Record of the First Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and FRG President Richard von Weizsäcker

On June 12, 1989, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began a four-day visit to West Germany, just two weeks after a similar visit to West Germany by United States President George H. W. Bush. Gorbachev had by the summer of 1989 become a popular figure and expectations were running high in West German society over the summit. From the Soviet Union's perspective, West Germany represented the largest economy in Europe and welcomed the possibility of increased trade. For many Germans, the visits by both Bush and Gorbachev during the summer of 1989 illustrated joint recognition of the new, pivotal role that West Germany played in East-West relations.

This document is an excerpt from a conversation between West German Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker and Mikhail Gorbachev on June 12, 1989. The primary message topic of conversation was an attempt to sustain the diplomatic conversations between the United States and the Soviet Union during this period of social and political upheaval in Eastern Europe.

At the same time, von Weizsäcker hoped to insert West Germany into the conversation, alluding to a feeling that the Europeans were being shut out of the diplomatic conversations. Gorbachev was open about his feelings and frustrations about dealing with the Americans. He felt that George H. W. Bush was honest and open when dealing personally with Gorbachev, but tended to return to Cold War rhetoric whenever discussing the Soviet Union in public.

This conversation reflects a larger concern that was shared by many European powers that the Cold War could see a resurgence, just when it looked as if real change was underway in Eastern Europe. Western Politicians, like von Weizsäcker, hoped to salvage as much as possible and act as a bridge between the United State and the Soviet Union.