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Reunification of Germany

When masses of East Germans peacefully swarmed over the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989 - ending almost 3 decades of forcible division of German from German - so began a human mix of euphoria, expectation, dislocation and turmoil that we call "life" and scholars are already terming "an epoch-making historical moment." The drama of release was caught on television; political experts and the media went from speculating idly about reunification of the German peoples in "a generation, or slightly less" - to enthusiastically gushing that the politics of the street had overtaken the diplomatic waltzes of the politicians.

By July of 1990 the two Germanies, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) of the eastern regions and the western Federal Republic of Germany, were united monetarily; in October 1990, less than a year after the Berlin Wall was attacked by "Ossi" hands wielding hammers and bouquets of flowers, the country was reunited under one federal government. The East Germany's communist system, in place since the Soviet occupation began in 1945, ceased to exist. The "Wessi" juggernaut of economic might, the "West German miracle"-child of the Marshall Plan and European Community programs, was expected to set her eastern sister up on her own two feet in short order.

Celebrations were few on the day of official reunification: unemployment in the former DDR had skyrocketed from virtually nil to almost 30% - and climbing; inflation in the former West Germany had nearly doubled, from 2% to 4.5%; both sides belatedly realized that, like orphan siblings raised in different foster homes, their blood ties were strained by the reality of having drifted far, far apart.

Reconsideration of the wisdom of such hasty unification is the leisure activity of historians; the fait accompli of practical politics left no room for reflection at the time. Indeed, the entire world was caught up in the happy melodrama of the German peo...

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Reunification of Germany. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 18:05, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681133.html