The Fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification: A Turning Point
The Fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification
For the first time, the protest was out of opposition groups and the churches. The beast began to walk. The reason was arming opposition to the words of the fighter Spartacus. It is very close to the people, incorporating the messages to their creed of socialism as a single body out into the street screaming at the officials actually existing socialism: “We’re the village.”
On 9 November, and after an error in the reading of a decision of the Politburo, citizens were allowed to leave the country, which had been forbidden since the creation in 1961 of the Berlin Wall. Hours after, thousands of people jumped on the various border crossings; it was a tense moment that could be settled with bloodshed. Around 10 pm, the first citizens went to the western part of Berlin. The wall had fallen.
In a few days, demonstrations claiming “We are the people,” went on to say “We are a people choosing unification.” This involved two major problems: firstly, the relations between the two German states and other international issues and the approval of even sovereign powers on the two Germanies, the membership of any military blocs to which they belonged (the FRG and the GDR, NATO and Warsaw Pact, respectively) and integration into the European Community.
For the former, the proposal by the GDR to create a confederation was rejected by the FRG, who proposed a generous plan where Westerners would parallel East German marks at a ratio of 1 to 1. The desire of the citizens of the East to achieve the welfare of Western Germany would expedite the process further. In terms of bloc politics, the weakness of Gorbachev and the Soviet Union itself would end up allowing the membership of a united Germany in NATO. And as for integration into the EU would resolve with the Maastricht Treaty.
Unified Germany: New Concerns
A unified Germany, decided to end the stigma of an economic giant and political dwarf, started out creating concern among European partners. The speed with which it wanted to resolve the equation of East and West Germans was the subject of discussion, then roll back EU funds that complicated the development of other European countries.
Some misgivings raised by reason of the German participation in EU funds also generated strong criticism. Another area of discussion was in the presidency of the European Central Bank, where Germany beat Dutchman Win Duisenberg, while the French wanted to sit in the main chair at a fellow. During the years after unification, racist attacks multiplied. These factors raised the risk that the new unified Germany forget their European commitments, especially since the election victory of Gerhard Schröder.
The new social policy, the new center, in line with the third way advocated by Tony Blair, insisted on what has been described as the main feature of the FRG: configuration as a state grand coalition, i.e., as a joint policy where the differences between the two major political forces, the SPD and the CDU, are simply nuance.
The Task Ahead
The new Germany as its main task remains the equalization of living standards on both sides, we must never forget the watchful eye of other neighboring countries. Already in 1990, when Berlin is beginning to crumble the concrete that separated the two streets, the then federal president warned of the danger of another perhaps more solid construction of another wall that lived in the republic, this time at the head of citizens, a wall that has not stopped since then hang Germanic Policy. Citizens of the East, 12,500,000 voters are the ones who decide the sign of the German government. Chancellor Kohl, penned in 1989, found a lifeline in the defeat of the enemy of the Cold War. The Chancellor promised the unification of the ailing GDR citizens entering the speed of light in the first world economic club, with American-style campaign dazzled the East Germans and became once again the reins of Bonn in the first elections of the unified Germany. He still would win again in 1994. The SPD did not leave his debacle. Neither could ss opponents against the seemingly incombustible leading Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In conclusion, 16 years of uninterrupted Democratic government in the main European power.