Lecture: The UK’s Attitude to German Unification, 2 March 2010

In September 2009, shortly before Germany celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office published a 528 page collection of the key British government documents concerning the evolution during 1989 and 1990 of the British approach to German unification – drawn from the archives both of the Foreign Office and of the Cabinet Office.

In a lecture organised by the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft in cooperation with the British Embassy in Berlin, Sir Colin Budd drew on these documents which make it possible to consider the UK’s attitude in a new light.In his analysis, Sir Colin showed that despite Mrs Thatcher’s well known reservations about German unity, the United Kingdom played a vital and constructive role in the negotiations that helped to bring it about. Sir Colin, who served in the British diplomatic service for 38 years until 2005, participated in the process of German unification as Head of the Political Section in the British Embassy in Bonn from 1989-90.

From left to right:
Gebhardt v. Moltke, Sir Colin Budd, Sir Michael Arthur