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| 1986, June |
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| A new Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, and Reactor Safety was created. The move was in direct response to the public unease that followed the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. | 1 |
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| 1987, March 11 |
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| Helmut Kohl was reelected as chancellor with CDU-CSU-FDP coalition. Kohl was reelected chancellor for the fourth time on Jan. 17, 1991. | 2 |
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| 1990 |
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| Beginning of German reunification. In March, Chancellor Kohl campaigned for national unity in East Germany with the promise to exchange East German marks one-for-one for West German marks when the country was reunified. On July 1, German monetary union was established with parity between East and West German marks. | 3 |
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| June 21 |
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| West and East German Parliaments ratified the treaty reunifying the nation. The two German states signed the unification treaty on Aug. 31, with Oct. 3 set as the date for unity. On Sept. 12 the four Allied powers and the two Germanies met in Moscow and verified the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. | 4 |
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| July 16 |
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| Chancellor Kohl met Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and agreed to pay the costs of withdrawing and rehousing Soviet troops stationed in East Germany by 1994, while Gorbachev accepted a reunified Germany in NATO. In addition, West Germany assumed all of East Germany's commercial obligations to the USSR. | 5 |
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| Oct. 3 |
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| Germany was reunified, with the former East Germany becoming five eastern Länder (states) of the Federal Republic of Germany. Berlin was restored as the capital and the seat of the united German legislature and government. Moving the government from Bonn to Berlin was scheduled to take 8 to 12 years. Unification became known as die Wende, the turning point. | 6 |
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