What impact did the revolution in the GDR and Kohl's Ten Point Plan in 1989 have on German reunification?

The revolution in the GDR, and its impact on the FRG:

• Refugee problem ran parallel to a growing political protest movement in the GDR
• 21 August - Honecker was taken ill; SED found it difficult to deal with the situation
• New opposition groups emerged that challenged the power of the SED
• September - mass protests against the Communist system broke out in Leipzig, following Monday church services - only way young Germans could protest against the government
• Despite the police breaking them up and threats from the SED, the protests continued in Leipzig every Monday
• 25 September - Honecker returned to work and acted as though there was no danger to the GDR
• October 1989 - 320,000 people were participating in the Leipzig protest movement
• The government's inability to stop the movement was a key development in the fall of Communism in East Germany
• beginning of October - riot in Dresden involving 10,000 people after they tried to attack a train with 14,000 East Germans emigrating to the FRG as Honecker wanted to make them look like 'traitors', but these people attacked the train, trying to get on it
• Honecker declined to deal with the mass protests with poltical reform
• Instead he:
  • closed the border with Czechoslovakia
  • 7 October - persisted with the 40-year anniversary celebrations of the GDR
• However, the celebrations were a failure for Honecker:
  • scuffles between police and protestors
  • GDR youth embarrassed Honecker through their enthusiastic response to Gorbachev - USSR could no longer economically support the GDR, thus threatened its survival
• 9 October - 70,000 protested in Leipzig against the Communist system
• 17 October:
  • 100,000 protested in Leipzig
  • leadership within the SED decided it needed to take action
  • Honecker was removed as leader and replaced with Krenz
  • Krenz announced he hoped it was not too late to introduce political reforms to develop a country which East Germans would want to live in
• Krenz's new government was just as inadequate in producing the deep reforms that East Germans desired
• SED still refused to:
  • accept any changes that might challenge its leading role in the GDR
  • legalisation of the new opposition groups that had formed since September
• Government attempted to introduce a new travel law that would give GDR citizens greater freedom - too confusing and complex so it was rejected
• November 1989 - 750,000 East Germans were protesting across East Germany
• 4 November 1989 - mass protests took place in Berlin, with East Germans demanding:
  • political freedom
  • legalisation of opposition groups
  • freedom to unrestricted travel…