Now on to the question of the day from Thursday: What is German Reunification Day? Well, this was the holiday that was celebrated on Friday. This marks the day that the Germans celebrate the coming back together of East and West. After World War II, the Allied Powers met to divide up the area that was then Germany into what we more or less recognize today - that includes Germany, Poland, and small portions of other Eastern European countries. See the maps for a before and after. It is important to note that Russia (then known as the Soviet Union or the USSR) was an Allied Power in World War II, albeit an uneasy party. Did you know that over 60 million people died in World War II? Extra credit: What side was China on in World War II?
Germany, being the center of it all literally and politically, was split in two, with the city of Berlin, literally having a line drawn through it. This line was later put in stone with the Berlin Wall in 1961. But in the late 1980s, civilians were again trying to voice their desires to be a part of Germany and the USSR was coming undone. Russia decided to no longer resist and give military support to the East German government and allowed the East German state to return to Germany. The agreement was signed on Oct. 3rd, 1990, at midnight. Germany was no longer east or west, rather just Germany, and the East German portion came under current German law with some minor revisions. Interestingly, the revisions included a mention allowing Austria to also join in if they wanted to, but obviously that did not happen. Although the holiday is a serious event for many Germans, there was no obvious outward celebration in our area. We heard just a few fireworks that evening, but not big shows like our Independence Day celebrations. But as a national public holiday, all stores, schools and most businesses were closed.
In my looking around for information (I would like to thank Wikipedia for being a great resource on the history lessons and images), I did read some articles here and there where people expressed both the positives and negatives about this unity. Many Germans really prefer not to call it a reunification, rather German Unity, and that is indeed the nickname given to the day (Deutschen Einheit - pronounced doichen ine hite). On the positive side, it reunited families that had long been separated, allowed the East German peoples to again participate in a democracy, and ended a physical leftover from the terrible times of World War II. But emotionally, it has been a hard road to travel. Many Germans still refer to Mauer im Kopf, or the Wall in the Head. On both sides, there are still some that long for the return of the wall. For many former West Germans, paying for the integration and equalization of the impoverished and repressed East German infrastructure and standard of living increases has been very expensive. Germany went from one of the lowest debt ratios in Europe to one of the highest. And while West Germans resent the financial strain that the taxes has cost them, East Germans still feel victimized. Their level of unemployment is substantially higher than the more affluent west. They also generally don't make the same salaries as people in the west. And the changes that are now so sudden seeming, compared to the slow movements of the former eastern government are unsettling and frightening to many older East Germans. But as a whole, from what I have been able to tell here, most people still are glad it happened and try to make it work for all. It is again important to remember that Germans in general are still very uneasy with the idea of national pride. Instead, they take much more pride in their region of Germany (like Bavaria), so this far south, it does not directly impact their lives as much as it would, say, in Berlin or the Polish bordering Brandenburg region. Reading about the wall and the history behind it as well as the stories of what it did to those that were separated has been fascinating. I recommend you also look up the Berlin Wall and do some of your own research.
Now on to the question of the day for today: What is the largest lake in Bavaria
The word for the day is Unification: die Vereinigung (pronounced fair-ine-i-gung where the -i- I believe is like a cross between the i in hit and the ee in feet.) As we approach our own elections, for me, it gives pause to think of American Unity.
Auf Weidersehen,
Frau Spitzer
