If we need any proof that we're getting older and time is flying by faster than ever, then it's been brought into very sharp focus for me over the last few days as I've been watching various TV shows, video clips and radio shows reminiscing about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today the 20th anniversary of the opening of the East German border is being commemorated, and I know this sounds like an old cliche but it feels so recent and fresh in the memory.
I was very interested to read recently that although 20 years have passed since the barriers were broken down and the subsequent reunification of the 'two Germanys', there is still a vast difference between the standard of living in the east and west sides of the country. A business has grown up around the idea of 'Ostalgie' - nostalgia for some aspects of the old East German way of life - not the surveillance by the Stasi, but anything from food brands to Trabant cars to TV shows.
It may seem like a retro-chic trend, but for those who have not been dealt a good hand by the arrival of capitalism, unemployment and seeing their country being wiped off the European map, you may begin to understand why there's a genuine nostalgia for what they remember as the positive aspects of day-to-day life in their 'old country' - full employment and community spirit to name two.
20 years ago today. I think about people who are just reaching, say, their 20th birthday. They have grown up in a world where Europe wasn't divided by the 'iron curtain', no Berlin Wall, no German Democratic Republic, no Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia, no Soviet Union....it will all feel like distant history for them. A city divided by a wall? A continent divided by opposing ideologies? Seems unthinkable now, but the post-war/'Cold War' period of history should never be forgotten, and that we should always learn lessons from history. There may be no physical 'walls' now,or 'Iron Curtains', but the walls of nationalism and extremism are being built higher and higher across our continent. They're the walls that need to be knocked down, before it's too late.
1 comment:
I remember seeing it on the news when it happened- would have been one of my earliest memories I suppose,seeing as I'd only turned 3 a couple of days previously.Maybe that's what got me interested in Germany :)
I've never been to Berlin but I met quite a few people from the old DDR when I lived in Kiel.It might be generalising a bit,but they definitely seemed to have a different mentality and outlook on life than some of the "Wessis".Maybe partly due to the fact that there's still some bitterness towards them because of the "Solidarity tax" everyone in the west has paid for the past 20 years to help with modernisation of the east.
It's still really strange to think that Germany as we know it is such a major power in Europe despite being such a young country.
Post a Comment