How is Germany faring a decade after the Berlin Wall? Is the eastern half better off? Is the western half pleased with the results of the added costs of unification? What will fully solidify this country?
by Paul Kieffer
When German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
moved into his office in Berlin in September, a major milestone in the
process set in motion by German unification was reached. With the German
parliament, the Bundestag, and the head of government, Chancellor Schröder,
residing in Berlin, a unified Germany is now being governed from Berlin
for the first time since the end of World War II. Ironically, the month
of September witnessed two other reminders of German unification nearly
10 years after the historic opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9,
1989.
Chancellor Schröder provided the first
reminder on a visit to Budapest. Chancellor Schröder personally
thanked the Hungarian government for Hungary's courageous act of opening
its western border with Austria in the summer of 1989. Hundreds of
East Germany's citizens made use of the hole in the Iron Curtain to
travel to Austria and from there to Germany. The opening of Hungary's
border led to more East Germans traveling to Hungary and to Czechoslovakia,
where dozens of people sought refuge in the German embassy in Prague.
After successful negotiations with the Czech government, West German
foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher traveled to Prague to announce
to the refugees in the embassy compound that they would be permitted
to emigrate to West Germany. Before he could finish reading his statement,
loud cheering from the assembled refugees drowned his words out.
These events in the summer of 1989 sealed
East Germany's fate. In thanking the Hungarian government, Chancellor
Schröder emphasized that German unification would not have been
possible without the opening of Hungary's border to the West. Without
a secure border to the West in other Eastern European countries, East
Germany faced the choice of prohibiting its citizens from traveling
anywhere at all or capitulating to the new reality created by Hungary's
decision.
