tv.berlin Special - 25 Years of German Unity // Günther Krause (Part 3)

Professor Dr. Günther Krause was the CDU parliamentary group leader in the East German People's Chamber and simultaneously State Secretary to East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière. In this capacity, he negotiated the details of German reunification with Bonn. His counterpart in Bonn was Wolfgang Schäuble. The negotiations covered both small and large issues. The two German states had different education and school systems, two currencies, and completely different legal systems. Abortion was a crime in the West, but not in East Germany. All of this had to be reconciled and harmonized. Another issue was how the 370,000 soldiers of the Soviet Red Army would be paid for their meals after July 1, 1990. Until then, all supplies for the Red Army had been paid from the East German budget in East German marks. From July 1st, however, the West German mark was introduced. And the Red Army had no West German marks in its coffers. So Krause had to fly to Moscow to negotiate this. Ultimately, the soldiers received West German marks and their bread as before. That was not the only difficulty that stood in the way of the two negotiators, Krause and Schäuble.