The Two Plus Four Agreement

The groundwork is laid for German reunification

The situation in the DDR deteriorated rapidly following the fall of the Berlin Wall. In response, the government under reformist Hans Modrow negotiated with the opposition to bring forwards the East German parliamentary elections to March 1990. The aim was to enable the formation of a democratically legitimate government. The Alliance for Germany – a conglomerate of parties that backed Chancellor Kohl’s plan for rapid reunification – won the election by a landslide. The new East German government, led by Lothar de Maizière, sought rapid reunification with the Federal Republic, a step that would require the resolution of aspects of German sovereignty that had only been provisionally settled after the Second World War. These included the rights of the four powers, the borders of the new state, membership of NATO, and which troops could be stationed in Germany.

The foreign ministers of the four powers that had won the Second World War drew up an international agreement known as the Two-Plus-Four Treaty, which was signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990 by the two German states, the USA, France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The Federal Republic and the DDR committed themselves to accepting the Oder-Neisse line as the eastern border of a united Germany, thereby renouncing a quarter of the pre-1937 German territory in perpetuity. The prohibition on Germany owning nuclear weapons was reaffirmed. The attainment of full German sovereignty meant that Germany could finally look to the future.