The national holiday “reminds us how the people in the GDR fought the Communist dictatorship using peaceful means to win their freedom. They thereby wrote one of the most beautiful chapters in Germany’s history and bestowed this gift on all of us in Germany,” according to German President Kohler. The day celebrates the vote by German parliament on Oct. 3, 1990 that unified the country, which had been separated by a barbed wire wall in the city of Berlin. Erected in 1961, the wall was meant to keep people isolated in western Germany.
Visit “From Cold War Division to Peaceful Unification” on the German Embassy Website for great information on the history of the unification of this great country.