East Germany Vanished Overnight in 1990 — What Happened to Its 16 Million Citizens?

East Germany buried 3,000 tonnes of its own banknotes in a mountain. Then it had to dig them up and burn them. On 3 October 1990 the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and 16 million people went to bed in one country and woke in another. This episode tells it through nine objects the state left behind: the banknote vault at Halberstadt, the 14-year Trabant waiting list, the Berlin Wall, the secret Schürer paper of 30 October 1989 that recorded the country's own insolvency, the briefing note that Günter Schabowski was handed without being briefed, the 1:1 currency union of 1 July 1990, the asbestos-sealed Palast der Republik where the last Volkskammer could not meet, an East German pension statement, and the Ampelmännchen still standing on the traffic lights of Berlin. Along the way: Harald Jäger opening the Bornholmer Straße crossing, Helmut Kohl's "blooming landscapes", the Treuhandanstalt under Detlev Karsten Rohwedder and the four million jobs it inherited, and the 02:47 vote by which a parliament abolished its own country. Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:43 A waiting list 04:31 A section of concrete 05:47 Thirty pages dated October 07:35 A Note in a Man's Hand 09:44 A number printed in treaty 13:57 A Sealed Building 16:04 A Pension Statement 22:55 A Figure On Traffic Light 25:03 Closing Remarks Subscribe to The Last Flag for more historical videos #history #documentary #eastgermany #berlinwall #coldwar