Biodun@bbcnews.com

Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile

«	October 2010					»

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

You are not logged in. Log in

Group One
Tripod Home
Tripod Build
Register Your Domain

Group Two
Lycos Home
Lycos Search
Lycos News

Biodun@bbcnews.com

Monday, 4 October 2010

Divided on unification
Topic: germany, natalie de vallieres, b

Oct 4th 2010, 9:04 by The Economist | BERLIN

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla for the BBC and the Economist

EVERY year Germany has two chances to celebrate its reunification: November 9th, the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and October 3rd, marking the formal unification of East and West a year later. Last year’s commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the wall’s toppling, which signalled communism’s demise as well as East Germany’s, was a bigger deal than yesterday’s unification celebration. Still, the anniversary-loving Germans used October 3rd to take stock, yet again, of how their country has fared since becoming whole 20 years ago. Again there were speeches, festivities and newspaper supplements. Germany took its temperature, and found it hovering close to normal.

Virtually no one suggested in print that unification had been a bad thing. The scars have not entirely healed: eastern Germany’s unemployment rate remains nearly double that of the west; productivity and living standards lag. Resentment lingers, on both sides. To many easterners unification still feels like a western takeover, which obliterated their livelihoods and the sense of community that had alleviated communism’s deprivations. Westerners still grumble about the price tab, a net €1.4 trillion ($1.9 trillion) transferred from west to east.

Politicians and pundits alike took it as their job to apply balm. The results of unification so far are “mixed”, wrote Wolfgang Thierse, an (Ossi) vice-president of the Bundestag, in the Berliner Kurier. But “I know almost nobody who wants the communist state back,” To achieve the “homogeneous living standards” promised by the constitution will require more time and effort. But east Germans are “thankful for the all-German solidarity,” and expect it to continue.

Some commentators were keen to point out that the west had reaped benefits as well as incurring costs. Bernd Ulrich, in Die Zeit, a highbrow weekly newspaper, identified several reasons for western gratitude. The stresses of unification helped Germany adapt to globalisation. The courage of easterners, who had “lost everything”, has been a corrective to western complacency and “arrogance”. Mr Ulrich is even grateful for the ex-communist Left Party, which, he says, takes up political space that might otherwise be occupied by the populist right. Welt am Sonntag, published by the conservative Springer group, pointed out that the economic costs to the west of unification have been lower than they appear. Migrants from eastern to western Germany boost western GDP and help foot the bill for unification; the east’s labour flexibility helped make western business more competitive.

Ordinary people are not entirely persuaded. According to Forschugsgruppe Wahlen, a pollster, 60% of westerners think easterners have been the main beneficiaries of unification. Just a quarter of easterners agree. A majority on both sides think the differences between the regions outweigh what they have in common. But Mr Thierse is right: big majorities in both parts of Germany think unification was right. Almost all think life has improved since 1990, or at least got no worse. The young Germans consulted by newspapers as portents seem to have little patience with east-west stereotypes. The resentments will gradually fade.

The bigger preoccupation on unification day seemed to be what Germans sometimes call the “third unification”, the one still needed between native Germans and immigrants. (The first was the absorption of some 12m refugees after the second world war.) Muslims and other ethnic minorities are much on German minds these days. Thilo Sarrazin, a former member of the Bundesbank board, recently published an incendiary book warning that Muslim migrants are undermining the foundations of German prosperity. Geert Wilders, a Dutch anti-Muslim populist who looks set to prop up a new centre-right government in the Netherlands, came to Berlin on the eve of unification day at the invitation of The Freedom, a new conservative party. Christian Wulff, who became federal president in June, used his speech at the official festivities in Bremen to push back. “Islam belongs to Germany as well,” he proclaimed, in implied rebuke to Messrs Sarrazin and Wilders. Germans grudgingly accept the benefits of unification; Mr Wulff’s message may be harder to sell.

Readers' comments

The Economist welcomes your

Posted by biginla at 1:15 PM BST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Comments Page

View Latest Entries