fonti Marc Dierikx and Sacha Zala (eds.) When the Wall Came Down The Perception of German Reunification in International Diplomatic Documents 1989–1990 International Editors of Diplomatic Documents President: Dr. Ilse Dorothee Pautsch, Akten zur Auswärtigen Politik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Secretary General: Prof. Dr. Sacha Zala, Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis) Members of the Bureau: Dr. Marc Dierikx, Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands Dr. Piotr Długołęcki, Polish Diplomatic Documents Dr. Michael Kennedy, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Mueller, Außenpolitische Dokumente der Republik Österreich Dr. Stephen P. Randolph, Foreign Relations of the United States Prof. Dr. Patrick Salmon, Documents on British Policy Overseas When the Wall Came Down The Perception of German Reunification in International Diplomatic Documents 1989–1990 Edited by Marc Dierikx and Sacha Zala with the collaboration of Franziska Ruchti and Austria Maximilian Graf and Wolfgang Mueller Canada Greg Donaghy Germany Ilse Dorothee Pautsch Israel Louise Fischer Netherlands Marc Dierikx Poland Piotr Długołęcki and Włodzimierz Boradziej Russia Artem Rudnitskiy Switzerland Franziska Ruchti and Sacha Zala Turkey Beste Pehlivan Sun and İstem Cırcıroğlu United Kingdom Richard Smith USA Adam M. Howard Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland, Bern Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Munich–Berlin The Quaderni di Dodis are a series published by the research centre Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis). For more information on the series see dodis.ch/quaderni. Series editor: Sacha Zala Editorial office: Dominik Matter Copy editing: Jan Szechi Visual concept & layout: Erik Dettwiler dewil.ch Advisory board: Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren (President, University of Basel), Prof. Dr. Sacha Zala (Secretary, University of Bern), Prof. Dr. Sébastien Guex (University of Lausanne), Prof. Dr. Claude Hauser (University of Fribourg), Prof. Dr. Matthieu Leimgruber (University of Zürich), Prof. Dr. Julia Richers (University of Bern), Prof. Dr. Davide Rodogno (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva), Prof. Dr. Matthias Schulz (University of Geneva), Prof. Dr. Brigitte Studer (University of Bern), Prof. Dr. Laurent Tissot (University of Neuchâtel) This publication is available online as an open access full-text: dodis.ch/q12. 1st edition © 2019 Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis) Hallwylstrasse 4, 3003 Bern Web: www.dodis.ch Mail: [email protected] This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). ISBN 978-3-906051-60-4 (.pdf) ISBN 978-3-906051-61-1 (Print) ISBN 978-3-906051-62-8 (.epub) ISBN 978-3-906051-63-5 (.mobi) ISSN 2235-509X DOI 10.5907/Q12 Cover: Opening of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz, 12 November 1989. Source: Dietmar Bührer (CC-BY-SA) Table of Contents 7 Foreword 9 Editorial Remarks 11 From Two Germanies to One: An Introduction 21 List of Abbreviations 23 Documents’ Summaries 35 Documents 7 Foreword The international network of Editors of Diplomatic Documents started informal- ly in 1988. Delegations from different parts of the world met for the first time in London in 1989. Since then, the reunions have taken place every second year, in The Hague (1992), Ottawa (1994), Rome (1996), Bonn (1998), Washington (2001), Canberra (2003), Paris (2005), Dublin (2007), The Hague (2009), Jerusalem (2011), Geneva (2013), Washington (2015) and London (2017). In 2019 the conference will take place in Berlin to mark the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On October 3, 2013 at the Geneva Conference in the Palais des Nations the par- ticipants decided to institutionalise the international network which lead to the foundation of the International Committee of Editors of Diplomatic Documents ICEDD. Article 2 of the Charter states the objective of the organisation: «The In- ternational Committee shall bring together scholars with a common interest in the editing of contemporary diplomatic documents, enabling them to engage in a wider discussion and investigate common concerns, concepts, problems and methodologies over a diverse range of historical and historiographical areas.» In order to strengthen the scholarly efforts and promote exchanges with the worldwide community of historians, ICEDD was accepted in 2017 as an Affiliated International Organisation of the International Committee of Historical Sciences ICHS/CISH. The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall offered the opportunity to fruitfully use the worldwide network of the ICEDD members to launch a truly international collaboration to edit a selection of documents on the perceptions of the fall of the Berlin Wall from a number of different archives. We are thrilled to say that colleagues from eleven countries (Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States) have accepted the invitation to participate. Their collective efforts are now being presented in this publication. The documents are accessible online as facsimiles in their original languages in the database Dodis. An English trans- lation is provided in this publication as well as online. Leading in this collabora- tive project has been the research centre Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis), which opened their resources and infrastructure to support this project. The editorial work was taken on by Marc Dierikx (The Netherlands) and Sacha Zala (Switzerland), supported by Franziska Ruchti (Switzerland). The Institut für Zeitgeschichte (München–Berlin) contributed financially to the publication of this book. To all of them goes a heartfelt thank you for their support. When the Wall Came Down 8 May this first truly multinational cooperation enhance the importance of the In- ternational Committee of Editors of Diplomatic Documents’ work and lead to fur- ther international exchanges and cooperative endeavors. International Committee of Editors of Diplomatic Documents (ICEDD) Dr. Ilse Dorothee Pautsch Prof. Dr. Sacha Zala President Secretary General 9 Editorial Remarks This volume of the Quaderni di Dodis is the result of an international cooperation under the auspices of the International Committee of Editors of Diplomatic Documents (ICEDD). Editors and archivists from eleven countries – Austria, Canada, Ger- many, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States – agreed to take part to this project and submitted a selection of documents on their respective countries’ perceptions of the fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification. For the purposes of this publication documents in languages other than English have been translated by the national editors. The documents are also available in their original languages as facsimiles in the freely accessible online database Dodis www.dodis.ch. In this volume the documents are presented in a strictly chronological order. A table presents a brief summary of each document to facilitate its use. In general, the documents are published in their entirety. However, some documents contain passages unrelated to the focus of this volume and have therefore been left out by the national editors. These passages are always marked with […] in the print version but the facsimile of the entire document can be consulted in the Dodis database in its original language. In the footnotes editorial remarks are in italics, while quotes are in roman type. Within the text of a document, italics are used to indicate highlights in the original (e.g. underlining, etc.). Interventions made by the editors are in square brackets and in italics. Obvious spelling and punctuation mistakes have been corrected without indication, errors are commented on in a footnote. Additionally, the style of telegrams and telexes (e.g. capitalisation, the use of abbreviations, etc.) has been normalised in order to render them more reader friendly. The heading for each document contains an editorial title, the classification and the urgency of that record (e.g. secret, urgent, etc.), the date and place of origin, as well as the permalink (e.g. dodis.ch/53170) pointing to the document’s digital facsimile, the metadata and further linked digital resources. The original title of a document (non English titles have been translated) is in SMALL CAPS. The first foot- note contains the type of the source, the archival reference and further relevant information. In the footnotes, further information about other documents and the people mentioned in the document can be found. Wherever possible, a link to the online database Dodis is provided (e.g. dodis.ch/P31852), where the reader will find additional information. The realisation of this volume would not have been possible without the magnificent efforts of the team at the research centre Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (Dodis) and the financial support of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte When the Wall Came Down 10 (München–Berlin). Last but not least, our heartfelt thanks go to our international colleagues. Without their hard work and support this pioneering and truly inter- national publication would not have been possible. Marc Dierikx and Sacha Zala 11 From Two Germanies to One: An Introduction Four years after the end of hostilities in 1945, two new German states emerged from the rubble of the Third Reich and the developing Cold War. On 23 May 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was founded