On 18 September 1973 the UN General Assembly admitted the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and the Bahamas at the same time. At 53 years’ distance the date marks three new seats in the organisation, not German reunification.

The Cold War had kept the two German states outside the UN. Mutual recognition in the 1972 Basic Treaty and Ostpolitik détente opened the way. The Bahamas, independent in 1973, entered in the same vote package, not as an appendix to the German file.

Resolutions 3050, 3051 and 3052 (XXVIII) were adopted on the same day. The two Germanies became distinct member states. There was no merger of mandates and no “return” of the Reich.

In 1990 reunified Germany continued the Federal Republic’s membership. The GDR seat disappeared with the state. The FRG’s legal continuity is the essential fact, not a new German admission in 1990.

The Bahamas remains a member. The three flags in 1973 changed the political geography of the Assembly, including votes in the European bloc and the Caribbean.

The cover shows flags at UN headquarters, not a photograph from the 1973 session. It illustrates the institution that admitted the three states, not the moment of the vote.

The anniversary does not confuse 1973 with 1990. It marks the admission of two Germanies and the Bahamas, then, two decades later, the disappearance of one seat and the continuation of the other.

Image: Damzow / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Flags at UN headquarters. Contemporary photograph, not from the session of 18 September 1973. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Member States: Germany | United Nations; Member States: The Bahamas | United Nations; Germany in the United Nations | Federal Foreign Office.