German reunification (German: Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) took place twice after 1945: first in 1957, the Saarland was permitted to join the Federal Republic of Germany, and again on 3 October 1990, when the five re-established states of the German Democratic Republic (GDR / East Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG / West Germany), and Berlin was united into a single city-state. The start of the latter unification process is by former citizens of the GDR commonly referred to as die Wende (The Turning Point.). The end of the unification process is officially referred to as the German unity (German: Deutsche Einheit) with German Unity Day being celebrated on October 3.
The German reunification started in the summer of 1989, when Hungary decided (2 May) to dismantle its portion of the Iron Curtain and open the borders (23 August), causing an exodus of thousands of East Germans (11 September) going to West Germany via Hungary.
The political crisis that followed the Hungarian events led to GDR's first free elections on 18 March 1990, and to the negotiations between the GDR and FRG that 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" (Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany) 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 united Germany remained a member of the European Community (later the European Union) and of NATO.
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