It was 25 years ago this month that the former East Germany and West Germany became one country. It was something most people thought would never happen: Until it did.
And a formerly communist country dissolved its government and joined the democracy next door.
This month, a series of lectures, exhibits and East German Films at Virginia Tech will explore one of the most astounding political shifts in history.
Esther Bauer is an Associate Professor of German at Virginia Tech. She’s originally from a small town in what was then, West Germany, which, all her life, had been separated from East Germany by the Berlin Wall built, in1961.
“And at least in my generation, everybody thought this was a done deal, there would be 2 German states and nobody thought it would change any time soon and then it happened so fast.”
Audio of Berlin Wall being torn down
“As a German it was, at the same time, very exciting, a very happy moment and also a bit of a scary moment.”
Bauer was studying in England that semester in 1989, the year the wall was literally torn down and people from East Germany began streaming into the west on foot.
“I remember being in Britain and sitting in the student dorm watching this on TV. There were several German exchange students and our British friends were excited and the Germans excited but also scared saying well, let’s see where this goes. Let’s see if this is really for real and let’s see where they are taking this. We can’t even imagine these two countries coming together. They are so different.
Like human migrations going on in Europe today, this one presented social and political problems.
“The economies had to be brought together and they came from totally different systems, but for me what is more interesting is the cultural questions. I think often on the part of East Germans there was the feeling that some of their culture and things that they held dearly were all of a sudden disappearing.”
Despite the often, harsh conditions in East Germany, Bauer says a kind of nostalgia by the former east Germans began to set in for their old way of life.
“ I think many of them felt that people were more tied together. There was this sense of OK we don’t like the government but we help each other out. There were certain structures that were in place that people found very helpful. So it was easier for women for instance to go to work because child care was much better organized than it was in the west. It was just expected that women would work. So you know there was a place in a nursery school or a Kindergarten for every child while that is not the case in West Germany and now the united Germany is still struggling with getting that actually in place.
And in some sense, today, there are still two Germanys. Bauer says unemployment is higher in the eastern part of the now unified country; salaries and living standards for former East Germans remain lower. And she says, this has implications for the current mass migration going on in Europe as well.
They’ll also be exploring East German Cinema as part of this celebration of unification.
A comedy called Friendship offers a glimpse at American society, through the eyes of 2 young East German guys on a hilarious road trip across America just after the wall came down. The only words they know in English are “Vee are Communists” and the word “Friendship”.
There are 3 East German films showing in Blacksburg this month, they’ll all be in German with English subtitles.
