The Wall is down, but problems remain

Installment #2 of Brent Martin's "European Adventure:

There once stood a very real and visible connection between Missouri and Germany:  the Wall.

The Wall that divided West and East Berlin stood as a grim confirmation of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s remarks in Fulton in 1946 when he warned that an “iron curtain” had descended on Europe. The Communist government erected the Wall in 1961 to stop the flood of immigration from East Germany into the West. It came down suddenly in 1989. Berlin has let some segments of the Wall remain. Mostly, though, the Wall is down with only a double-line of bricks outlining where the Wall once stood. The Wall might have come down, but Germany still struggles with the ramifications of reunification.

We arrived in Berlin just days before the 20th anniversary of President Reagan’s famous speech before the Brandenburg Gate in which he challenged former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “turn down this wall”, which interestingly enough is interpreted by many Germans as “open this gate”.

Reunification dominated many of our discussions with German journalists, government officials and others throughout the two week stay. Thomas Habicht, senior political editor of “Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg” covered the Reagan speech and admitted that he and other veteran reporters attending that day laughed at Reagan’s challenge and considered it little more than the uninformed utterance of an old man. Habicht said very few adults in Germany thought the Wall would ever come down in their lifetime, let alone before the turn of the century.

While we consider the fall of the Wall as a great triumph, which certainly it was, we fail to consider the ramifications. Habicht confirmed what others had told me that Berlin has not been able to absorb the drastic changes that came with reunification. The city is bankrupt, with a debt that has soared since reunification. It has spunk, though. The mayor once told a reporter that Berlin is “poor, but sexy”. Habicht said that 17 years after unification, Germans are still divided mentally.

Even Wolfgang Lutterbach, the head of International and European Union Policy at the German Federation of Trade Unions, said reunification came with a lot of promises and a lot of hopes that remain unfulfilled. Lutterbach said there are still two different Germanys and that it will take a long time before they truly re-unite.

One of the themes struck over and over in Germany when the subject turns to reunification is the shock reunification has had on the economy. A downtrodden East German economy, weighed down by misguided and stifling communist economic policy, was ill-prepared to join the more robust market-driven West German economy. That has had an impact that extends beyond the economy. East Germany and East Germans came into reunification as unequal partners. The euphoria of reunification gave way to a subservient role with the West firmly in control.

Though that has had its own psychological impact on those in the former East Germany, it does have its benefits. Jurgen Reinholz, Secretary of the Economy in the federal state of Thuringia, told us that East Germany had an advantage over Eastern Block countries didn’t when the Cold War ended. It had West Germany and its resources. Thuringia is located in the former East Germany. Its capital is Erfurt. Reinholz is optimistic Thuringia can emerge as one of the most successful of the former communist states in Germany, because of its emphasis on high-tech, including optics and automotives parts. Reinholz said that Thuringia and other former East German states wouldn’t have the access to the capital needed for investment if it wasn’t for the former West Germany.

Perhaps more important than the economic impact of reunification is the political impact.  Ulrich Kasparick is Parliamentary State Secretary is in charge of helping redevelop the East, especially the former East Berlin. He knows the area well. Kasparick grew up in East Berlin and described daily life in which the mail was checked, telephones tapped and visitors recorded. Kasparick said that when the Wall collapsed, East Berlin got democracy, but wasn’t ready for it. He said the predominant feeling in East Germany in 1990 was that residents lived in a foreign country. He added that many older residents of the old East Germany mourn for the old system, because though it lacked many things it was stable, it was what they knew.

Kasparick said he had an advantage. His family was part of the church in East Berlin. Though officially atheistic and against formal churches, the communist allowed the church to remain in East German. Kasparick said those who became part of the church had the opportunity to learn first-hand about democracy, about having choices, about making decisions. He said it prepared them for reunification. Kasparick said those in the church had a saying they clung to during life in communist Germany, “That one day we would make the Iron Curtain rust.” [Photos: Leaving the American Sector; Checkpoint Charlie]

-- Brent Martin