-CSU won 35.2 percent of the votes, besting the ruling SPD by just 1 percent. Both parties sought allies in an attempt to form a government, but months of negotiations proved fruitless. Eventually, the CDU-CSU and the SPD settled on a “grand coalition” government with Merkel at its head.

On November 22, 2005, Merkel took office as chancellor, becoming the first woman, the first East German, and, at age 51, the youngest person to date to hold the office. Angela Merkel, 2005. U.S. Embassy Berlin/Department of State Her mandate was emphatically renewed in parliamentary elections held on September 27, 2009. The SDP posted its worst performance since 1949, and Merkel was able to form a government with her preferred partner, the classical liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). Merkel’s second term was largely characterized by her personal role in the response to the euro-zone debt crisis . Along with French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy , Merkel championed austerity as the path to recovery for Europe’s damaged economies. Merkel’s most-visible success in that arena was the entry into force in January 2013 of a fiscal compact that bound signatory governments to operate within specific balanced-budget benchmarks .

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during Merkel’s … Prime Minister of Greece In the September 2013 federal election, the CDU-CSU alliance won an impressive victory, capturing nearly 42 percent of the vote—just short of an absolute majority. However, because her coalition partner, the FDP, failed to reach the 5 percent threshold for representation, Merkel faced the prospect of forming a government with either the SDP or the Green Party , both of whom were likely to be reluctant partners. After more than two months of negotiations, Merkel secured an agreement with the SDP to form another grand coalition government. On December 17 she became Germany’s third three-time chancellor in the postwar era (after Konrad Adenauer and Kohl). Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest The struggling European economy continued to loom large as Merkel entered her third term—the prospect of a Greek exit from the euro zone was a recurring concern—but it was soon eclipsed by a pair of security challenges on the frontiers of the European Union (EU).

A pro-Western protest movement in Ukraine drove pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych from office in February 2014, and Russia responded by forcibly annexing the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea . As pro-Russian gunmen seized territory in eastern Ukraine, Merkel joined other Western leaders in accusing Russia of directly fomenting the conflict. She spearheaded EU efforts to enact sanctions against Russia and participated in numerous multiparty discussions in an effort to restore peace to the region. Merkel was also faced with Europe’s gravest refugee crisis since World War II when hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing conflicts in Syria , Afghanistan , and elsewhere flocked to the EU. Although she maintained that Germany would keep its borders open in the face of the humanitarian emergency, Merkel temporarily suspended the Schengen Agreement and reintroduced border controls with Austria in September 2015. World leaders meeting in Minsk, Belarus, to discuss the terms of a cease-fire in the conflict in … Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool/AP Images Merkel’s style of government has been characterized by pragmatism , although critics have decried her approach as the absence of a clear stance and ideology .

She has demonstrated her willingness to adopt the positions of her political opponents if they have proved to be sensible and popular. One notable example of that was Merkel’s decision to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima accident in 2011 after having passed a law to prolong the operating life of Germany’s nuclear power plants only two years earlier. Merkel’s handling of the euro-zone debt crisis, on the other hand, has led to criticism of an approach many have considered too strict. Indeed, even the broadly pro-austerity International Monetary Fund director, Christine Lagarde , drew attention to the harm that harsh austerity measures could inflict on an already-damaged economy. In spite of those challenges, the leader of Europe’s most populous and economically powerful country continued to enjoy strong domestic approval numbers.

Trending Topics East and West Germany reunite after 45 years - Oct 03, 1990 - HISTORY.com East and West Germany reunite after 45 years Share this: East and West Germany reunite after 45 years Author East and West Germany reunite after 45 years URL Publisher A+E Networks Less than one year after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, East and West Germany come together on what is known as “Unity Day.” Since 1945, when Soviet forces occupied eastern Germany, and the United States and other Allied forces occupied the western half of the nation at the close of World War II, divided Germany had come to serve as one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War. Some of the most dramatic episodes of the Cold War took place there. The Berlin Blockade (June 1948–May 1949), during which the Soviet Union blocked all ground travel into West Berlin, and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 were perhaps the most famous. With the gradual waning of Soviet power in the late 1980s, the Communist Party in East Germany began to lose its grip on power.

Tens of thousands of East Germans began to flee the nation, and by late 1989 the Berlin Wall started to come down. Shortly thereafter, talks between East and West German officials, joined by officials from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the USSR, began to explore the possibility of reunification. Two months following reunification, all-German elections took place and Helmut Kohl became the first chancellor of the reunified Germany. Although this action came more than a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for many observers the reunification of Germany effectively marked the end of the Cold War. Related Videos Reunification of Germany 3 October 1990 | ICV 3. 10. 2010 Reunification of Germany 3 October 1990 The reunification of Germany in 1990 is one of the most important historical milestones of the European history after 1945. However, it is not possible to narrow circumstances preceding this historical event only to the period between November 1989 and October 1990, it means to the time period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the act of the German reunification.

The entire second half of 1980’ was an important political prologue to this process. Political Situation in Europe before the Reunification Relations between both parts of Germany were very strained during the entire Cold War. However, since the half of 1980’ certain changes in communication between West German and East German politicians began to be apparent. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) Erich Honecker accepted, as the first Eastern Europe political representative, invitation to visit the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1984. The meeting was not held eventually because of deployment of intermediate range ballistic missiles in the FRG. He met Helmut Kohl as late as in 1987 during his visit to the FRG. Both leaders agreed on a "constructive cooperation in spite of different views on crucial issues". Nevertheless, a decisive factor for the German reunification was the arrival of a new Establishment in the Soviet Union after the appointment of Mikhail Gorbachev to the office of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In contrast to his predecessors, Gorbačov regarded as necessary to change radically not only the internal economic and political conditions but also the foreign policy of the Soviet Union including the attitude to the East European countries. On 25 October 1989, during his visit to Finland, Gorbachev officially repudiated the Brezhnev's doctrine and admitted that East European countries had right to make their own policies. The new approach to the existing East European satellites became common under the term Sinatra Doctrine, which was a reminiscence of the lyrics of the Sinatra's song "I do it my way". However, Gorbachev's attitude to the German reunification was radically negative both before 1989 and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The first meeting of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Helmut Kohl was held on 24 October 1988. At that time Kohl did not believe that he would ever negotiate with Mikhail Gorbachev on the German reunification. When asked about a possibility of Gorbachev offer of reunification of Germany, Kohl replied: "I am not a writer of futuristic novels like Wells.

What you ask me about, is rather something of the Empire of Fantasy". Events after the fall of the Berlin Wall The crucial role in the process of the German reunification was played by the West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl who, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, clearly declared his intention to reunify both parts of the divided German state. On 28 October he gave in Bundestag an important speech in which he emphasized necessity of a speedy reunification of both German republics. On 28 November 1989 he presented so-called ten-point plan for German reunification. The most important was the fifth point of the plan in which Helmut Kohl mentioned a possibility to "develop confederate structures between the two states in Germany with the objective of creating of a federal order in Germany". However the negotiations with East German political representatives were complicated by the fact that the West German side had not known for a long time whom to regard as the legitimate partner at the negotiating table.

Officially it was Egon Krenz, the General Secretary of the SED, who was the highest representative of the GDR, but he was holding his post only from 24 October 1989 to 6 December 1989 and thus he was not able to guarantee continuity of the negotiating process. It was apparent that this issue could be solved only by general elections in the GDR. They were held on 18 March 1990 and the Alliance for Germany, which won more than 47 % of votes, became a straight winner of the elections. Also Kohl’s CDU took part in the elections as a part of this alliance and won more than 40 % of votes. "Not even I had expected such a result" said Helmut Kohl. The ensuing negotiations on the new cabinet were quite smooth and on 12 April 1990 a new cabinet was appointed. It was headed by Lothar de Maizir (CDU) who negotiated with Helmut Kohl on the future arrangements. The integration of the two states was done also at the economic level.

The date of declaration of the monetary union between the GDR and the FRG was set and the union came into effect on 1 July 1990. On 23 August 1990 the East German parliament (Volkskammer) adopted at its extraordinary session the reunification of both parts of Germany in the ratio of 294 to 64 and on 31 August 1990 the Reunification Treaty was signed by the State Secretary of the GDR Günther Kraus and by the West German Minister of Interior Wolfgang Schäubl. The Treaty contained 45 articles and three annexes. In the Treaty there were defined relations between the two German republics and set down the state division of former GDR to five federal republics governed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. Attitudes of the USA, Soviet Union, France and Great Britain On 13 November 1989 an important negotiation of the most significant American politicians -President George Bush, the Secretary of State James Baker and the chief expert on foreign policy Henry Kissinger – was held.

Henry Kissinger said on the issue of the German reunification: "The German reunification is inevitable and the United States will have to pay for that if Germans feels that we are putting obstacles in their path". Most of American political representatives connected the support of the German reunification with its membership in NATO. The unity of NATO was more important for the United States than the act of the reunification of both German republics itself. As far as this issue is concerned, Kohl was for the United States a fundamental advocate of their strategy of incorporation of unified Germany into the NATO structures. A significant event in the process of negotiations on the German reunification was the setting-up of so-called “4+2 mechanism“. This mechanism meant regular meetings of representatives of the Soviet Union, United States, Great Britain, France and both German states. There were certain critical opinions regarding this arrangement. In particular on the American side there were fears of loss of the influence on the situation in Germany because of broadening of negotiating competences to more states. Mikhail Gorbachev’s approach to the German reunification was always very reserved and he was absolutely unsympathetic to plans for the incorporation of unified Germany to the NATO structures.

This issue was very sensitive for Gorbachev because these discussions had begun soon after the breakdown of the Eastern Block. Gorbachev became more involved in the negotiations on the German reunification at the end of May 1990 when he intensively discussed this issue with his American counterpart George Bush. George Bush together with the Secretary of State James Baker presented during these negotiations their idea on the role of NATO in arrangement in Europe. According to Bush and Baker, NATO intended to play a role of an "anchor of stability" which would guarantee solidarity of Europe with NATO. Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to this proposal in fact, which meant principal change in the attitude of the Soviet representatives to the issue of reunification. Further important shift in opinion took place during the visit of Helmut Kohl in the Soviet Union in mid-July 1990, after which Gorbachev withdrew his reservations to the planned size of Bundeswehr and the German membership in NATO. Thus, main reservations on the Soviet side to the German reunification were removed. In France there were strong fears of unification of the two divided German republics.

These fears were based on the idea that the strong Germany would have different view of the function of the European Union. France was afraid of weakening of its influence on the foreign policy of the European Union Also the demographic factor played its important role in this respect. While the FRG had number of inhabitants similar to that of France, the unified Germany would have about 80 million inhabitants. The advisor of the French President Mitterand, Jacques Attali, confidentially told his Soviet counterpart that "France does not wish the reunification of Germany despite its conviction that it is inevitable in the end". Not even the French President Mitterand concealed his fears of united Germany. As early as in August 1989 began to hold an opinion that in connection with the unification of the two republics the term unification instead of reunification should be used. Mitterand’s fears of a possibility of unification of Germany further increased during 1989. In September, during his visit to Kiev, he declared that excessive haste in connection with the German unification could have negative impact on the stability of the European Community.

His fears of German reunification could not be mitigated even by the fact that Mitterand and Helmut Kohl were tied by a firm bond of friendship. He expressed his feelings on 20 January 1990 when, during a private conversation with the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, stated that "reunification of Germany might lead to the birth of a new Hitler and to the revival of memories of bad Germans who ruled over Europe then". In March 1990 the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom during his visit to Margaret Thatcher said that according to the meaning of the French government "France and Great Britain must jointly face to the German threats". An extremely negative stand to the German reunification was holding by the Prime minister of Great Britain Margaret Thatcher. Unlike other statesmen, she did not regard the German reunification as a historical crowning of the disintegration of the Soviet Block and the unification of divided Europe. She was seeing the process of German reunification from the point of view of her fears of the revision of German frontiers.

Her fears increased in December 1989 after the release of ten-point plan of Helmut Kohl; in response to this plan she said: "We have defeated Germans twice and now they are here again". During her meeting with Helmut Kohl she declared that "it is possible to consider the German reunification of the two republics as late as after some 10 or 15 years when it is undoubted that both countries have sufficiently firm democracy". She was seeking allies for her approach among European politician and partly found such an ally in the person of François Mitterand who, however, did not held such a strong attitude. Unlike the French President, she did not believe that Germany would restrict its own political and economic ambitions in the framework of the European Community". She regarded the process of reunification as too fast and improvident. She also feared that the process of reunification would weaken the Gorbachev’s position in the Soviet Union. Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, Thatcher informed Mikhail Gorbachev that German reunification was not in the interest of Great Britain. Nevertheless, the British Prime Minister remained isolated with her flat resistance to the German reunification,.

"Margaret Thatcher went too far with her opposition in this matter", said former west German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The attitude of the British Prime Minister changed as late as after the Dublin summit in May 1990; the summit guaranteed existing frontiers on Oder and Neisse. Thus, the ensuing negotiations in the composition 2+4 could be held in a more unemotional spirit. On 12 September 1990 the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed in Moscow. This principal document stipulated the German reunification from the point of view of the international law. By the adoption of this Treaty, the Allies lost their right and responsibility related to Berlin and Germany as a whole. In the Article 7 it is stipulated that "the united Germany shall have full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs". The Treaty also bound member states to maintain limited number of German armed forces of Germany at the level of 300 000 men. After the signature of this Treaty nothing hampered the German reunification.

German Unity Day On the night of 2 October to 3 October 1990, more than 100 000 people came to celebrate the reunification of both German states at the Republic Square in Berlin. As Helmut Kohl highlights in his memoirs, the act of the German reunification at the place in front of the Reichstag building was a historical symbol: "From the window of the western portal, the social democrat Scheidemann declared in November 1918 the First German Republic. Its end was symbolized by flames which flared up out of the cupola of the building in 1933. After the end of the Second World War, Soviets hoisted on its ruins the red flag and started the division of Germany and Europe. What could have been a better place, after those forty-five years, for celebration of the end of this division and of the start of a new and let us hope more peaceful era?" Angela Merkel - Biography Angela Merkel Angela Merkel as a child Angela Dorothea Kasner was born on July 17th, 1954 in Hamburg, Germany.

She is the oldest of Horst and Herlind Kasner’s three children and has a brother, Marcus, and a sister, Irene. She was raised in the small, country side town of Templin, roughly 50 miles north of Berlin, in the German Democratic Republic (also known as East Germany). Living in the GDR meant that she was a part of the socialist-led Free German Youth movement. Through this organization she showed her leadership skills at a young age becoming a district board representative and secretary of Agitprop – the agitation and propaganda campaign of the youth movement. Merkel did not however, “take part in the secular coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe” * which was very popular in East Germany. Her family, led by her father who was a Lutheran pastor, had “sympathetic” views towards the communist regime of the GDR because they were given freedoms typically denied to Christian pastors – such as easily crossing from West Germany to East Germany, and owning two cars. After being educated in Templin, Merkel attended the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978, earning her doctorate in 1978.

She then worked at the “Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990.” * In 1977, Angela Kasner married physicist Ulrich Merkel, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Merkel remarried in 1998 to Joachim Sauer, a Chemistry professor from Berlin who she has been married to since. Angela Merkel and former Chancellor Helmut Kohl Merkel first entered the political world in 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She joined East Germany’s new democratic party, Demokratischer Aufbruchfirst, and in the first and only democratic elections held in East Germany, Merkel was elected to be the deputy spokesperson for the new government led by Lothar de Maizière. After the unification of East and West Germany, her party (Demokratischer Aufbruchfirst) merged with the Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU), and in the first post-unification democratic elections Merkel was elected to the Bundestag (the German parliament).

Shortly after her election, she was appointed by Helmut Kohl’s, the then Chancellor and CDU party leader, to his cabinet as the Minister for Women and Youth. “In 1994, she was [appointed by Kohl to be the] Minister for the Environment and Reactor Safety, the post which served as foundation of her political career.” † When Kohl’s government was defeated in the 1998 elections, Merkel became the CDU’s Secretary-General; and after a financial scandal in 1999, she was elected as the CDU’s first female chairperson and took hold of the position on April 10th, 2000. Merkel represented a dramatic change in the CDU party, which before her election was primarily “a male-dominated, socially conservative party with deep Catholic roots, and…strongholds in western and southern Germany.”ᶱ Merkel, on the other hand, was a Protestant woman, who had a strong base of constituents in Northern Germany.

For these reasons, she was very popular amongst the German population and was considered the favorite to be the candidate for Chancellor for the CDU and its sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), in the 2002 general elections. Those elections however turned out to be less than favorable. Merkel lost the candidacy primarily due to lack of support from her own party. She was politically undermined by the CSU party leader, Edmund Stoiber who won the candidacy for the CDU/CSU ticket, but lost the Chancellorship to Gerhard Schröder. After Stoiber lost the elections, in addition to being the CDU’s chairperson, “Merkel became leader of the conservative opposition in the lower house of the…Bundestag.”ᶱ During her time as leader of the conservative opposition, Merkel advocated for many policy changes regarding the German economic system (such deregulation policies which seemed extremely pro-market even for her own conservative party) and supported a strong German – United States relationship and supported the United States invading Iraq, even despite public opposition.

Although her policies were sometimes unfavored by the German population, her popularity never lessened and in the 2005 general elections, not only did Merkel win the candidacy for the CDU/CSU ticket, she also beat out former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, becoming Germany’s first female (and East German) Chancellor. Chancellor Angela Merkel Since being sworn in as chancellor on November 22nd, 2005, Merkel has led a Grand coalition consisting of the CDU, CSU, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), while also continuing her free-market economic agenda and relationship with the United States. She has also been focusing on redesigning the German health care system and tax reform.

† "Angela Merkel Biography" (Lifestyle Lounge) ᶱ "Angela Merkel Biography (Monsters and Critics) History of the Federal Republic of Germany History of the Federal Republic of Germany ___ History of the Federal Republic of Germany Germany celebrates two important anniversaries in 2009 60 years ago, on 23rd May 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany was founded with the promulgation of the Basic Law; 20 years ago, on 9th November 2009 the wall between East and West fell in Berlin. Below an overview of six German decades. The 1950s Economic Miracle - Western Integration - World Cup End and new beginning: Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967), German statesman, first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany 1949–63, at the German Bundestag, February 1955. Image: Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) Nazi Germany surrenders unconditionally in May 1945.

Twelve years of Nazi dictatorship have plunged Europe into the abyss, led to racial fanaticism and horrific crimes, and cost the lives of almost 60 million people in the war and the extermination camps. The victorious Allies divide Germany into four zones. The western powers foster the development of a parliamentary democracy, while the Soviet Union opens the door for socialism in the east. The Cold War begins. The Federal Republic of Germany is founded in the west with the promulgation of the Basic Law on 23 May 1949. The first Bundestag ­elections are held on 14 August and Konrad Adenauer (CDU) becomes Federal Chancellor. The German Democratic Republic (GDR) is founded in the “eastern zone” on 7 October 1949. Germany is in effect divided into east and west. The young Federal Republic builds close links with the western democracies. It is one of the founding members of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 and one of the six countries that sign the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community – today’s European Union – in Rome in 1957.

In 1955, the Federal Republic joins NATO, the western defense alliance. Economic and social stabilization makes rapid progress. In combination with the currency reform of 1948 and the US Marshall Plan, the social market economy leads to an economic upturn that is soon described as an “economic miracle”. At the same time, the Federal Republic acknowledges its responsibility towards the victims of the Holocaust: Federal Chancellor Adenauer and Israel ’s Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett sign a reparations agreement in 1952. Social highlights: victory at the 1954 World Cup and the return of the last German prisoners of war from the Soviet Union in 1956. The 1960s - The Berlin Wall -Student Movement - New Liberality U.S. President John F. Kennedy on the occasion of his famous speech at the Rathaus Schöneberg (the town hall of West Berlin) in Berlin on June 26, 1963. On the far right side Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, on the far left side, the then city mayor Willy Brandt. He later became Federal Chancellor.

Image © Press and Information Office of the Federal Government The Cold War nears its climax: more and more refugees leave the GDR for the west. Accordingly, the “zonal border” is sealed off and on 13 August 1961 the GDR government ends free access to West Berlin . It builds a wall through the city, and the border with the Federal Republic becomes a “death strip”. During the next 28 years many people lose their lives attempting to cross it. President Kennedy affirmed America’s guarantee of the freedom of West Berlin during his famous speech in Berlin in 1963. It is certainly an eventful year. The Élysée Treaty, the Treaty of Friendship between France and Germany, is concluded in January as an act of reconciliation. The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials begin and confront Germans with their Nazi past. In autumn, Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard (CDU), the “father of the economic miracle”, becomes Federal Chancellor, following Adenauer’s resignation.

Three years later, the Federal Republic is governed by a CDU/CSU and SPD Grand Coalition for the first time: Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) is Federal Chancellor and Willy Brandt (SPD) is Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister. The Federal Republic’s economy flourishes until the mid-1960s and more than two million additional personnel are recruited in southern Europe. Many of these “guestworkers” remain in the country and ask their families to join them. The protest movement of students and intellectuals against “incrusted structures” and strict values make a strong mark on the second half of the decade. It brings about a lasting change in the political culture and society of western Germany. Feminism, new lifestyles, antiauthoritarian education and sexual freedom, long hair, debates, demonstrations, rebellion and new liberality – democracy in the Federal Republic experiments in many directions. The societal changes of this time still continue to have an impact today. An SPD politician becomes Federal Chancellor for the first time in October 1969: Willy Brandt leads a social-liberal government that implements numerous domestic reforms ranging from the expansion of the social welfare system to the improvement of education.

The 1970s - Détente - Economic Crisis - RAF Terrorism Willy Brandt (1913–92), German statesman; chancellor of West Germany 1969–74;, Brandt achieved international recognition for his policy of détente and the opening of relations with the countries of the Eastern bloc (Ostpolitik). Nobel Peace Prize (1971). Image: 7 December 1970, Willy Brandt kneels down at the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto. Spiegel magazine cover, December, 1970, the magazine posed the question, “Should Brandt have kneeled?”. Willy Brandt kneels down at the monument to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto. It is 7 December 1970 and the picture goes round the world. It becomes a symbol of Germany’s appeal for reconciliation, 25 years after the end of the Second World War. On the same day, Brandt signs the Treaty of Warsaw between the Federal Republic and Poland . It lays the foundation for a new peace architecture as one of a series of treaties with eastern Europe.

Brandt wants to follow Adenauer’s successful western integration by opening up to eastern Europe: “change through rapprochement”. The first German-German summit between Brandt and Chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers Willi Stoph had already taken place in Erfurt in the GDR in March 1970. In 1971 Willy Brandt is honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for his policy of understanding with the countries of eastern Europe. In the same year, with the Four Power Agreement, the Soviet Union in effect recognizes that West Berlin belongs to the economic, social and legal order of the Federal Republic of Germany. It enters into force with the other eastern treaties in 1972 and eases the situation in divided Berlin. In 1973, the Federal Republic and the GDR agree in the Basic Treaty that they will establish “normal neighborly relations” with one another. Also in 1973, both German states become members of the United Nations. Following the unmasking of a GDR spy in his immediate circle, Willy Brandt resigns as Federal Chancellor in 1974. His successor is Helmut Schmidt (SPD).

From 1973 the country’s economy is affected by the oil crisis. The 1970s are a decade of external peace, but internal tension: the Red Army Faction (RAF) around Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof wants to destabilize the government, economy and society with attacks and kidnappings. The terror reaches its climax in 1977 – and concludes with the suicide of the leading terrorists in prison. The 1980s - The Greens in the Bundestag - Escape from the GDR - Fall of the Wall It is the decade in which a new political force appears in Germany. The Greens, the party that grew out of the peace movement and environmental groups, is founded in 1980. Just three years later, it enters the Bundestag for the first time – with knitted sweaters and sunflowers. Culture shock for the established parties. Helmut Kohl (CDU) has been Federal Chancellor since 1982.

He was elected head of government by the Bundestag when the FDP left the SPD-FDP coalition under Helmut Schmidt (SPD) and formed a new coalition with the CDU/CSU. People atop the Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate on 09 November 1989. Image: Sue Ream, photographer (San Francisco, California) However, all the decade’s domestic policy events are outshone by the autumn of its last year: the Berlin Wall falls on 9 November 1989. What Germans in east and west had come to regard as almost impossible now happens: under pressure exerted by its own population, the GDR opens the crossing points to the west. The era of German division comes to an end.

This event was preceded by the weeks of the peaceful revolution in the GDR: the reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the movements for democracy in Hungary and Poland have created an atmosphere in which many people in the GDR can also openly express their dissatisfaction with the government: by fleeing via Hungary and Czechoslovakia [today the countries of Czech Republic and Slovakia ] – and through participation in the Monday demonstrations that begin in September 1989 in front of the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. Both these events shake GDR structures so powerfully that Erich Honecker resigns as SED General Secretary and Chairman of the State Council on 18 October 1989. On the evening of 9 November, at a press conference, Politburo member Günter Schabowski surprisingly announces radical relaxations in travel restrictions for private travelers that enter into force “immediately, without delay”. The very same night, thousands of GDR citizens rush to the border with West Berlin, where GDR border guards open numerous crossings without clear orders: the Wall collapses. In December, representatives of the GDR citizens movements negotiate on a democratic restructuring of the GDR.

At the same time, however, more and more Germans in the east demand German reunification at demonstrations. The 1990s - Reunification - Reconstruction East - The Move to Berlin The first free elections to the GDR People’s Chamber take place on 18 March. The election campaign focused mainly on the shape and speed of unification with the Federal Republic. The election result, a victory for the conservative Alliance for Germany, is a clear vote in favor of the fastest possible unification and the introduction of a social market economy. Helmut Kohl (1930– ), German statesman; chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany 1982–90, and of Germany 1990–98. As chancellor, he showed a strong commitment to NATO and to closer ties within the EU. Image: Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive) The integration of the GDR into the Federal Republic is practically completed following the creation of an economic, currency and social union in May.

In foreign policy terms, the road to German unification requires the consent of the four victorious powers of the Second World War: the United States , the Soviet Union [today Russian Federation ], France and the United Kingdom consult with the two German states on the arrangements in the Two Plus Four talks. The Two Plus Four Agreement is signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990. United Germany gains full sovereignty and the Allies territorial rights end on 3 October 1990. Germany’s unity is achieved on the same day following the accession of the GDR in accordance with Article 23 of the Basic Law. The first all-German Bundestag elections are held in December 1990: Helmut Kohl (CDU) is the first Federal Chancellor of reunified Germany. The foreign policy of the Federal Republic strongly supports the deepening of the European community: in 1995, Germany is among the first countries of the Schengen Agreement, which abolishes border controls between its members. The 1990s are strongly marked by the economic consequences of unification and the reconstruction in eastern Germany. Federal and State Governments conclude a solidarity pact to even out the differences arising from 40 years of division.

Additionally, a Solidarity Tax is levied in east and west to benefit the reconstruction of eastern Germany. Berlin has been Germany’s capital since unification; it also becomes the seat of government following a decision by the Bundestag. The Bundestag, the Federal Government and most of the ministries move from Bonn to Berlin in 1999. Gerhard Schröder (SPD) moves into the new Chancellery: he has been at the head of the first SPD-Green coalition at federal level since the 1998 elections. The 2000s - Globalization Reforms - World Cup The first decade of the new millennium presents a number of occasions for the world to look towards Germany. The first World Exposition of the century is held in Hanover : Expo 2000 is the first at which presentations focus on the themes of sustainability and a balance between humankind, nature and technology. That is appropriate in a new era with new coordinates: globalization moves the world closer together, both economically and politically – at the end of the decade it will also present its downside in the form of the global financial crisis. The 2006 World Cup puts the country into optimistic party mood.

The “summer fairytale” changes the image of Germans for many people abroad: they are cordial hosts and know how to relax and celebrate. The European Union also celebrates its 50th birthday in 2007 during the German EU Presidency in Berlin. The Berlin Declaration recalls the accomplishments of the EU and the shared values and roots of the member states. In 2004 and 2007 the community grows by 12 countries to reach a total of 27 member states. The new members are primarily central European countries. In the same year the G8 also meets in Germany: new impetus for global climate protection, Africa policy and cooperation with the newly industrialized countries come from Heiligendamm. In domestic policy, Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, at the head of a coalition of SPD and Alliance 90/The Greens, sets out to implement reforms of the welfare system and combat unemployment with the Agenda 2010 programme. In foreign policy, during this decade Germany frequently demonstrates its readiness to assume wide-ranging international responsibilities within the framework of the international community to contribute to solving conflicts and promoting civil society.

In November 2005, a woman becomes government leader for the first time: Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel governs with the votes of a CDU/CSU and SPD Grand Coalition. SPD politician Frank-Walter Steinmeier is Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Merkel and Steinmeier are the leading candidates of their respective parties for the Bundestag elections in September 2009. Janet Schayan

Question: Who in 1990 became the first chancellor of a united Germany?
Answer: Helmut Kohl