25 years of Unity

By: Bikal Dhungel 

Germany celebrates 25^th birthday of its unification. 25 years ago, the Berlin Wall was tore down and East and West Germany became one great nation.World War II left the country devastated, with ruins all over, broken families and immeasurable work waiting ahead. Those who remained, especially the women, who were later called 'Trümmerfrauen' rebuilt the broken country. Thanks to the Marshall Plan led by then American Secretary of State George Marshall who came up to the idea of re-building Europe, Germany also got a substantial amount of money which it used to reinstall the infra-structures it had before the war and few years after the war ended started to take-off its economy which grew at phenomenal rates. From early 1950s to late 1960s, the German economy grew at an average of 8% per year, which eventually made it the largest economy of Europe as it was in 1900. The economic policy of finance minister Ludwig Erhard, who later became the Chancellor will remain as one of the most successful stories of economic growth in human history. Today Germany has a solid situation with its economic foundation being a Social Market Economy which is growth promoting and at the same time socially just.

However, this country never had an easy time. When German Empire lost World War I, it lost all its colonies in Africa, a large part of its territories and had to pay reparation payments to the victors of World War I namely England and France. Then slowly, the newly formed Weimar Republic re-gained its power and became economically successful until the crisis next time. The crisis gave birth to radical leader called Adolf Hitler. Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and slowely installed a dictatorship and attacked Poland. It was the beginning for World War II. 80 million people lost their lives, the economic and social cost impossible to measure, Germany was again defeated. The Allied Powers, United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France divided Germany into four parts where they would eventually control. The Soviet Union took eastern part of Germany whereas North, West and South was taken by others. The Americans wanted to install their own economic form of government, neo-liberal system whereas the Russians wanted Communism. In the 1950s, when people from the east immigrated to the East, the Soviets declared to build a Wall. Fearing Communism, immigration escalated and many businesses moved from east to west, two of the famous ones being Siemens and Audi who went to the state of Bavaria. The Wall was built in 1961. Families were separated, a nation was divided and the possibility of war has always been the issue which left people in both sides with a bad day sleep. People who tried to run away to the west by hot air ballon, with a ship or even digging underground holes in East Berlin were either arrested or killed. Many could make it to West Germany, many died on their way. Many who were against the state were detained and kept in prison. East Germany turned to become a totalitarian states as every other Communist state.

West Germany boomed, became one of the wealthiest countries in the world while East Germany remained deprived. The west was liberal democratic with highest degree of freedom whereas the east was a totalitarian country which limited the freedom of expression. At the same time when there was massive demonstrations in other parts of the Soviet Union, East Germany also saw a rise of uprisings starting from Leipzig to East Berlin, from Magdeburg to Rostock and from Dresden to Cottbus. And finally, the Berlin Wall was tore down. A nation had a flow of tears when people chanted ' We are one nation '. Finally, freedom and democracy won against dictatorship in the name of social justice. However, this 30 years left the country deeply divided. Today, after 25 years of unification, there is still substantial differences between East and West Germany. In the mid 90s, a solidarity tax called ' Solidaritätszuschlag ' was introduced which was aimed to finance rebuilding the east. Workers in both East and West had to pay extra 5.5% of their income as solidarity tax. It was thought that by the year 2020, the earnings and economical situation will equalize. However, 5 years before the deadline, there is still a huge difference between East and West Germany. People on eastern part earn 20% less in average than the west. This is still not the issue. One day, both parts of the same nation might be equal but the issue here is different. Freedom and Democracy will prevail. One cannot deny people the freedom of movement, freedom of expression and freedom to pursue their dreams. The youngsters of today could never feel how it is to live in a divided country by a wall, but a 15km long 'ballon stands' made in a form of wall was put in Berlin so that one sees how it was then. The ballons were set free this evening and once again, no wall, only freedom.

The German-German unification should send a signal in the whole world that division will indeed fail and unification will prevail. Also freedom will prevail and not wall, we should build bridges if we want to live in peace together.