When Germany reunified, the Soviet Union was in favor of it, while only the UK, France, and Italy were most opposed to German unification. The reason for the Soviet Union's support was that West Germany really paid up, providing a total of 12 billion Deutschmarks in unconditional aid and 9 billion Deutschmarks in low-interest loans to the Soviet Union.

At that time, 1 West German Mark could be exchanged for 0.68 US dollars, so 21 billion Marks equaled 14.28 billion US dollars. In 1990, 1 US dollar could buy 4.5 liters of milk, and a Cadillac Fleetwood also sold for only six or seven ten thousand US dollars. (In the 1970s during the peak of the Soviet Union, the annual income from selling oil was only 10 billion US dollars.)

Thus, the Soviet Union decisively agreed to the reunification of the two Germanys.反倒 was the UK, France, and Italy that became anxious. For example, French President Mitterrand, who was born in 1916, became a prisoner of war of the German army during World War II and was held three times in German concentration camps. During the reunification of the two Germanys, Mitterrand even openly stated that he wanted to provide economic assistance to the Soviet Union to make the people of West Germany sober up and stop unrealistic ideas.

What was very interesting was that West Germany had originally prepared tens of billions of funds on the assumption that the Soviet Union would make a big demand, but unexpectedly, Gorbachev just asked for such a small amount of money.

PS: Margaret Thatcher, who experienced World War II, was always tough on the Soviet Union during her term and even imposed economic sanctions. But as soon as she heard about the reunification of the two Germanys, she immediately expressed willingness to provide economic assistance to the Soviet Union. She even carried around a 37-year-old German map to warn various countries, indicating that the unification of Germany would have serious consequences.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1827728243710212/

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