Reunification

German Unification

The two post war German states became one on October 3, 1990. During the forty years they existed side by side the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic developed very different political, economic and social institutions. Establishing the terms of political union proceeded quickly in the months following the collapse of the Gar’s communist order in late 1989. However trying to unify their economic and social institutions has been a slow process and is still a work in progress.

Economic Unification

The first step toward economic unification am on July 1, 1990, when the Federal republic Deutsche Marek became the sole currency of the soon to disappear German Democratic republic. It had become clear not long after the opening of the Berlin Wall that East German Industry would have great difficulties competition on open international markets while at the same time facing the prospect of losing it’s traditional markets the nations. Hoping to stave off economic collapse in the east the government of the Federal Republic proposed a plan in early 1990 to make the West German Deutsche Mark the common currency of the two Agrarian States in anticipation of political union

Although the East German mark had become almost worthless, Bonn agreed to a 1:1 exchange for eastern currency.

That turned out to be more costly undertaking than anyone anticipated in 1990 Initial assessments of eastern Germany’s competitive potential proved to be far too optimistic. Eastern industry was by and large technologically out dated and heavy over staffed . The agency responsible for privation eaten enterprises the subsides and little interest in acquiring eastern commercial assets unless offered substantial incentives or subsides and in many cases a free hand in cutting payrolls. Obsolescence and inefficiency were made worse by the physical legacy of the GDR’s economic polices: the eastern landscape abounded in toxic waste sites and in crumbling public infrastructure. the euphoria sparked by the opening of the Berlin Wall gradually sites and in crumbling public infrastructures. The euphoria sparked by the opening of the Berlin Wall gradually gave way to a more sober realization of the full magnitued of the task for rebuilding the east from the ground up. The public and private sectors respond with a massive program of aid and investment. Transfers to the new eastern states passed the DM 1 trillion mark in the spring of 1998. Roughly half of this infusion has come directly from the federal budget, and annual governmental outlays for Aufbau Ost("building of the east) are expected to continue.

The market economy has taken firm root in the eastern states. Hundreds of thousand of new businesses have opening the east and both western German and foreign firms led by multinational giants such as Siemens and General Motors, have set up shop there as well. In 1998 the eastern states were home of 20,000 small and medium sized businesses most of them founded since unification with a total of 3.2 million employees on their payrolls. The number of self -employed easterners has also grown rapidly jumping from 30,000 shortly before unification to 240,000 in 1998.

The flourishing and steadily expanding private sector testifies to the scale of economic change that has occurred in eastern Germany since unification. By the expiration its mandate in 1994 the agency responsible of selling the one -time ropery of the The full extent is overlooked because progress is invariably measured against how close it has come to matching western German levels rather than how far eastern Germany has come. Financial, technical and legal assistance from the western German states have helped eastern Germany make a more rapid transition to the free market. According to three independent research institutes the worker productivity in east Germany ‘manufacturing sector has improved markedly more than doubling between 1992 and 1997. But even with that gain the institutes noted output per worker in the east still averages about 70% of the western level. eastern wages on the other hand have risen to 90% of basic western wages. Wage growth in the west has slowed, however while productivity levels continue to rise. In some industries that have benefited from high levels of capital investment such as the computer and micro electronics industry that has helped to make a boom town of Dresden -eastern workers fully match their western counterparts in output and international competitiveness. The lingering productivity gap has also been partially offset by eastern workers' growing adaptability. Union is the east have responded to employers calls fro greater labor flexibility by largely abandoning the practice of industry wide wage settlements and foreign investors these days for being more willing to put in longer hours and to work on weekend or holidays. The most frequently cited economic disparity between eastern and western Germany is in the scope of unemployment. At its peak late in the mid decade recession, the unemployment rate stood between 1 and 11 percent in the western states. Eastern Germany by contrast saw unemployment jump quickly after unification to about 15 percent and then gradually rise though the recession to over 20 percent. The jobless rate began dropping in both halves of the country in mid 1998 but the decline in the east was more modest and more dependent on government job creation measures than the job market improvement in the west

Social Unification

Germany's ongoing public discussion of social unification has been able to draw upon an abundance of evidence statistic and anecdotal that has regularly been offered in the press. Easterners and Westerners alike have been surveyed often and at length about their views of one and another and their assessments of the quality of life since unification. Substantial differences of opinion on specific issues have been one general trend has been clear since the union of the two German states in 1990: very few Germans in either half of the country would want to see a return to the status quo ante. Most of the eastern Germans have no interest in turning back the clock there has been much talk of the rise of Ostalgie (eastern nostalgia ) and the development of a distinct eastern identity rooted in the experience of life in the GDR. Attachment to various customs and fixtures of everyday life of the GDR era take many forms. The decision to change the signals at pedestrian crosswalk for instance, promoted a tongue in cheek protest campaign throughout the east not long ago. Rather than workds pedestrian signals in Germany rely on silhouette figures, one standing and one striding to indicate when it is safe to cross the street. The squal little man who presided over eastern street corners briefly became a hero after authorities announced he was to be replaced with his leaner more angular western rival.

A more serious and more telling survival from the GDR is the Jugenweihe ceremony. The Jugendweihe was established by the government of the GDR in 1950’s as a secular coming of age ritual to take the place of confirmation in the Christian churches. After briefly falling out of fashion immediately after unification, the Jugendwihe has rebounded in popularity among eastern teenagers and their parents. The ceremony provides a measure of continuity and stability as well as a tie between the generations during a time of great uncertainty. Both eastern and western German public figures have encouraged the continuation of the annual Jugendweihe ceremonies, arguing that in their post -unification form they provide an opportunity to remind young people of the responsibilities they will be taking on as citizens in a democratic society. Seen from this perspective, the Jugenweihe is at once a uniquely eastern institution as well as a means of transmitting the civic values upheld in the preunification west and that continue to define the Federal Republic.

As with discussion of Germany’s economic situation since 1990 assessments of the progress of social unification are usually cast in terms of how far eastern Germany has come to resemble western Germany. This tendency obscures two important points: the impact of unification on western Germans has not been merely financial and today’s Federal Republic is not simply a bigger version of its pre-unification self.

There has recently been a lot of debate on reforming secondary schools curricula. One of the central points of contention was whether the course of studies leading to the Arbiter, the academically oriented high school diploma required for university admission, should be 13 years, as has long been standard in the west, or 12 years, the eastern norm that the Kohl government proposed as model for the country as a whole in 1992. Probably the most difficult social issues to resolve in the wake of unification were abortion. It was not until 1995 that Germany’s major political parties found a way to reconcile the pre-unification Federal republic’s prohibition of abortion except under special circumstances and the German Democratic republic’s policy of allowing abortion on demand during the first trimester of pregnancy. In a compromise between east and west, abortion is now illegal in Germany but not criminal so long as a woman seeking an abortion first attends a state-approved counseling program to review her options.

Political Unification came as a consequence of the end of the Cold War. Beyond laying the foundations for merger of the two German states the peaceful resolution of the East -West conflict opened the way for Germany to play a larger role within Europe and on the international scene germany with its sovereignty.

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