On 10 December 1971, in Oslo, Willy Brandt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In an address delivered the following day at the University of Oslo, the German Chancellor emphasises the importance of Europe for his country’s identity and development. In addition to the unification process in Western Europe, he refers to the establishment of a European partnership for peace.

On 15 March 1984, the West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, delivers to the Bundestag an address on the state of the nation in which he emphasises the importance of German unity and highlights the efforts made to normalise relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

On 1 December 1988, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), delivers an address to the Bundestag on the state of the nation in divided Germany.

On 13 June 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, sign a Joint Declaration in Bonn concerning the recent upheavals in international relations.

On 23 December 1989, or a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the French newspaper Le Monde ponders the role of reunified Germany within the Europe of the Twelve.

‘It will be peaceful and completely harmless.’ In 1989, the German cartoonist, Walter Hanel, portrays Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German Foreign Minister, who is arguing for a reunified Germany at the United Nations.

On 12 February 1990, the German Conservative-Liberal daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung speculates on the consequences of the decision taken in Moscow to give the green light to the reunification of the two Germanies.

On 21 February 1990, in an interview for the Communist daily newspaper Pravda, Mikhail Gorbachev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), gives his view on the reunification of Germany.

On 9 March 1990, in an article for the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), emphasises the significance of the historic reunification of the two Germanys.

On 15 July 1990, the Federal German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, meets Mikhail Gorbachev, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, in Stavropol, in the Caucasus, to discuss German reunification.