In March 1990 Adam Opel AG and Automobilwerk Eisenach (AWE) (at that time best known in the west as the producer of the Wartburg) concluded a collaboration agreement.

[1] Guests at the celebrations included Helmut Kohl,[2] who two days earlier had become the first Chancellor of the newly reunified Germany.

Another agreement was signed on 13 December 1990, this time between Treuhand president Detlev Rohwedder, Opel Chairman Louis R. Hughes and AWE directors, for the purchase of land in the Gries business park, to the west of the Wartburgstadt, where a new car assembly plant was to be built.

A foundation stone for the new plant was laid on 7 February 1991 and, once the roof was on the building, a "topping out" ceremony was held on 9 September 1991.

[2] The bankruptcy of General Motors, the factory's ultimate parent company, raised doubts about Opel's ownership and indeed its survival for several months in 2009.