Since 1990, countless scientific books and articles have been published on the topic of the unification of Germany. I did not mean to add another learned contribution to a subject where everything that could have possibly been said and written has been said and written. I rather intended to familiarize the audience with a rather complex and multidimensional process within the limited space of time of a conference. This, alas!, compelled undue simplification from me. In order not to further complicate a difficult enough subject I felt, above all, constrained to concentrate on the intra-German aspects of unification. As a result, I deliberately had to leave the many international and external problems and developments out of account. This is particularly true for the Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany (Two-plus-four Treaty) of September 12, 1990, and the Polish-German Border Treaty of November 14, 1990, as well as the termination of international treaties to which the former German Democratic Republic was a party, and Germany's membership in the European Union and NATO after the unification.