Max Pearson
speaker
1,342 appearances
10 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2025
last heard 11 Apr
Max Pearson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 10 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 3.
Appearances
But on 9 November, Kohl spots a window of opportunity and seizes on his chance to redraw the map of Europe.
Three weeks later, Helmut Kohl sets out his route map for a united Germany.
That apprehension is also growing amongst the World War II allies.
The 1945 Potsdam Agreement says the US, the UK, France and the Soviet Union must give consent for a united Germany.
The USA is quick to support reunification, and Kohl offers concessions to France, reassuring President Mitterrand that reunification would not pose a threat.
But by December 1989, Europe is split.
with opposition not just from the UK, but the Netherlands and Italy too.
After democratic elections in East Germany in March 1990, the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev finally accepts a unified Germany is inevitable.
Kohl's careful diplomacy overcomes European opposition, with only the UK holding out.
But Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is not for turning.
The rapid reunification plan looks like it will fall at the final hurdle.
But as the clock ticks down, Helmut Kohl decides it's time to use his trump card, the President of the United States.
Why do you think she was willing to do it for George Bush?
Later that day, a treaty restoring Germany's full sovereignty is signed by both German states and the four Allied powers, paving the way for a united Germany.
Good morning from Berlin on the day the last scar of the Second World War was healed.
Just 328 days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, present day Germany was formed, with Berlin eventually restored as its capital city.
Joachim Bitterlich, who served as a key advisor to Helmut Kohl until 1998.
He was speaking to Jacqueline Payne.
The fall of the Wall was such a pivotal moment, and you can find many first-hand stories from either side of the Iron Curtain Division of Europe on our website.
Go to bbc.com slash witnesshistory.
Showing 201–220 of 1,342 · page 11 of 68
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