Pearson Edexcel International GCSE in History · 4HI1 · Free · no account needed

The collapse of the SED and reunification

Why did the people who made the revolution lose the first free election it produced?

Option A5 · East Germany, 1958–90 › Key topic 5 · The Peaceful Revolution, 1987–90 — one of 3 lessons in this key topic. Paper 2 Section A — historical investigation: East Germany, 1958–90, key topic 5 (30 marks: 6 · 8 · 16).

Learn the collapse of the SED and reunification, teach it to an AI pupil, then defend it in a marked debate — this lesson carries all three.

What the specification asks for

“The immediate causes of the end of the GDR (1989–90), the collapse of the SED government and the elections of March 1990, the reunification of East and West Germany (March–October 1990).” — examined through change and consequence. Incandio is aligned to specification 4HI1; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson.

1 · Understand it

From reform to unification

Once the border was open the question changed. Through the autumn the demonstrations had demanded reform of the GDR; within weeks the demand had become unification, and the slogan shifted from a claim to be the people to a claim to be one people. The civic movements that had organised the protests wanted a reformed, democratic and separate East Germany, and found the ground moving under them.

The party dissolved and reconstituted itself. The SED's leading role was removed from the constitution in December 1989, Krenz resigned, and a round table brought the government and the opposition groups together to prepare free elections. The Stasi was wound up, and its offices in Erfurt and then Berlin were occupied by citizens in January 1990 to stop the destruction of files — which is why the archive exists.

Kohl moved quickly. His ten-point programme of November 1989 proposed a confederal path towards unity, and by early 1990 the West German government was arguing for rapid unification and offering monetary union at terms favourable to East German savers.

The election that decided it

The first free election in the GDR's history was held on 18 March 1990. The Alliance for Germany, backed by Kohl's Christian Democrats and committed to rapid unification, won decisively. The civic movements that had made the revolution — New Forum and the groups around it — took a small share of the vote. The reformed communists did better than the civic movements and were nowhere near power.

The result is the strand's honest ending and it is frequently softened in teaching. East German voters were offered a reformed GDR and rapid unification with the Deutschmark, and they chose the second by a clear margin. The people who had stood in Leipzig in October were defeated in March by an electorate that wanted a currency more than it wanted a reformed state.

Unification followed at speed. Monetary union came on 1 July 1990, converting East German savings into Deutschmarks at rates generous to individuals and devastating to East German industry, which was exposed overnight to Western competition at a Western exchange rate. The Two Plus Four Treaty settled the external questions with the four occupying powers, and the GDR acceded to the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990.

Judging an ending that is still argued about

This strand's evidence is unusually recent and unusually contested, and a candidate should treat that as a feature to be handled rather than a difficulty to be avoided.

The documentary record is excellent: election results, treaty texts, parliamentary debates and the opened archives. On what happened, the sources are as good as any on the specification.

On consequences the argument is live. Unemployment in the east rose sharply as industry closed, large numbers of people moved west, and a sense of having been absorbed rather than joined is well attested in eastern testimony. Against that, incomes, infrastructure, healthcare and personal freedom improved substantially, and the electorate that chose this route in March 1990 knew broadly what it was choosing.

The discipline is to keep the vote and its consequences apart. That East Germans voted decisively for rapid unification is a fact. Whether the terms on which it was carried out served them well is a judgement, and one on which people who voted for it disagree among themselves.

2 · Learn it — the notes

The dates that earn marks

December 1989
The SED's leading role is removed from the constitution and a round table prepares free elections. Why this date: It ends the one-party state five weeks after the border opened.
18 March 1990
The first free GDR election is won decisively by parties committed to rapid unification. Why this date: The civic movements that made the revolution were defeated by the electorate it enfranchised, which is the strand's central fact.
1 July 1990
Monetary union converts East German savings into Deutschmarks. Why this date: It exposes East German industry to Western competition overnight and shapes everything that followed economically.
3 October 1990
The GDR accedes to the Federal Republic. Why this date: Unification took under eleven months from the opening of the border, which is the measure of how fast the question changed.

The figures, and how far to trust them

  • 18 March 1990 — The date of the first and only free election in the GDR's history.
  • A small share of the vote — The result for the civic movements that had organised the demonstrations. (Exact percentages depend on how the alliances are grouped; all accounts agree the result was decisive against them.)
  • Under eleven months — The interval from the opening of the border to reunification.

The people to place

  • Helmut Kohl — West German Chancellor; proposed the path to unity in November 1989 and pressed for speed.
  • Lothar de Maizière — Won the March 1990 election and led the GDR's last government to accession.
  • Mikhail Gorbachev — Accepted a united Germany within NATO in the Two Plus Four negotiations.

How historians disagree

Attributed interpretations, never voiced — the AO4 seam.

  • The 'chose the currency' reading: East Germans were offered a reformed GDR and rapid unification with the Deutschmark and chose the second decisively, so the revolution's outcome was decided at the ballot box by people who wanted West German living standards rather than a better East German state. Contested by The reading that the choice was not free in any meaningful sense, since the economy was collapsing, people were leaving weekly, and the alternative on offer had no plausible means of support..

What students say — and what is actually the case

Not this: The civic movements led East Germany to unification.

This: They organised the demonstrations and wanted a reformed, separate GDR. They were defeated heavily in March 1990 by parties committed to rapid unification.

Not this: Reunification was a merger of two states.

This: The GDR acceded to the Federal Republic under the existing West German constitution. East German institutions were replaced rather than combined, which is why the experience is described in the east as absorption.

Two things students merge

Blurred: The revolution and the election.

The distinction: The people who made the first lost the second, five months apart. Merging them produces a story in which the demonstrators got what they wanted, and they did not.

Blurred: The vote and its consequences.

The distinction: That East Germans chose rapid unification is a fact settled by a count. Whether the terms served them is a judgement still argued about, including by the people who voted for it.

What a Grade 9 answer holds here

A Grade 9 answer refuses the tidy ending. The people who stood in Leipzig in October wanted a reformed and separate East Germany, and five months later their electorate chose the Deutschmark and accession instead — so the revolution succeeded completely in removing a government and failed completely in achieving the thing most of its organisers had gone out for.

3 · How it is examined

This strand is genuinely set through: Paper 2 Section A (a) (6 marks — “Describe TWO features of EITHER … OR ….”); Paper 2 Section A (b) (8 marks — “How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about …? Explain your answer.”); Paper 2 Section A (c) (16 marks — “Extract C suggests that …. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.”).

What earns marks: The March 1990 result stated against what the civic movements had wanted. It is the fact that stops the account becoming a story in which the demonstrators won.

4 · Prove it — the questions

Answered inside Incandio, where a marker checks what a correct answer must contain and tells you which half was missing. The marking stays in the app; the questions are here.

  1. Describe two features of the end of the GDR between 1989 and 1990. [6 marks · Paper 2 Section A (a)]
  2. How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about East German attitudes to unification? [8 marks · Paper 2 Section A (b)]
  3. How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the consequences of monetary union? [8 marks · Paper 2 Section A (b)]
  4. Extract C suggests that East Germans voted for the Deutschmark rather than for democracy in March 1990. How far do you agree with this interpretation? [16 marks · Paper 2 Section A (c)]
  5. Extract C suggests that reunification was an absorption rather than a union. How far do you agree with this interpretation? [16 marks · Paper 2 Section A (c)]

Think you understand it?

Reading is the start. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it — the two things a revision guide cannot ask of you.

Incandio this topic → Prove it. Teach it. Defend it. What does “Incandio it” mean?

  1. Prove it — five questions on the collapse of the SED and reunification, marked on the spot, that tell you what was missing rather than just what was wrong.
  2. Teach it — Explain the collapse of the SED and reunification — what happened, why, and what it made possible — to Ember, an AI pupil who asks the awkward question. Understanding is credited; wording is not required.
  3. Defend it — Argue the collapse of the SED and reunification against the historical mind with the strongest claim on it — three rounds, marked against descriptors you can read before you begin.
  4. Then the exam — 15 authored exam-style questions on this option, marked on Incandio with the mistake you actually made named.

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The debate is against The Case for the Streets — the case itself, argued at its strongest, because on this strand there is no single person whose position the learner has to defeat.

The same people, elsewhere in the option

Carry on through the option