Since 1990, Germany has celebrated the 'Tag der Deutschen Einheit' as a national holiday. It is the only officially recognised national holiday. The federal government manages all other holidays.
The Berlin Wall collapsed on November 9, 1989, clearing the path for Germany's reunification after the Second World War.
Germany's reunification occurred on October 3, 1990, when the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was absorbed into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
Following the GDR's first free elections on March 18, 1990, discussions between the GDR and the FRG resulted in a Unification Treaty.
Further negotiations between the GDR and FRG, as well as the four occupying powers, resulted in the so-called "Two Plus Four Treaty," which granted full sovereignty to a unified German state, whose two halves had previously been subject to a number of limitations as a result of its post-WWII status as an occupied nation. The treaty went into effect on September 20, 1990.
Originally, November 9th was suggested as the national German Unity Day, commemorating the significant step made towards Germany's unity on that day.
However, the unification treaty designated October 3rd as the official national holiday, effectively reuniting Germany's east and west.
Since then, German Unification Day has been observed annually in the capital of whichever federal state has the chair of the Federal Assembly (Germany has 16 federal states).
German Unification Day was not included as an extra holiday. In the West, it supplanted the original Day of German Unity, which commemorated the anniversary of a demonstration in East Germany on June 17, 1953.
East Germany's national holiday was October 7th, the Day of the Republic (Tag der Republik), which marked the GDR's founding in 1949.
