A sense of disillusionment

Last year's celebrations were marked by fireworks and street parties

By Bettina Lüscher
CNN Berlin Anchor

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- The German finance minister was in tears. Hans Eichel stood in front of the German parliament and choked up. About what? Demands for fuel tax cuts? A budget fight?

No. The Social Democrat fought back tears because an opposition leader from the Christian Democrat Party claimed that German unification would never have happened if the Social Democrats had been at the helm 10 years ago.

The recent scene is an indication of just how touchy the topic of unification still is, a full decade after the two Germanys were reunited.

October 3, the official date of unification, is a national holiday. But this year's events promise to be different from the parties and celebrations seen during last November's anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

QUOTE It seems as if Germans are a bit tired of the debates on the state of German-German affairs. It is a slow process, this growing together after four decades of separation by walls and ideologies.

Then, the fireworks at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate were broadcast live onto TV screens around the world. This year, anniversary celebrations will be much more low-key -- essentially a Volksfest on the capital's main boulevard.

There are, of course, also "serious" ceremonies, with political leaders musing about their accomplishments.

But maybe this year's quieter tone is fitting for the mood in the country.

It seems as if Germans are a bit tired of the debates on the state of German-German affairs. It is a slow process, this growing together after four decades of separation by walls and ideologies.

The city of Berlin illustrates how people can come together, working side by side in the same companies, or living next door in neighborhoods that were once sealed off by brick, barbed-wire and mines.

One in three Berliners is a relative newcomer, having moved to the capital in the last 10 years, thus defusing the old separations in this city of more than 3 million.

The Trabant came to symbolize the problems of the east

Nevertheless, it is surprising to learn how many ossies and wessies - eastern Germans and western Germans -- still stick to their old haunts.

A recent study by the Berlin public transport authorities shows that many Berliners stay within their accustomed neighbourhoods and do not venture out to eat, drink and party in those parts of the city that were once cut off by the Iron Curtain.

It is much the same for the rest of the country. In fact, some 40 percent of western Germans say they have never ventured east -- this, in a country known for citizens who trek to the end of the world on their cherished holidays.

Again and again, old prejudices pop up in daily life, such as the westerner who takes a holiday on the eastern German island of Usedom and remarks: "Last week, there were mostly westerners in our hotel. It felt much better than this week, when there were so many ossis".

QUOTE Some 40 percent of western Germans say they have never ventured east -- this, in a country known for citizens who trek to the end of the world on their cherished holidays.

Or there is the complaint by frustrated workers from the east about "besser-wessis" -- those westerners who claim to know everything better than eastern Germans.

One can almost physically sense the disillusionment when visiting some of the eastern towns, where up to a third of the people are unemployed.

Many people from the east have made it and founded new companies or found good jobs - often in the west.

Still, the latest polls show that some 50 percent of eastern Germans still feel like second-class citizens. And they still consider themselves eastern Germans first and citizens of a united country second.

However, only a few question German unification itself -- even if though so many problems still need to be resolved, and even though complete unity still seems years away.

Lüscher, a native of Hamm in the former West Germany, is based in Berlin as CNN anchor. In 1989, she worked in CNN's Frankfurt bureau and covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the East German government.