(blue) consists of the American, British and French Zones (without the Saarland [purple], which later joined West Germany after a referendum), while East Germany (red) is formed from the Soviet Zone (without the western sections of Berlin [yellow]).]]
German reunification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) took place on 3 October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) established five states which joined the Federal Republic of Germany while the GDR abolished its existence. The start of this reunification process is commonly referred to as Die Wende (The Turning / The Change).
After the GDR's first free elections on 18 March 1990, negotiations between the GDR and FRG culminated in a Unification Treaty, whilst negotiations between the GDR and FRG and the four occupying powers produced the so-called "Two Plus Four Treaty" granting full sovereignty to a unified German state, whose two halves had previously still been bound by a number of limitations stemming from its post-WWII-status as an occupied nation.
The reunified Germany remained a member of the European Community (later the European Union) and NATO.
