JD Bindenagel, former acting US ambassador to German makes a good point that I've often pondered: eighteen years after the fall of the Wall the history of the Wende (turning point) which led to German unification, has been forgotten:
"So quickly have we forgotten those Germans in the German Democratic Republic, who in the fall of 1989 took to the streets for freedom and risked their lives and careers for their beliefs.
East Germany’s real three contributions were a revolution for freedom — disparaged as a “turnaround” in politics — a free and fair election displacing the communist regime and accession to the West German Basic Law to achieve German unity. Demonstrators pressed for the freedom to travel, while carefully avoiding confrontations with the People’s Police, the East German armed militia and their Army, which they would surely have lost.
They championed Gorbachev’s call for political openness (“Glasnost”) to help them defy Honecker. They counted on Gorbachev’s statement that those who come too late will be punished by history.
The East German revolutionaries wanted history to punish Honecker, and they marched until the East German Communist party, the SED, ousted him from office. They formed political parties under the noses of the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi), which led to the abolition of the SED monopoly on power in the constitution. "
It wasn't chancellor Kohl - reunification was not on the agenda in Bonn, indeed, many German intellectuals such as Guenter Grass were openly hostile to the idea; it wasn't President George HW Bush, although he cetainly was supportive; and it wasn't even Gorbachev, although he unleashed the forces that sparked the transformation. Reunification was achieved by ordinary citizens in East Germany who took to the street, risking everything in the process, demanding an end to an inhuman and corrupt system.
How many Wessis, now vaguely resentful of the Ossis for the massive federal subsidies to the new states, acknowleged the bave and peaceful actions of their fellow citizens? Bindenagel points to Poland as a negative example of what happens when history is forgotten. German must acknowledge the historical roots of its reunification if it is to avoid this pitfall:
Is the omission of the stories of its revolutionary birth of the Berlin Republic — daring Germans willing to confront and throw off their oppressors — not a compelling story of the fight for liberty that needs to be told and re-told?
Incidentally, I am only aware of one novel - Novembermärchen: keine bleibende Stadt by Otto Emmersleben - that deals with Die Wende from an eastern German perspective. Any other reading suggestions greatly appreciated.
This ex-ambassador is lying through his teeth. The East Germans who did protest never wanted a "reunification", they wanted reforms for the GDR as had happened in other socialist countries. Of course the "Anschluss" had been the wet dream of the govt. in Bonn for a very long time. What absolutely ahistoric BS to say that Kohl didn't want it.
Going as far as to describe the East German protestors as 'daring' or 'brave' is also highly questionable. Their numbers were very small, they rarely went outside of the power vacuum and into any kind of danger. Not much more than a few discussion groups in churches. Every other ex-communist countries can line up ten times as many protestors from that era.
Most of these people you could see on TV crossing the borders were only attracted by the "welcome money" that was immediately handed out by West German borderguards to them. The whole "citizens rights" movement disbanded almost immediately and without a trace.
There are countries and places, where people fight for their freedom and their life, but Germany has never been one of them, sorry.
Bananas for all!
Posted by: antonymous | November 18, 2007 at 07:10 PM