German unity: Any alternative?

In a recent speech "Unification Chancellor" Helmut Kohl emphasized his party's role as the driving force behind German unity

By N-tv, Berlin

Trying to describe the status of German unification, social historians in Germany often speak of the "wall that still remains in people's heads" and they point to the "westernisation of eastern Germany."

In 1989, most East Germans were in favour of reunification but later felt steamrollered by the many changes and developments unfolding after the Berlin Wall came down.

And yet: Was there really an alternative to the two Germanys coming together?

Ten years after the collapse of communism, experts describe German reunification as the only and logical result of the revolutionary upheavals taking place in 1989 and 1990.

"Reunification came too fast. But it could not have been slowed down," says Gert Glaessner, politics professor from Berlin, in summing up the events of the time.

Sociology professor Detlef Pollack compares the former East Germany to a "pressure cooker" that would have eventually blown up had it not been for reunification.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl "made the correct assessment of the situation at the time," says Pollack, adding that, while the situation for unification seemed ideal, things could have turned out very different.

Other observers point out that the speed with which the two Germanys moved towards each other was decided by the people.

"We should not forget what the situation looked like at the time," says former Kohl aide Werner Weidenfeld. "There was a refugee exodus and there were mass protests and people displayed such slogans as 'We are one people'."

Many politicians felt driven by the historic events, says Weidenfeld, adding that nobody really knew at the time how long then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev would stay in power, and thus ensure that his policies of glasnost and perestroika would continue.

Ironically, according to Pollack, many people in East Germany also felt they were passengers rather than drivers and "felt pushed into a corner" by the unfolding events.

Deutschmarks and disparities

The government's main goal after reunification was to raise the standard of living in eastern Germany to that of western Germany. But the task proved to be much more difficult than predicted by most politicians and economists.

Some historians in Germany say the Wall is still there in many people's heads

Productivity in the former German Democratic Republic was only about 30 percent compared with that of West Germany. In order to remedy the imbalance, massive financial aid was poured into the region. Former state companies, for instance, were given millions of deutschmarks in subsidies in order to raise productivity and make businesses in the east more competitive in both domestic and international markets.

A lot of money was also pumped into eastern Germany in order to rebuild an often crumbling or inefficient infrastructure, including road and rail transport or telecommunications installations.

However, most Germans measure the success of reunification by the standard of living in eastern and western parts of the country.

In 1991, the average worker's gross salary in eastern Germany was about 48 percent compared with that of his counterpart in the west. Seven years later, that figure had increased to 78 percent.

Nevertheless, overall buying power in the eastern German states has still not reached western levels: in the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, for instance, it is 78 percent and 81 percent respectively, according to government statistics.

Divisions despite celebrations

It is somehow hard to believe but the "unification chancellor," as Germany's former Chancellor Helmut Kohl is often referred to, will not attend the official celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of German unification.

Hundreds of eastern businesses were given western subsidies in order to improve their competitiveness

The slush fund scandal that broke a few months ago -- and which has embroiled both Kohl and his Christian Democratic Union party -- has tarnished the veteran politician's reputation considerably. Kohl rejected an invitation for celebrations in a state run by a party colleague because he was not on the speaker list.

But Kohl did eventually address another, carefully staged, party conference at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin. He used that event to underline his role in the process of German unification and to lash out at the governing Social Democrats, which had then been in opposition.

"There was not one Social Democrat 10 years ago who really wanted German unification - not one!" Kohl said in his speech.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats themselves are clearly finding it difficult to accept that leading members of their party at the time did not believe in unification.

However, they have countered the CDU attacks by reasserting their commitment to eastern Germany, and regularly point to the Social Democrat Party leader and former Chancellor Willy Brandt, who for years had spoken publicly about his vision of a unified Germany.

The political row between the governing Social Democrats and the conservative CDU has cast a shadow over official celebrations taking place in the eastern city of Dresden on October 3.

About 1,000 prominent guests will be there, including speakers President Jacques Chirac of France, German President Johannes Rau and East Germany's last premier, Lothar de Maiziere.

Ordinary Germans, too, will get a chance to celebrate the historic date -- for instance at the "Rock for Germany" concert in Dresden, where eastern and western bands will share the same open-air stage in a stadium. This concert may well reflect the fact that, if a recent poll is to be believed, that 58 percent of Germans consider unification a success.