# Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
The **Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany** (*Vertrag über die abschließende Regelung in bezug auf Deutschland*, commonly the "Two Plus Four Treaty") is the international agreement signed at Moscow on 12 September 1990 by the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which settled the external conditions of German unification and ended the Four Powers' residual rights over Germany from the Second World War.[1](https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201696/v1696.pdf) • [2](https://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/wiedervereinigung/en/aussenpolitische_aspekte.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Signed | Moscow, 12 September 1990, by the two German states and the four wartime Allied powers[1](https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201696/v1696.pdf) |
| Negotiating format | "Two plus Four": the foreign ministers of the Federal Republic and the GDR plus those of France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, in four rounds from May to September 1990[3](https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1990-09-12-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-202422) |
| Sovereignty | Article 7 terminated the rights and responsibilities of the Four Powers relating to Berlin and Germany as a whole; the united Germany received full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) |
| Borders | The borders of the united Germany were declared definitive, with no territorial claims against other states; the German-Polish border was to be confirmed in a binding treaty[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) • [5](https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/a-new-germany-1990-2023/ghdi%3Adocument-176) |
| Soviet withdrawal | All Soviet forces stationed in the GDR were to leave by the end of 1994[3](https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1990-09-12-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-202422) |
| Military limits | The united Germany undertook to reduce its armed forces to 370,000 within three to four years and reaffirmed the renunciation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) |
| Entry into force | 15 March 1991, after the Soviet Union ratified on 4 March 1991[6](https://www.zaoerv.de/51_1991/51_1991_2_a_470_493.pdf) |
## Origins of the Two Plus Four formula
After the [Berlin Wall](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-wall) fell in 1989, the division of Germany could only be overcome with the consent of the four Allied powers of the Second World War, whose reserved rights over Germany as a whole and over Berlin had survived the founding of the two German states in 1949.[2](https://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/wiedervereinigung/en/aussenpolitische_aspekte.html) • [4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) At the CSCE conference in Ottawa in February 1990, the representatives of the four victorious powers and the delegations of the GDR and the Federal Republic agreed on the "Two-plus-Four" formula: the external conditions for settling the German question would be negotiated in joint diplomatic talks.[7](https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-entdecken/online-entdecken/storys/der-weg-zur-deutschen-einheit/februar-1990/) The order of the name mattered to the participants; the Federal Republic's chronicle records that the formula was deliberately "Zwei plus Vier" and not the reverse, "Vier plus Zwei", reflecting that the two German states, not the powers, drove the process.[8](https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/deutsche-einheit/2-4-konferenz-in-bonn-424682)
## The negotiating rounds
The foreign ministers met in four rounds between May and September 1990. The first round opened in Bonn on 5 May 1990, hosted by [Hans-Dietrich Genscher](https://www.edgepedia.org/hans-dietrich-genscher) for the Federal Republic and Markus Meckel, foreign minister of the first freely elected GDR government, together with [James Baker](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-baker) for the United States, Eduard Shevardnadze for the Soviet Union, and Roland Dumas for France.[8](https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/deutsche-einheit/2-4-konferenz-in-bonn-424682) The second round took place in [East Berlin](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-berlin) on 22 June 1990.[9](https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/deutsche-einheit/2-4-verhandlungen-in-ostberlin-476394) A meeting between Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev in July 1990 settled the German-Soviet modalities of reunification, removing the Soviet Union's central objection.[2](https://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/wiedervereinigung/en/aussenpolitische_aspekte.html) After four rounds, the negotiators had agreed on all foreign and security policy questions of German unity, and the treaty was signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990.[3](https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1990-09-12-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-202422)
## What the treaty settled
**Sovereignty.** Article 7 ended the rights and responsibilities of the Four Powers in relation to Berlin and Germany as a whole; the corresponding quadripartite agreements, decisions, and institutions were terminated. The united Germany accordingly received full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs, and the allied forces remaining on German soil did so as invited guests under agreements with the German government, not as an occupation power.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf)
**Borders.** Article 1 declared the borders of the united Germany definitive and stated that Germany would make no territorial claims against any state. The existing German-Polish border was to be confirmed in a treaty binding under international law, which the united Germany and Poland signed on 14 November 1990; this provision finally closed the territorial questions left open since 1945, since the Federal Republic had previously held that its own border treaties of 1970 could not bind a united Germany.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) • [5](https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/a-new-germany-1990-2023/ghdi%3Adocument-176) A guarantee toward Poland, described by the [Bundestag](https://www.edgepedia.org/bundestag) chronicle as at least a partial success for Polish diplomacy, was written into the treaty.[3](https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1990-09-12-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-202422)
**Forces and weapons.** Soviet troops stationed in the GDR were to withdraw completely by the end of 1994, and the Four Powers' rights in Berlin and all of Germany were to lapse.[3](https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1990-09-12-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-202422) Until the withdrawal was complete, only German military units not integrated into NATO could be stationed in the eastern territory and Berlin, and no armed forces of other states could be stationed or act there.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) The united Germany undertook to reduce its armed forces to 370,000 within three to four years, a commitment framed as a unilateral German undertaking in the context of the parallel Vienna negotiations on conventional forces in Europe.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) Both German states reaffirmed their renunciation of the manufacture, possession of, and control over nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty's obligations were to continue to apply to the united Germany.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf)
**Alliance membership.** Article 6 declared that the right of the united Germany to belong to alliances, with all the rights and responsibilities arising therefrom, would not be affected by the treaty, clearing the way for unified Germany's NATO membership.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) A related understanding recorded that NATO's infrastructure would not expand onto the former GDR territory while the Soviet western group of forces was stationed there.[10](https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/555750/der-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-die-stufen-der-einigung-ueber-die-einheit/)
**Property claims.** During the negotiations, the exclusion of restitution for property expropriated under occupation measures in 1945 to 1949 was made a precondition by both the GDR and the Soviet Union; the Federal Constitutional Court later confirmed this in upholding the unification treaties, and the Federal Republic accepted liability neither for restitution of those expropriations nor for acts of the occupation authorities in the Soviet zone.[11](https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/EN/1991/04/rs19910423_1bvr117090en.html) • [12](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-law-reports/article/abs/unification-treaty-constitutionality-case-merits/97D6E661D95E175724880802A3F7771D)
## Ratification and effect
The last state to ratify was the Soviet Union, on 4 March 1991, and the treaty entered into force on 15 March 1991.[6](https://www.zaoerv.de/51_1991/51_1991_2_a_470_493.pdf) It was registered with the United Nations as Treaty Series volume 1696, No. 29226.[1](https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201696/v1696.pdf) [German reunification](https://www.edgepedia.org/german-reunification), which the Kiel international-law account records as completed on 3 October 1990, would not have come about without the agreement of the two German states and the former occupying forces.[13](https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/unizeit/uz/news/curious-treaty)
Although the four Allied powers had not intended to conclude a formal peace treaty, the settlement performed the function of one, ending the state of war-era arrangements from the Second World War in place of a classical peace treaty.[14](https://repo.kinu.or.kr/retrieve/11769) Commentators differ on some points of legal theory, but it is undisputed that the treaty gave Germany back its full sovereignty.[13](https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/unizeit/uz/news/curious-treaty)
## The military provisions in later debate
The treaty's military provisions concern Germany itself. No forces of states other than Germany were to be stationed in the eastern territory and Berlin while Soviet troops remained, and the treaty permitted the united Germany to belong to alliances without restriction.[4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf) The negotiated understanding that NATO infrastructure would not move onto former GDR territory while the Soviet western group of forces was stationed there remained a transitional arrangement tied to that withdrawal, alongside the renunciation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and the 370,000-troop ceiling.[10](https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/555750/der-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-die-stufen-der-einigung-ueber-die-einheit/) • [4](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf)
## References
1. [Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (with agreed minute), signed at Moscow on 12 September 1990, United Nations Treaty Series Vol. 1696, No. 29226](https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%201696/v1696.pdf)
2. [1990: The Path to Unification, foreign policy aspects, Deutsches Historisches Museum](https://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/wiedervereinigung/en/aussenpolitische_aspekte.html)
3. [12. September 1990: Der "Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag" wird unterzeichnet, Deutscher Bundestag](https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/1990-09-12-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-202422)
4. [Kay Hailbronner, Legal Aspects of the Unification of the Two German States, European Journal of International Law 2 (1991)](https://www.ejil.org/pdfs/2/1/2024.pdf)
5. [Two-Plus-Four Treaty on Germany (September 12, 1990), German History in Documents and Images](https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/a-new-germany-1990-2023/ghdi%3Adocument-176)
6. [Legal Status of Berlin and German Reunification, Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 51 (1991)](https://www.zaoerv.de/51_1991/51_1991_2_a_470_493.pdf)
7. [Februar 1990, Bundesarchiv, Der Weg zur Deutschen Einheit](https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-entdecken/online-entdecken/storys/der-weg-zur-deutschen-einheit/februar-1990/)
8. [Chronik der Deutschen Einheit: 05.05.1990, 2+4-Konferenz startet in Bonn, Bundesregierung](https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/deutsche-einheit/2-4-konferenz-in-bonn-424682)
9. [Chronik der Deutschen Einheit: 22.06.1990, 2+4-Verhandlungen in Ostberlin, Bundesregierung](https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/deutsche-einheit/2-4-verhandlungen-in-ostberlin-476394)
10. [Der Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag: Die Stufen der Einigung über die Einheit, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung](https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/555750/der-zwei-plus-vier-vertrag-die-stufen-der-einigung-ueber-die-einheit/)
11. [Bundesverfassungsgericht, Judgment of 23 April 1991, 1 BvR 1170/90](https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/EN/1991/04/rs19910423_1bvr117090en.html)
12. [Unification Treaty Constitutionality Case (Merits), International Law Reports, Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-law-reports/article/abs/unification-treaty-constitutionality-case-merits/97D6E661D95E175724880802A3F7771D)
13. [Curious treaty with historic impact, Universität Kiel](https://www.uni-kiel.de/en/unizeit/uz/news/curious-treaty)
14. [Maull and Harnisch, Exploring the German Analogy: The '2+4 Process' and Its Relevance for the Korean Peninsula, KINU repository](https://repo.kinu.or.kr/retrieve/11769)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › International relations › Treaties › Peace and war-ending treaties › Late-20th and 21st-century peace treaties*
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