‘Reunification? No problem — I’ve got it firmly in my pocket!’ On 16 February 1990, the day after Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s visit to the Élysée Palace, French cartoonist Alain Tredez paints an ironic picture of the reservations of President François Mitterrand concerning the ‘fait accompli’ policy of Chancellor Kohl with regard to the question of German reunification and the simple absorption of the German Democratic Republic by West Germany. For Chancellor Kohl, the fate of the GDR is already sealed.