The German Day of Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit, literally "The Day of German Unity"), October 3, is a national holiday in Germany, to celebrate the country's reunification in 1990.
The natural choice would have been the day the Berlin Wall came down, namely November 9, 1989, which happily coincided with the anniversary of the founding of the first real German Republic in 1918 and the sound defeat of Hitler's first coup in 1923, which gave that republic another decade; however November 9 was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pogroms against Jews in 1938(Kristallnacht), and the day was thus considered inappropriate as a national holiday. Thus, October 3, 1990, the day of formal reunion was chosen instead. Unlike in other countries the day is not celebrated with parades of the armed forces.
Before reunification, in Western Germany the "Day of German Unity" was June 17, the day in 1953 on which workers in the former East staged a failed revolt against Communism, and many were killed by the authorities with Soviet aid. In East Germany the national holiday was October 7.
Against the background of impetus for reform from the Soviet Union (Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost", "perestroika" and "new thinking") and its rejection by the leadership of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the GDR, the exodus of GDR citizens and the mass protests that had begun late in the summer of 1989 intensified.
On 12 September 1990 the foreign ministers of the two German governments, the USA, the USSR, France and the United Kingdom signed the "Two-plus-Four Treaty" in Moscow, under which the four powers terminated their rights and responsibilities with respect to Berlin and Germany as a whole.
On the Day of GermanUnity, flags are displayed throughout the country at the highest federal authorities and the offices under their purview as well as at the public-law corporations, institutions and foundations under the supervision of federal authorities (Federal Flag Code).
The German language and the feeling of "Germanhood" go back more than a thousand years, but the state now known as Germany was unified as a modern nation-state only in 1871, when the German Empire, dominated by the Kingdom of Prussia, was forged.
Germans also are mobile; millions travel abroad each year, most of their favourite destinations being at the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
This is mainly due to a German government policy which basically grants an immigration ticket to anyone from the CIS and the Baltic states with Jewish heritage, and the fact that today's Germans are seen as significantly more accepting of Jews than many people in the ex-Soviet realm.
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