DISINFO: East Germany was attached to the West as a colony
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: Rossia 24 (archived)*
  • Date of publication: October 04, 2020
  • Outlet language(s): Russian
  • Reported in: Issue 214
  • Countries / regions discussed: Germany
Tags:
Historical revisionism

DISINFO: East Germany was attached to the West as a colony

SUMMARY

30 years ago, on the 3rd October 1990, West and East Germany united and became one state. This is the official version. In fact it was unfriendly incorporation and East Germany, former GDR betrayed by the Soviet Union attached to the West as a colony.

RESPONSE

Historical revisionism and disinformation about the unification of Germany. The downfall of the German Democratic Republic was triggered by the decay of the other communist regimes in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Berlin wall, first free multiparty elections took place in East Germany, where a the eastern counterpart of Christian Democratic Union won the majority of votes. The new government began negotiations for a treaty of unification of Germany, amid a surging tide of refugees from East to West. The final barrier to reunification fell in July 1990 when German chancellor Kohl prevailed upon Gorbachev to drop his objections to a unified Germany within the NATO alliance in return for sizable financial aid to the Soviet Union. A unification treaty was ratified by the Bundestag and the People’s Chamber in September and went into effect on October 3, 1990. The German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic as five additional Länder (federal states). Read more about the reunification of Germany here. The economic and other differenced between the Eastern and Western parts of Germany still exist, but there is no basis to claim that the Eastern part of the country is colonized by the Western one.

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Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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