History looks far less heroic when you find out how it happens.Who said this? Perhaps Eric Honecker, the communist leader of East Germany? No? How about Gorbachev or somebody else in the Soviet Politburo in Moscow? Nope. Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of West Germany? Uh uh.
“We don’t want a united Germany.” It would lead to a change in Europe’s postwar borders. “We cannot allow that, because such development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.”
It was actually Margaret Thatcher. Why? Because like the rest of Europe, she was terrified of a unified Germany.