The 25th anniversary of the Reunification of East and West Germany took place on October 3. A celebratory event took place in Frankfurt am Main’s Alte-Oper which was attended by federation and district officials, as well as foreign and domestic guests. Thousands of Germans watched their president’s speech on the screen outside. Beside me was a girl sitting on her father’s shoulders holding a balloon with the words “Tolerance”. President Gauck, a former pastor from East Germany, highlighted that the difference of the West and East Germany has decreased radically to the point that there are no differences between youth, but noted that employment, wage and labor productivity are low in the east compared to the west.
According to Deutsche Welle’s public poll on the reunification of Germany, 73 percent believe that the unification was successful, while 62 percent believe the process isn’t over yet. Although the economic and political unification has ended, the ideology of its people hasn’t united yet.
East joins West
In 1944, the Allied forces defeated Nazi Germany and agreed on how to bring Germany down in any circumstance in the future, the heads of the nation, and how to monitor Berlin through partition. In May 1945, fascist Germany lost the war, and the signing of the unconditional surrender marked the end of WWII. From then, the Soviet Union was to monitor East Germany through the communist regime, and West Germany followed the path of democracy and market economy under the control of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
In 1933, the head of the Nazi party Adolf Hitler became Chancellor and for more than ten years, key national and social development values such as democracy, human rights and freedom were nonexistent on German soil. Germany was ruled by the ideology that supported supremacy of the Aryan race, destruction of the “lower” race that is the Jews, and domination and slavery of Slavic and other races.
After the war, the United States devised the Marshall Plan for reconstruction aid to Europe, which pumped a soft loan of 13 billion USD (around 130 billion USD in today’s currency). The loan came with conditions to decrease restrictions on international trade, eliminate business restriction policies and laws, and increase productivity and support of businesses. West Germany received eleven percent of the loan. America and England were redeveloping its greatest values of democracy, human rights and free competition to support nongovernmental organizations and freedom of the press. Society built on the correct soil flourished quickly and West Germany begun to lead the European economy.
The Soviets instilled communist values in East Germany. They ceased private property and made it public, prohibited religion, set up a one party rule, valued collective interest above the individual’s, preached total obedience and blocked all ideals except the established in the press. The Soviet Union didn’t have a Marshall Plan or billions of USD worth of funds after many years of war that depleted material and labor reserves. Centrally managed economy in East Germany slowed its development. Many millions of East Germans realized the hopelessness, and those with knowledge and experience flocked to West Berlin to thrive.
East Germany had no choice but to erect the 3.6 meter high, 140 kilometer long concrete wall around West Berlin on August 13, 1961. The wall which separated families on one morning was the de-facto symbol of economic and political defeat of East Germany to the West for 28 years. This defeat was put to de-jure when the Reunification of East and West Germany took place in 1990. When the Berlin Wall was torn down, then former German Chancellor Willy Brandt (in office 1969-1974) said, “Now what belongs together, will grow together.” The path towards growth together was not entirely easy.
Germany too big for Europe
Whether Europe was in war or not was determined by the larger countries such as Germany and France throughout history. Further war was pointless, there was no money, and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed a supranational international body that had power over individual governments to promote international trade development, and joint management of coal and steel production and trade. The European Economic Union was formed after other countries agreed to the proposal. The union was established through the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
The European economic integration progressed rapidly and German economic development gained more force. Germany’s neighbors begun to fear their domination. Italian former Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti was quoted saying, “We love Germany so much that we would prefer to have two of them,” in the mid 1980s.
French President Francois Mittenrand once remarked, “We may have the nuclear bomb, but the Germans have the deutsche mark.” When the Reunification of Germany took place in 1990, it accelerated European integration, and formed a connection between the economy, society, national values, culture and principal. The European Union (EU) was formed in 1992 when 12 European nations met in Maastricht. One year before the new century, Europe released its own currency. The Rome and Maastricht treaties were renewed in 2007 in Lisbon.
West Germany, which gained two million knowledgeable and experienced East Germans before the Berlin Wall, became even larger after the collapse of the wall and is now leading European economic integration, with trade, cooperation and customs agreements with 28 nations, 19 of which have the same currency. Former State Secretary of the United States Henry Kissinger, who was born in Germany and escaped the Nazis in 1938, once said, “Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world.” Today, after 25 years since the Reunification, Germany is not only an economically formidable nation but a leader in world development in the EU.
Many thousands of refugees fleeing the Middle East turmoil are heading to Germany. The country scraped for labor forces and received thousands of Turks after WWII to rebuild its economy, and is appealing to the Syrian refugees with experience. According to the Director of European Academy Berlin Prof. Eckart D. Stratenschulte, a country like Germany with an older population is very important and beneficial to labor aged Syrians who are coming with their families, and the country can receive them in tens of thousands every day. He joked that their neighbors might one day resent Germany for taking all the refugees for themselves.
The path Germany chose 25 years ago was the right one it seems. The day when the German led European economy is “too big for the world” seems to have come. Will Henry Kissinger change his mind?
2015.10.07