German reunification Archives - Page 2 of 2

Posts Tagged ‘German reunification’

Unique Berlin Wall Segment in D.C.

Monday, August 17th, 2015

A unique Berlin Wall Segment arrived at the State Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. last Thursday, August 13, 2015. It arrived on the 54th anniversary of the closure of the border from East to West Berlin. https://www.voanews.com/a/berlin-wall-segment-arrives-in-washington/2916901.html/

Plans call for the piece to be put on display in the State Department’s Museum and Education Center, which is currently under construction. The Center is scheduled to open to the public at the end of 2017.

What did the Berlin Wall really look like?

The actual Berlin Wall actually consisted of two walls: The eastern so-called Hinterland Wall, and the western wall, which we usually think of when we speak of the Berlin Wall. A death strip separated the two. Today, the graffiti-decorated western wall segments are more popular with tourists, collectors and investors. Although souvenir shops sell small pieces of the Berlin Wall for just a few dollars, an entire wall segment measures 10.5 feet in height, 4 feet in width and weighs 2.9 tons. Between 1961 and 1990, around 54,000 of these concrete slabs made up the western side of the Berlin Wall. Their costs, even without shipment and handling, can be astounding.

Typical stretch of the western Berlin Wall,
Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2014

The Berlin Wall is all over the world

Berliners started chiseling away at the wall immediately after the border opened on 9 November 1989 and continued to do so for the next few years. I hammered out a number of small pieces myself. But some people immediately looked beyond mementos. They recognized the profit-making opportunity. A Bavarian businessman, for instance, made an offer on an entire wall Berlin Wall segment only one day after the border opened. The bidding went from there. A Japanese company offered $185,000 for a single section. So far, around 600 segments have found new homes outside Germany. Twenty-six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, more pieces are scattered across the globe than remain in Berlin itself. South Korea acquired five sections of the Berlin Wall for a different reason. For South Korea the Berlin Wall segments symbolize their country’s hope that North and South Korea may also peacefully reunite one day. http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/oct/28/-sp-where-on-earth-berlin-wall-25-years-fall

Why is this Berlin Wall segment so unique?

The Berlin Wall segment that arrived at the U.S. State Department on Thursday bears twenty-five personal signatures on its front face. These signatures belong to statesmen who played key roles in the reunification of Germany. The section of the Berlin Wall that just arrived in D.C. was signed by former US President George H.W. Bush, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, former US Secretary of State James A. Baker, former prime minister of the German Democratic Republic Lothar de Maiziere and others. Initially, the German energy company Verbundnetz Gas AG owned this particular wall segment. Verbundnetz Gas presented it to the Atlantic Council, a think tank devoted to international affairs, and the Atlantic Council put it on temporarily display at the German embassy in Washington. Last Thursday, the Atlantic Council gifted this unique Berlin Wall segment to the U.S. State Department, its permanent home.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic or current events, people, places or food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Angela Merkel, Atlantic Council, deathstrip, George H.W. Bush, German reunification, Helmut Kohl, Hinterland wall, James A. Baker, Lech Walesa, Lothar de Maiziere, Mikhail Gorbachev, South Korea, Unique Berlin Wall segment, US State Department, Verbundnetz Gas AG
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Reunification exuberance turns to gloom

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Last week, we talked about the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 and the reunification of East and West less than one year later. We also alluded to the financial and social costs that unity would require.

Financial and social costs of reunification

Immediately following reunification, an agency was created to privatize the “people’s property”, the state-owned enterprises in the former East. This agency was called Treuhandanstalt. It soon became clear that the average productivity of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was equal to only one-third of that of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). The profit from privatization that had been expected to come close to DM 600 billion (about €300 billion) fell short by far. In fact, the expected profit turned into an actual deficit of DM 230 billion (€115 billion). That meant that privatization could no longer pay for the needed infrastructure in the new federal states, as had been anticipated. To make matters worse, factories in the former East were so outdated that they had to be closed and/or rebuilt resulting in massive unemployment. With little initial productivity in the East, the population in the former West was forced to bear most of the financial costs of reunification. The population in the former East was forced to bear most of the social costs of reunification. Soon, reunification exuberance turned into gloom on both sides.

Aufbau Ost project.

Then there was the Aufbau Ost project. It consisted for the most part of the construction of infrastructure and telecommunication facilities in the former East, preservation of cultural assets, environmental projects, and the renovation of inner-city residential quarters in Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Halle. The initial lack of such assets in the five new federal states resulted in an immediate exodus from east to west. According to a recent statement by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the exodus has finally stopped. But it took 25 years before the population outflow in the new federal states is equal to the population influx.

Today, 25 years after reunification, great progress has been made in the former East, both economically and socially. The worst is over. Still, enormous challenges remain. But the people from East and West are now prepared to face them together.

Tags: Aubau Ost project, German reunification, people's property, privatization, Treuhandanstalt
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German reunification

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

At the beginning of 1989 German reunification was on no one’s mind. Hardly anybody in Germany or elsewhere anticipated that the Berlin Wall would disappear in the near future. During the course of the preceding twenty-eight years, the East German government had continually “improved” the Wall. Now, in its forth generation, the Berlin Wall was higher, stronger, and even less surmountable than ever before.

Reunification within one year

On October 7 of the same year, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) celebrated its 40th anniversary. Despite preceding unrest and demonstrations, no one expected it to be the GDR’s last anniversary celebration. But only one year later, on October 3, 1990, the two distinct German states were reunited after forty years of separation. East Germany had collapsed like a house of cards in the space of just a few months, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had added five new federal states by accession. They were: Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

The cost of reunification

Initially, reunification brought forth nothing but exuberance among the people on both sides of the dividing line. East and West Germans assumed that the reunification process could turn into an administrative nightmare, but that it would be a manageable undertaking. But it tuned out that the social and financial costs of reunification were enormous. Within a brief period, people in the East and West were forced to come to terms with their past, present and future without so much as a precedent in history.

Next time, I will discuss some of the problems East and West Germans had to face during the reunification process and for many years thereafter.

Tags: Berlin Wall, cost of reunification, Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, German reunification
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Christian Führer – Fall of the Berlin Wall

Thursday, July 3rd, 2014

Christian Führer passed away last Monday, June 30, 2014, at age 71. His name and that of the Nikolaikirche–St. Nicholas Church–in Leipzig will forever be linked to East Germany’s peaceful revolution against communist rule. As Pastor, Führer led weekly Monday night Friedensgebete–peace prayers. These meetings became the foundation of the demonstrations that ultimately brought down the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and led to German reunification.

Rev. Christian Führer

Nikolaikirche

The church was built around the time that Leipzig was founded in 1165. It became a Protestant seat in 1539 and has not changed much since the 16th century. Johann Sebastian Bach played the organ here in the 18th century. In 1980 Rev. Führer became pastor at the Nikolaikirche. At that time the Cold War divided the world into East and West, and a wall split Germany into the DDR (East Germany) and the BRD (West Germany). Religion was frowned upon by communism so that atheism was the norm in East Germany. Churches like the Nikolaikirche were spied upon.

St. Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Peaceful revolution of 1989

“In the DDR, the church provided the only free space,” Führer said in an interview with Religion & Ethics News Weekly. “Everything that could not be discussed in public could be discussed in church.” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2009/11/06/november-6-2009-the-rev-christian-fuhrer-extended-interview/4843/. To encourage a dialogue on topics that were otherwise taboo, Christian Führer established the Monday night prayer meetings. The gatherings gained in popularity and attendance soon exceeded the church’s 2,000-seat capacity. By early 1989 the East German authorities tried to stop Führer’s Friedensgebete by arresting random “suspects” inside and outside the church. But the meetings continued. To the contrary, the number of participants grew even larger. In September 1989, the prayers turned into peaceful demonstrations. Thousands of people held candles and carried banners. Although the police tried to keep the demonstrations in check, the number of demonstrators continued to grow.

October Showdown

On 9 October 1989, 100,000 demonstrators gathered in the center of Leipzig. They were met by 8,000 armed police with orders to shoot. Demonstrators shouted, “We are the people” and “No violence.” A blood bath seemed likely, but organizers appealed to the demonstrators to remain peaceful. They complied. Miraculously, not one shot fell. Quickly, protests swept through the rest of East Germany and led to the opening of the borders on 9 November 1989. Christian Führer had provided the cradle for this peaceful revolution. His name will remain inextricably entwined with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Tags: Christian Fuehrer, fall of the Berlin Wall, Friedensgebete, German reunification, Nikolaikirche
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Ampelmaennchen – former East Berliners

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

What is green and helps pedestrians cross the road? Ampelmännchen! Ampelmännchen is German for “little traffic light men.” Internationally, a generic walking figure or a WALK sign gives pedestrians permission to cross, a hand or a DON’T WALK sign implies to wait. Prior to German reunification in 1990, the two German states used different forms of Ampelmännchen: West German traffic signs showed a generic human figure; East German signs displayed a stocky male figure wearing a hat.

Ampelmännchen (little traffic light men) created by former East Berliner, Karl Peglau

Ampelmännchen (little traffic light men) created by Karl Peglau in 1961

History of the German Ampelmännchen

Until 1961, only vehicle traffic lights directed traffic in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The lights looked more or less the way they had in the 1930s. But the growing number of cars had led to an increase in vehicle-pedestrian accidents, which caused the East Berlin Traffic Commission to consider traffic lights for pedestrians. They asked East Berlin traffic psychologist Karl Peglau to design such lights. In early October 1961, less than two months after the Berlin Wall had gone up, Peglau introduced an icon of a little perky green man with a happy stride to signal permission to cross. His red cousin spread his arms like a human barricade. By the early 1980s, the icons had also gained widespread popularity throughout East Germany as characters in children’s road safety education programs, a cartoon strip, a radio nighttime story series, and on television.

Save the East German Ampelmännchen

Following reunification, traffic lights were to be standardized, and the East German Ampelmännchen were slated to disappear, much like other features that had once been part of life in former East Germany. Immediately, a campaign to “Save the Ampelmännchen” was launched with the result that those perky little guys with their human features were preserved from extinction first in the former East Germany, then in the former West Berlin, and eventually in other formerly West German cities as well.

The Ampelmännchen mascot

In the years after German reunification, the former East German Ampelmännchen became the mascot for an East German nostalgia movement because, as Peglau believes, they represented a positive aspect of an otherwise failed social order. Today, Ampelmännchen are extremely popular souvenirs with locals and tourists alike and are recognized worldwide as a brand from Berlin. Over forty souvenir products bearing the Ampelmann logo, including t-shirts, bags mugs, lamps, and jewelry, are hot ticket items and have become the German equivalent of Mickey Mouse. Also visit Ampelmann to marry Ampelfrau

Tags: "Save the Ampelmaennchen", Ampelmaennchen, Berlin, Berlin Wall, German reunification, Karl Peglau, Mickey Mouse
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The Trabi – an ugly duckling?

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

The Trabant, lovingly referred to as “Trabi”, was the Volkswagen of East Germany. Small, slow, and unsafe, it looked a little like an ugly duckling. But, for East Germans, the car with its 26-horsepower motor and two-stroke engine was an object of intense pride and affection. Purchasers typically had to wait for delivery in excess of ten years, and its price equaled the average worker’s annual wage. The year the Berlin Wall fell, a new Trabi, straight off the assembly line, cost $8,600. And a used car might snatch an additional $4,000 because of its shorter delivery time. Trabis were big-time polluters. They produced roughly the same amount of emissions as 30 large Mercedes-Benzes. In fact, they polluted so much that West Germans called the car “Little Stinker.”

The last Trabi leaves the production line at the factory in Zwickau on 30 April 1991.
(AP Photo/Eckehard Schulz)

Between 1957 and 1991, over three million of these Trabis rolled off the production line in Zwickau, Saxony. But after German reunification the cars could not longer be produced competitively. Many Ossis (East Germans) had traded in their Trabant for secondhand VWs or Mercedes-Benzes. Others kept them as second cars. When the last car left the plant on 30 April 1991, an era had come to an end, and the Trabant had become a piece of nostalgic history. “They were polished more than they were driven,” said Motorwelt, a German Automobile Club magazine. Over the years, the cars had been the butt of endless jokes:

A Trabi loses no oil – He marks his territory!

How do you double the value of a Trabant? – Fill up the tank!

How many workers does it take to build a Trabi? -Three: one to cut, one to fold and one to paste.

Why is a Trabant considered the longest car? – There’s 8 feet of car, followed by 50 feet of smoke.

But despite its shortcomings, Trabis made unforgettable history when they carried thousands of fleeing East Germans across Czechoslovakia and Hungary in the summer of 1989. I will never forget the images of the long lines of Trabis crossing the borders to the West and of those abandoned along the roadsides, their owners crossing the borders on foot.

Tags: East Germany, German reunification, Trabant, Trabi, Volkswagen, Zwickau
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Stalin Note

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

The Stalin note was a diplomatic paper. On March 10, 1952, Joseph Stalin’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, delivered three identical documents to his postwar Allies–the United States, France and Great Britain. The Stalin note was the first of four pieces of correspondence on the same subject, all initiated by Marshal Stalin. The paper proposed a peace treaty between the four Allies and the East- and West-occupied Germanys to end the country’s artificial division.

Content of the Stalin Note

In this diplomatic note, Stalin proposed German reunification but attached several stipulations. Aside from other requirements, he proposed reunification of East and West Germany, providing that the occupying powers withdraw their armed forces and liquidate all of their bases in Germany. He further demanded that once reunited, Germany would be required to forfeit her right to enter into a military alliance with any power, that had taken part in WWII. Stalin suggested a four-power conference to act on his proposal by signing a peace treaty with Germany.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_cold_war_studies/summary/v013/13.4.ruggenthaler.html

Four-power conference

The conference never took place. Germany and the three Western Allies feared that a peace treaty of this nature could result in the reunited Germany’s inability to protect her borders. They also recognized that signing this peace treaty would mean that the reunited Germany would be barred from aligning herself with the Western powers. As history shows those interpretations prevailed. The Cold War continued to heat up over the next three decades, and East and West became more firmly entrenched in their respective blocs. Germany remained divided until the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) collapsed in 1990.

The question remains

Historians have been divided ever since on the intent of the Stalin note. The questions remain (1) Did the West German, Western European, and American leaders miss a much earlier opportunity for German reunification? (2) Were the Soviets offering a sincere path toward German reunification in 1952 or was the Stalin Note a ploy to facilitate the incorporation of Germany into the Eastern bloc? Opinions differ to this day.

Tags: Andrei Gromyko, German reunification, Joseph Stalin, peace treaty, Stalin Note
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Hotel Adlon Part 2

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014

To read about the history of Berlin’s Hotel Adlon from the time of the German Empire through World War II, visit http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/hotel-adlon-part-1/. Today’s post will bring the reader to the present-day.

Hotel Adlon during the Cold War

In the division of Berlin, the surviving wing of the Hotel Adlon ended up on the east side of the city. In 1952, the East German government demolished the damaged parts of the building along with all the other structures surrounding Pariser Platz. The one remaining Adlon wing was renovated in 1964 but closed to hotel guests in the 1970s. It remained in use until 1984 by providing housing to East German apprentices who were learning the hotel business. Then it was demolished as well.

Hotel Adlon reopens

The new Adlon reopened on 23 August 1997, seven years after German reunification. This new building occupied the original site plus some adjacent land. However, the new Hotel Adlon is not a replica of the old pre-WWII building. The new Hotel Adlon was constructed with lower ceilings and more floors to allow for additional rooms. Operated as Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin, two new wings have been added since reopening. One new wing opened in 2003 and is known as the Adlon Palais; the other opened in 2004 and is known as the Adlon Residenz. Presently, the Hotel Adlon offers 382 rooms including 78 suites. Its 5-room presidential suite includes top security, a personal butler, and limousine service.

The current Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin

Hedda Adlon’s wish

Hedda Adlon, widow of the last owner of the hotel, wrote her memoir in 1955. It is entitled, “Hotel Adlon” and was published in the German language. It has been republished many times, including in several English language versions. Hedda closed by saying “I want to rebuild the Hotel Adlon, but only when East and West are reunited again and only on the spot where it originally stood und where I spent the happiest time of my life: in the heart of Berlin at Unter den Linden 1.” At that time, no one dreamed that reunification would become a reality soon.

Hedda passed away more than 20 years before the Wall tumbled in 1989. Her wish came true with the exception that the address is now Unter den Linden 77, not Unter den Linden 1. That is because the grand boulevard was originally numbered starting at the Brandenburg Gate. In the East German era, it was renumbered, starting from the other end.

Tags: German reunification, Hedda Adlon, Hotel Adlon, Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin, Pariser Platz
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Potsdamer Platz – Part 2

Monday, November 4th, 2013

Potsdamer Platz following World War II

Following World War II, Berlin was divided into four sectors. Three of them–the American, British and Soviet occupation sectors–converged at the Potsdamer Platz. That geographic oddity resulted in the Potsdamer Platz becoming a center for black market activities. Since black market trading was illegal, the convergence of three sectors meant that one had to walk only a few feet to cross sector boundaries and could conduct black market activities before drawing much attention.

Potsdamer Platz in October 1945

Potsdamer Platz following construction of the Berlin Wall

In August 1961, the Berlin Wall went up. It divided the bustling Potsdamer Platz into two halves. What had been a busy intersection became a desolate wasteland. Since the S-Bahn (elevated train) traveled briefly through East Berlin on its route from one part of West Berlin to another, the Potsdamer Platz station, located in the eastern sector, was closed off and patrolled by armed guards. Trains ran through the station without shopping. The corresponding U-Bahn (subway) route was closed entirely. After the remaining bomb-damaged buildings on both sides of the Wall were cleared away, only two structures remained standing: Weinhaus Huth and the Hotel Esplanade.

Weinhaus Huth at the Potsdamer Platz

The wine merchant Christian Huth acquired the land in 1877, built his villa and started a wine business. His grandson Willy Huth erected the current building on the same spot thirty-five years later. Weinhaus Huth survived World War II virtually undamaged and became known as “the last house on the Potsdamer Platz.” The reason it survived was its steel construction. The ultra-modern construction method was chosen so that the heavy wine bottles could be stored on the building’s second and third floors.

For forty-five years, Weinhaus Huth stood alone at the Potsdamer Platz, next to the remains of the Hotel Esplanade. Both were in the British sector close to the Berlin Wall. Following the death of Willy Huth in 1967, his widow sold the land and buildings to the City of Berlin.

Hotel Esplanade at the Potsdamer Platz

Hotel Esplanade went from being one of Berlin’s most luxurious hotels to a bombed-out shell that stood alongside the Berlin Wall at the Potsdamer Platz. Built in 1907, it included the famous Kaisersaal (emperor’s hall) where Emperor Wilhelm II hosted exclusive Herrenabende (men’s evenings). In the “Golden Twenties”, the Esplanade held popular afternoon dances. Well-known movie stars like Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo visited here.

In the last years of World War II, bombs destroyed ninety percent of the famous hotel. Only the Kaisersaal, the breakfast hall, the stairwell, and the washrooms survived. After the war they were restored, and the Esplanade became a popular nightclub. During the 1950s, it hosted elaborate balls, and scenes of the movie, Cabaret, were filmed here. My father, a professional photographer, photographed many of the events at the hotel.

Also visit www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/potsdamer-platz-part-1/ to read about the history of the Potsdamer Platz prior to World War II.

Tags: Black Market, German reunification, Hotel Esplanade, Kaisersaal, Potsdamer Platz, Weinhaus Huth, World War II
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Potsdamer Platz – Part 1

Monday, October 28th, 2013

The Potsdamer Platz (Potsdam Square) is a well-known public square in the heart of Berlin, Germany. It is located about 1 km south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (German Parliament building). The square grew from a five-cornered traffic knot along a 19th century trading route to one of the liveliest traffic intersections and public squares in Europe. World War II bombs laid waste to 80% of its buildings. During the Cold War that followed, the Berlin Wall ran through the middle of the square, turning it into a no man’s land. But since German reunification in 1990, the Potsdamer Platz has been the site of avant-garde redevelopment projects and is busier than ever.

Potsdamer Platz in the Beginning

Starting in the mid-19th century, Berlin was growing at a tremendous rate. After the city constructed the Potsdam rail station in 1838 and became the capital of the new German Empire in 1871, this five-cornered intersection turned into an important plaza. With a population of 4.4 million, Berlin had become the third largest city in the world, right after London and New York.

Potsdamer Platz in the 1920s and 1930s

By the 1920s and 1930s, the Potsdamer Platz was the busiest traffic center in all of Europe. Five of Berlin’s most hectic streets met here in a star-shaped intersection. Huge hotels and department stores, theatres, dance halls and clubs, cafes, restaurants and bars, beer and wine houses, and hundreds of small shops had sprung up all around the square. Some had acquired an international reputation.

Potsdamer Platz in the mid 1920s

Potsdamer Platz during WWII

As was true of most of the buildings located in the center of Berlin, air raids devastated most of the structures that were built around the Potsdamer Platz. The three most destructive raids occurred during the final years of World War II – in November 1943 and in February 1945.

Watch for the second article in this sequence which talks about the Potsdamer Platz following World War II.

Visit http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/potsdamer-platz-part-2/ to read about the Potsdamer Platz following World War II.

Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, German reunification, Germany, one of the liveliest traffic centers in Europe, Potsdamer Platz, World War II bombings
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