Germany Celebrates 20 Years of Unification

People in Berlin starting out Unification celebrations earlier Saturday. Photo by EPA/BGNES.

Germans celebrate Sunday two decade since the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on October 3, 1990.

The country was divided by the Western and Eastern blocs, but after the collapse of communist regimes across Eastern Europe, the Germans chose to reunify, just a year after the Berlin Wall was torn down.

Five of Germany's states, formerly part of the German Democratic Republic (Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, as well as the federal city of Berlin, were included in the Federal Republic of Germany 20 years ago.

This year official celebrations will center in the federal city of Bremen, which is currently presiding the Bundesrat.

President of Germany Christian Wulff will give a speech at the official celebration, which will be attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel, cabinet members, MPs and other senior officials, as well as representatives of other countries.

As is usual, left wing organizations marched before official celebrations, mostly in Bremen, to voice their opposition to the unification. The protests were largely peaceful, reports Deutsche Welle. They nevertheless remind of controversies about how the unification was carried out, with fears that the eastern part was "swallowed" and dominating the western, and reverse concern that it was dragging the latter's economy back.

Federal Merkell called for solidarity among Germans and for support for the values of freedom and democracy.

Large festivities are also traditionally planned for Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, a major site of the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

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