30 years after Berlin Wall fell, is Germany unified?
BERLIN—The cobblestone pavement pressed through the soles of my shoes as I walked under the gray skies of Berlin. On this November weekday, there’s a chilly bite in the air, and I’m startled by the hiss of the brakes of a city bus before quickly becoming charmed by the drifting smell of currywurst from the corner street vendor.
The leaves on the trees are a faded green, giving way to a vibrant fall finale. A new season is around the corner. Outside the famed Ka De We department store, locals and tourists stop and stare at the large mural on the wall asking, “Wo warst du am 9.November 1989?” Translation: “Where were you on November 9, 1989?”
It was the night the Berlin Wall came crashing down. As I walked the streets in Berlin this week, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Germans 30 years ago had any idea of the winds of change about to hit their country.
The wall has physically split Berlin and symbolized the divide of a country geographically, politically and ideologically. Every face on the mural I looked at this week has a story; some were just children far too young to grasp the gravity of what was happening. One woman recalls her mother watching television and beginning to cry.
As large chunks of concrete were torn apart in 1989 to celebrations of champagne and screams of “freedom!,” the real challenge was still ahead. Germany had to be put back together. In many ways, the reunification of the nation happened surprisingly fast. By October 1990, the communist East Germany and democratic West Germany had merged, with Berlin as the capital. But though it may have gone quickly diplomatically, true reunification — a unity in the hearts and minds of every German — took longer. Indeed, fast-forward almost three decades and social, political and economic divisions remain.
Socially, there is still less confidence in democracy in the former East. In business, it’s been said there are no mergers, just takeovers, and this was the case in Germany. West Germany was without question the dominant state. This left East Germans coming from communism feeling like second-class citizens, a sentiment many from the former East say they still feel today. Though this is most prevalent with generations that lived with the wall, the feelings resurface through new issues. Germany’s immigration crisis with refugees flooding Europe has reminded former East Germans of their own sense of inferiority. They don’t want to be left out.
There is a growing shift in the political landscape of Germany. In the east, where polls suggest residents are less satisfied with Germany’s democracy, there is a growing opposition movement sparked by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow nearly a million migrants in following chaos in Syria and elsewhere in Middle East.
It’s also the case that a noticeable economic gap between the former East and West remains. The most recent numbers from the Pew Research Center show higher unemployment in the former East, lower per capita disposable income and slowed productivity. Today, not a single German company on the country’s leading stock exchange is headquartered in the former East. Former East German villages and rural communities have never fully recovered. Even after the wall came down, more than 2 million energetic, young Germans moved to what had been West Germany.
This weekend Germans will put aside many of their differences to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berline
Wall. On the same streets where jubilation erupted in 1989, one doesn’t have to look far to find hints of history. Across the Ku’Damm, I can see the shell of a church tower bombed by the British in World War II, a landmark of Germany’s past and a symbol of the city’s resolve.
It will take generations to change the attitudes and erase the labels East and West Germans have of one another. The identity of Germany has been at stake as much as any measurable objectives set at the reunification table in the fall of 1990. There’s an intangible threshold that may only be realized with time.