21 years
this article, we wrote to Lena last year, but I think that today, the day the Berlin Wall fell, it would also be relevant.
Unsichtbare Grenze oder geglückte Einheit? Berliner aus Ost und West erinnern sich
VON ALINA KENJEEVA AND ELENA Isakova
On 9 November 1989 hundreds of thousands of East Berliners went to the Berlin wall that divided the East and West Germany. Thousands of West Berliners took to the streets to meet the arriving guests. This was a folk festival. After 40 years, Germany became one country again. It seems that the sense of brotherhood has destroyed the state border of the past. But not now and still not all.
"I was against it ..."
Birgit Senge field tour guide in Berlin. Most popular object of their customers are the remnants of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz, before they have their pictures taken in all possible poses. Even if they earn today with the history diesemeil her money, her mid-forties to the Reunification has her own view: "I lived in West Berlin. And of course I was against the unification of the Federal Republic and the GDR. The economy in the East was at a low level. Very much tax money was spent on the restoration of the old buildings in East Germany and for the pension payments to the East Germans. But the East Germans are still dissatisfied. They complain that they earn less, that the working
unemployment is higher than in the West. They are dependent on us today, and we always have to do something for them. "
"East and West: No theme"
Such a direct statement from the West Germans surprised the East Germans. "How this woman can say so openly?" Marvels the Eastern expert Katja gable. "For me there is no difference between East and West Germans. We come from a country with large regional differences in East and West alone can not fix it ".
It is even 29 years, as the turning point came, she was nine. She remembers the pioneer cloth, to the Western package of sweets and gifts that their parents were given by relatives. "My family has lived at that time in Thuringia, near Weimar. My mother was a teacher, my father an architect. My parents were not political. We lived a simple village life. Although we are relatively well off and we had a stable and secure at home, my parents would love to see their relatives and travel. Only once was able to drive my mother to her aunt. For them it was very
sad, "she says.
other hand had their western relatives the opportunity to visit her family frequently. But they had when they came to visit, pay 25 marks per day to the GDR. And they could use only certain transit routes. They realized that they were monitored during these visits. "Friends of my parents wanted to move to Germany," added gable. "They had to leave the country
identified but was rejected. The people had to stay if they wanted to or not. It was very difficult for them. But they do not want a flight risk and do not expose their children to this danger. Sure, this wall was uncomfortable. The main problem of my parents was probably not being able to go abroad. "
Katja Gable has lived ten years in Berlin. In the capital, it does not matter to them whether the people from the west or east. "In Berlin anyway much mixed. I think for my friends, for my generation, East and West is not an issue. I have friends from the East and the West, I do not care to come, where do they. My friend is from the East, the last ten years in West Germany lived, as one can speak seriously of a unique East-West mentality. "
"The differences are blurred"
course, not all West Germans against the unification of Germany. The PR expert Kathy Steinbrenner, 41 years old and grew up in Munich, sees no difference in the mentality of the West and East Germans. In 1985, when she was 17, she was with her class in East Berlin. "As a young girl I have little noticed. I have not spoken to the people on the street. But there were far fewer cars, it was much quieter, department store, there was much less choice. Everything was pretty cheap. When we dated Ben walk out a little bit left, we saw the heavily damaged buildings, since 2 World War were there. Such matters are then very strong impression on us, we talked a lot about it, "recalls Kathy Steinbrenner.
now lives in Berlin and sees no major differences between East and West more. "Berlin in the communist era and was the capital has always been impor-tant and in the center. Then there was the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the differences are somewhat blurred. I'm just not from Berlin but from southern Germany, and for me is the perceived difference rather North Germany - South Germany, as East Germany -. West Germany "
"A West German woman marry? Excludes "
Mr. Heinze was 15 when the Wall fell. For him, there is still the border between East and West. He lived in the East and knew only the socialist system. Even then he was against state policy. "I think today I was working at the cemetery or in a boiler room, if Germany were not united," he says. "A study was excluded for me. In the Communist Party, I would never have occurred "
Andrew was a pioneer scarf -. The blue to the fourth class, and then the red. He was proud that he was a pioneer, but later he began to doubt. When he Was 14, he made a wall paper on the ecological disaster in the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. He was also the only member of the class, said aloud that he would not go to the army camp for pre-military training. The teachers have said that he could not study and judged him badly. "I was not afraid to voice my opinion," recalls Heinze. "At the end of the 80's there were no more strict dictatorship, the people had the feeling that it eventually goes to unity.
The wall is long gone. Mr. Heinze has finished university, he studied cultural sciences. But the 36-year-old find a job in his field of study. Therefore, works part it with three different employers and its future is not secure. He can not say exactly what form of government is better. "Democracy in Germany has its advantages and disadvantages. There are more disadvantages than with socialism. Since the basic idea was humanistic, man was in theory in the first place, the word was worth something. Today, in the first place no humanistic values - but money, power, career. Everything is based on greed and unprincipled, "considered Heinze. "It is an advantage to demonstrate that we can, but there are no results. Motto: Say what you want, but no one will hear you. "
He had often problems with West Germans, there was a language barrier. Perhaps, he says, because many lived carelessly and live because they had the problems he survived, never, because they are simply socialized completely different. "The East Germans are often hospitable and benevolent to each other," says Andreas Heinze. "We can without notice visit each other, no one will say that this is not okay. In West Germany, everyone is thinking only of themselves, each lives in his little world. "
His wife is from Russia. When asked whether he could imagine to marry a woman from the West, he replied unequivocally: "It is impossible. I never had a friend from the West. My sister is six years younger than me. For them, it does not matter from which part of Germany, the man comes. She feels no inner boundary. Her husband is West German. "
" The island city was unnatural "
Rebecca Schmidt was born in 1989 and knows the divided Germany only from the stories of their parents. But she is happy to live in a united Germany. "When you talk about the differences between Western and Eastern Germany, you can hear that in the east less deserving. But I had been to Dresden and can say well that the prices are much lower than in West Germany. So, the differences in living standards may not be as noticeable. I have never seen Germany with the wall. But it is good that the wall is gone, because this island city of Berlin has been unnatural ".
The desire for unity, which is sung in the national anthem of the German
, the desire for unity, leading to the reunification - all that does not mean that it is between the people of West and East not at the same time can be large differences. According to the "online world" the great majority of West Germans now sees little point in it, 20 years after reunification, the differences between West and East Germans in particular to highlight or "dwelling" on the differences. "Of course there are problems aber alles in allem ist es gut so, wie es jetzt ist ", sagen 66 Prozent im Westen. In Ostdeutschland sind es nur 47 Prozent. Fast ebenso viele Ostdeutsche (42 Prozent) fänden es besser, wenn die Unterschiede zwischen Ost-und Westdeutschen, nicht unter den Teppich gekehrt würden.
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