Day of German Unity – 31 years of reunification with the GDR

The central celebration of the 31st anniversary of German unification in Halle (Saale) this year is again marked by the corona pandemic. Thousands of guests are expected on Sunday. Because of the hygiene and distance rules, only 180 guests can attend the ecumenical service and 340 guests at the subsequent ceremony. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will give the main address at the ceremony. Chancellor aspirants Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Armin Laschet (CDU) have also signaled their participation. The ARD broadcasts the service live, the ZDF the ceremony.

Demonstrations planned for the Day of German Unity

According to the police, at least three demonstrations have already been registered for Sunday in Halle. An alliance against the right had indicated that right-wing groups were already mobilizing their supporters before the celebrations. According to their own statements, the police are monitoring such channels accordingly, but did not want to speculate about a possible large-scale operation on Sunday.

Reunification: Better infrastructure and higher pensions

Economic progress is also evident. The economic power of the new federal states, including Berlin, is 79 percent of the overall German average – compared to around 30 percent in 1989. Today’s infrastructure is no longer comparable to that of the GDR era; it is partly better and more modern than in the old Federal Republic.

The supply of consumer goods to households has reached western levels. And the East German pensioner household receives a higher statutory pension on average than the West German one because more women were employed in the GDR than in the old federal states.

This beautiful picture is disturbed by survey results, according to which the majority of East Germans (57 percent) feel like second-class citizens. Which shows that the much-cited wall is still in people’s heads, at least in places. Because the process of unification was not as easy as most had imagined: First comes the D-Mark, then the market economy – and then everything runs by itself.

Even after reunification: citizens were proud of the GDR

Anyone who thought so, including me, was wrong. And had overlooked how big the differences were between East Germans and West Germans – in terms of their previous life, mentality and state of mind. The citizens of the GDR lived in an injustice state. But, against all odds, they gave their lives meaning.

Compared to Eastern Bloc countries like Poland or Hungary, they have brought about their own little economic miracle. They have reached world standards in sport and in some scientific disciplines. We in the West did not expect that they would continue to be proud of this even after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The GDR barely granted its citizens any freedom. However, there were also many happy people in the injustice state of the GDR. Those who resigned themselves to not being allowed to express themselves politically freely, who did not want to practice their religion anyway, who did not suffer from not being allowed to travel to western countries, could definitely find and enjoy their private happiness.

“Immigrants in their own country”: Nothing was like before

No wonder that when looking back, many positive memories are very present among the East Germans – of family and friends, of a not exactly well-paid but secure job, of a society in which there was less competition, less inequality and less envy – apart from the class difference between the SED nomenclature and the working people.

Incidentally, it is human that we remember the positive better than the negative. We’d all be a couch potato case if we dragged around with us for life everything bad that ever happened to us.

In addition, from the west we did not recognize what a great deal of adjustment was required of the East Germans. East Berliners, Leipzigers or Dresdeners – they all became immigrants in their own country almost overnight. Nothing was like before. This affected working life as well as medical care and, last but not least, the state or company-organized leisure and vacation offers. All of a sudden, cared-for people had to become independent, and competition became an important element of their lives.

SPD Eastern Commissioner Dulig: Development work the Recognize East Germans

Dresden – SPD politician Martin Dulig has to Day of German Unity called for more respect for the development work of the East Germans. Three decades after reunification, it was “high time that East and West Germans meet on an equal footing,” said his party’s Eastern Commissioner on Saturday in Dresden. It is about respect for one another, respect and recognition of people’s lifetime achievement, respect for honest hard work. “This respect is shown in a decent minimum wage, better still in good collective wages, of which we need significantly more. This also results in decent pensions later so that nobody has to be afraid of old-age poverty.”

After reunification: Dissatisfaction due to pressure to perform leads to a question of the system

Obviously we had no idea how difficult it is for many people to switch from a society of more or less equals to a system in which there is not always work for everyone. A system in which big differences suddenly become visible – between those who do more or are simply lucky and those who do less, can do less or are simply unlucky.

A high degree of dissatisfaction in the East is likely to be due to the fact that many have not found their way in the performance society and therefore asked the question of the system. Then the gray GDR everyday life suddenly shines in a bright nostalgic light.

It is precisely this subliminal connection of many people with “their GDR” that Die Linke, alias SED, appeals to when they play down the real existing inhumanity of the SED regime and attribute the economic problems not primarily to 40 years of a planned economy, but to capitalism in general and the trust in particular.

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On Sunday, the SPD meets with the FDP and the Greens. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich announced that they would meet at “eye level” during the exploratory talks. However, his most recent statements suggest otherwise. FDP and Greens are irritated.

On October 3, 1990, the Unification Treaty, through which the GDR acceded to the Federal Republic, came into force. Germany has existed again for 30 years. Many memories arose in that time, in both the East and the West. But the mentalities are still different.