October 2020 The German Times • German Unification 1990 – 2020 13

Eternal underdogs Many eastern Germans have a love-hate relationship to reunification; our author is one of them

democrat Oskar Lafontaine, this nascent anger. In 1990, he had they send special teams to Saxony that needs to be explained, the fundamental structures. Eastern BY SABINE RENNEFANZ former Chancellor Willy Brandt, been given the task of presiding to find out exactly what’s going special path. Germans continue to earn less the then-Foreign Minister Hans- over the dissolution of the GDR. wrong there again, and especially I, too, spent the past several years and acquire less wealth than their on-German friends Dietrich Genscher, Hannelore In the space of six months, his job why the “Ostler” – the eastern- doing a lot of explaining. And now western compatriots. No large of mine like to think Kohl, Helmut Kohl and then- was to dissolve a state that had ers – are so bent on voting for the I find myself increasingly won- corporation has its headquarters Nwe Germans celebrate Federal President Richard von existed for 40 years. It was “a fare- wrong party. Years ago, the big dering whether this was the right in the East, and only recently have German Unity Day by throwing a Weizsäcker. Next to them, small well without tears,” he said in a “East” theme was the Stasi, the thing to do or whether my work we seen one (!) eastern German big party. I personally don’t know and thin at the edge of the photo, speech at Berlin’s Schauspielhaus former GDR’s security appara- only reinforced a cliché. This is why rector at a university in eastern anyone who actually celebrates stands Lothar de Maizière, the last on Oct. 2, 1990. tus; but today, it’s the right-wing I don’t think much of those online Germany. While it’s true that our the national holiday on Oct. 3. It’s head of government of the GDR. “That wasn’t entirely true,” de political party known as the AfD. initiatives launched by younger chancellor grew up in East Ger- just a day off work, a day to relax, The image speaks volumes on the Maizière admitted in a recent This is the case despite the fact eastern Germans, such as “Wir many, there are hardly any eastern take a mini vacation, do some gar- unequal balance of power that interview with the Berliner Zei- that the West is home to all of sind der Osten” (We are the East), Germans in top political positions. dening or binge-watch TV. prevailed at the time of German tung. Whereas West Germans the AfD’s top functionaries and even though they’re obviously well In fact, more than half of the state Still, I was invited to a German reunification. It also says a lot were able to go on living as they the western states of Bavaria and intentioned. In short, they want secretaries in eastern German Unity Day party once. It was about the root cause of the prob- always had, he argued, East Ger- Baden-Württemberg deliver the to show that the East has more to ministries come from former organized by the German lems and misunderstandings that mans were shaken to their core in party large numbers of votes. offer than just neo-Nazis. Yet, in West German states; that figure Embassy in London. I remember continue to this day. a way unlike any time since World This is not a complaint, not a doing so, they take up a position rises to three-quarters when it the snow-white villa in the afflu- “Taking leave of a social and War II. “I always thought the pro- sociological finding. It’s just an in an established hierarchy that’s comes to the heads of political ent district of Belgravia, the red political system doesn’t mean let- cess of reunifying the infrastruc- observation. existed ever since tall and portly departments. There are even more carpet draped over the stairs and ting go of personal memories,” Helmut Kohl pushed small and thin Americans than eastern Germans the room full of pinstripe suits. wrote Hans-Dieter Schütt in his Lothar de Maizière to the outer on the boards of Dax-listed com- Although most of the men in book Glücklich beschädigt (Hap- edge of the picture – here top dog, panies. Is it any wonder that 57 attendance were simply the office pily damaged). To this day, many there bottom dog. percent of eastern Germans sur- heads of German savings banks people in the East feel as if they’ve The eastern German On a warm night this past veyed in 2019 said they felt like in London, they dressed as if they lived two lives; the life they actu- summer, a show called “The crazy second-class citizens? were English bankers. I watched ally remember living and the life curriculum vitae will always ‘80s in Germany” was broadcast My son is almost six years old the West Germans celebrate they were told they’d lived by the on the public TV channel ARD. and enjoys asking big questions in German unity. I watched them harsh verdict of history. Accord- be seen as a deviation The show was all about music the evening just before he goes to celebrate themselves. ing to Schütt, East Germans were from the norm, the one that and pop culture in the 1980s; bed: What’s the biggest threat to I can still see the ambassa- asked to decide whether they’d unfortunately, the GDR wasn’t mankind? Is there a medicine that dor, a tall, good-natured man been supporters of the system – needs to be explained mentioned once. At a subsequent works against COVID-19? Why from Swabia, sashaying across thereby subjecting themselves to editorial meeting, I expressed does everybody have to die? Some- the thick carpet as the Filipino doubts about the nature of their my astonishment that an omis- times we just talk about the day we house servants dressed in livery character – or whether they were sion such as this could happen had. One day, I told him about my brought freshly tapped German willing to admit that all of the ture and the economy was going The SPD politician Wolfgang 30 years after German reunifi- meeting with de Maizière. What’s beer, sausages and meatballs to passion and hard work they’d put to be difficult, and that psychologi- Thierse once suggested that cation, and I recommended that the GDR, Mama? I told him about the guests. The famous German into the system had been in vain. cal reunification would be easier. people from eastern and west- we ask the broadcaster how this the country that disappeared over- singer Marius Müller-Western- Schütt wrote this in 2009. In the end, the opposite was true.” ern Germany should tell each came to pass. In response, a col- night and how everything changed hagen sat in the corner nibbling Perhaps one thing that has We East Germans don’t cel- other their stories; this was his league of mine noted: “The show for me back then: the money, the on a sausage. That evening, I met changed since then is that this ebrate on Oct. 3. We work, we idea of how the two sides could was probably produced by WDR language, the school, the rules. I only one other woman from the two-sided experience has led scream and shout, we beg for be encouraged to grow closer. [West German Broadcasting]. For was still a child myself at the time. former East Germany; she worked to the emergence of an eastern attention. Oct. 3 is one of those German President Frank-Walter them, the East is very far away. My son listened intently as I told as the embassy’s deputy spokes- German identity. As Moritz von rare moments when all of Ger- Steinmeier expressed a simi- That’s just the way it is.” Another my story. “But why did you guys person, and together we walked Uslar observed in his 2019 book many turns to look at the East lar sentiment last year when he colleague explained: “Sabine, the put up with all that?” he asked. It around that West German party Nochmal Deutschboden (Deutsch- – when, for a change, people offered that people should “listen show was about the eighties. You was hard to explain that I wanted as if we were strangers. boden again), people flipped that are actually interested in what to each other.” However, coming weren’t German back then.” those Western clothes, I wanted The preamble to Germany’s feeling of inferiority – of being we have to say. It’s a time when 30 years after the fact, the latter And here’s another anecdote to travel, I wanted that Western constitution states that Germans left-behind, second-class citi- former government heads, civil request is possibly just too late. for good measure: a friend of music; but I didn’t want Kohl’s fed- achieved their unity and freedom zens – and transformed it into the rights activists and other con- Plus, it’s quite clear that eastern mine wanted to write her doc- eral republic. Next generation, it’s in “free self-determination.” This very opposite: “The fun that an temporary eyewitnesses are Germans are the only ones telling toral thesis about the selling-off your turn now. is the official story of what hap- eastern German gets from being asked to give interviews or con- their stories. Eastern Germans of GDR publishing houses but pened; the story that gets written able to tell those arrogant west- tribute essays. Books are penned feel a constant pressure to jus- was not able to find a university in in books. And it’s not wrong per ern Germans to their faces that in anticipation of the big day, tify and explain themselves, to Germany willing to supervise her Sabine Rennefanz se. But it’s also not the whole story. nobody wants to have anything plays are written and we all take elucidate the issues driving their work. So she went to the US and is politics editor at the Berliner Zeitung and the There’s a famous photo that was to do with their pretty democracy, a quick look back at the GDR behavior. In reality, however, completed her doctorate there. author of several books, taken at the first German Unity their turbo capitalism and their before it turns and sinks again when they do this, they’re actu- Her book was published in Eng- including Eisenkinder. Day celebrations on the steps of Western values – that fun is just into oblivion. ally bowing down and subjecting lish first, and when she applied for Der stille Wut der Wende- the Reichstag in Berlin in 1990. It getting started.” On every other day, the West- themselves to western Germans. positions in Germany from the generation (Iron kids: The quiet rage of East Germany’s features an entire generation of When the photo mentioned dominated media are only inter- The eastern German curriculum US, she immediately got a job. ‘Wende’ generation, West German politicians: to the above was taken, de Maizière ested in the East when election vitae will always be seen as a All our explaining and storytell- Luchterhand, 2013). very left, we see the then-social could not have had any idea of time rolls around, at which point deviation from the norm, the one ing has done little to change the

Into the future with one foot in the past: Why so many eastern Germans feel at odds with the West thirty years after reunification

the fall of the Wall still revolve of ongoing training measures as Basic democratic rights, ties pushed forward against all objec- bank bailouts, open borders for foster and fortify the strength around the historically unprec- a substitute for employment or to the West, the social market tions and second thoughts. Yet, migrants. Enough! It’s our turn and resources of the people. And edented economic laceration that unemployment – hence the great economy – these were the pil- no sooner had the primary goal to speak.” And, lo and behold, a this clearly does not reflect the occurred immediately after they metamorphosis from citizen to lars upon which the Federal been achieved – guaranteed basic stream of politicians, journalists eastern German experience after joined the Federal Republic. In employment-agency client, a mon- Republic of Germany was built rights and elementary freedoms and scientists suddenly made the Wall came down. The rapid large swaths of the country, life umental insult. and flourished. The democratic for all – that millions of eastern their way to the East – the place socioeconomic demobilization of atrophied and social cohesion dis- The experience of former East framework of West Germany Germans lost their economic and they’d disregarded for so long – to eastern Germans was a disaster solved. The familiar foundations Germans is similar to that of hun- stood on a firm foundation that social footing. A gain in politi- find out what was going wrong. that should not have been allowed of social interaction crumbled, dreds of millions elsewhere, most proved sustainable. Things con- cal and legal self-determination In light of the growing attention to happen. The long-term conse- leaving many with a sense of of whom never lived in a dictator- tinued to improve, and the longer often went hand-in-hand with a they were getting, those who until quences of that failure are now having been left behind, of being ship, but were subject to the same the economic upturn lasted, the loss of socioeconomic self-deter- then had been ignored mused: affecting the entire country. lost in oblivion. structural upheaval, stretched more people became convinced mination. The terrain upon which “We obviously did something A public debate about these Those who still wanted to make out over time. In the US rust belt that they had done well for them- people had been moving started right this time. This is exactly failings, without reservations something of their lives looked for and in the traditional industrial selves on the whole. As a result, giving way, and this is precisely why we protested so radically. We or assignment of blame, is of ways to leave, which is precisely regions of England and France, people were happy to live within what undermined any identifica- wanted to make people aware of utmost importance if we are to what millions of eastern Ger- for example, the same profound the political and legal framework tion they might have had with the our situation, of the misery that keep things from spiraling out mans have done since the early economic and social transforma- of the new polity. framework in which they were reigns here.” of control. 1990s. Individuals who kept their tion occurred and produced the The German-German unifica- now being asked to move. The lesson we should take jobs or found new ones consid- same results: a mass alienation of tion process after 1990 turned The refugee crisis of 2015 from this process is simple to ered themselves lucky and – as citizens from democratic institu- this sequence on its head in caused this well of discontent understand. The top priorities Wolfgang Engler a result of this privilege – often tions, procedures and processes the East. Democracy had been to overflow. “Everything has of a social transformation as is a cultural sociologist. He was rector of the Ernst Busch in non-unionized workplaces. along with the attendant rise of fought for from the bottom up; been decided and implemented radical and all-encompassing Academy of Dramatic Arts in Everyone else faced the threat of nationalist, vulgar and populist reunification had been approved over our heads,” people cried. as that which took hold in east- Berlin from 2005 to 2017. precarious employment, the trap tendencies and parties. of by a majority of Germans and “Treuhand policies, Hartz laws, ern Germany after 1990 are to