Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany
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The Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany is the final peace treaty negotiated between the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and the Four Powers which occupied Germany at the end of World War II in Europe - France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. The treaty was signed in Moscow on September 12, 1990. The treaty is sometimes referred to as the Two Plus Four Agreement and paved the way for the German re-unification, which took place on October 3.
Under the terms of the treaty, the Four Powers renounced all rights they formerly held in Germany, including Berlin, and the re-united country became fully sovereign again on March 15, 1991. Soviet troops were to leave Germany by the end of 1994. Germany agreed to limit its combined armed forces to no more than 370,000 personnel, no more than 345,000 of whom were to be in the army and air force. Germany also agreed it would never acquire nuclear weapons.
Perhaps the most significant of the treaty's terms was Germany's renouncing of all claims to territory east of the Oder-Neisse line—Germany thus finally accepted the territorial losses imposed after 1945. Germany also agreed to sign a separate treaty with Poland confirming their present border, which it did the following year.
Although the treaty was signed by the two German states as separate entities, it was ratified by a united Germany per the terms of the agreement.
External Links
- Full Text of the Treaty (http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/2plusfour8994e.htm) (US Embassy in Germany Web site)de:Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag