The Berlin Wall may have fallen in 1989, but it was by no means clear that East and West Germany would come together. One key step in the process was a trip by the West German Chancellor to Russia on July 14, 1990.
On July 7, 1990, the Economist magazine began a story on what was already being touted as a historical meeting with the following words: "The West German chancellor, Mr. Helmut Kohl, will head to Moscow chasing the deal of his life."
The deal was, of course, German reunification, and Kohl's negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, which took place in Moscow and Stavropol from July 14 to 16, have often been regarded as a swashbuckling diplomatic breakthrough.
That's something of an exaggeration. The Soviets had already agreed in principle to German reunification in consultations with the US, which had been going on since late 1989 after the opening of the Iron Curtain.
The main sticking point was whether an enlarged German nation would be allowed to remain a member of NATO, as West Germany had been.
One of Kohl's point-men in dealing with the Kremlin, Deputy Head of the German Chancellory Horst Teltschick, says Kohl made German NATO membership a precondition for extending the trip to Gorbachev's vacation dacha.
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