When the public assets of the former GDR have been privatized it was an utterly corrupt process. Not as horrible as in Russia but still pretty bad. The corruption usually took the form of too small prices being payed for the property, i.e. buyers and the public agency (ironically called Treuhandanstalt, trust agency) conspired against the interests of the public (to get most money from privatization). Furthermore there were some decent companies who could have survived but their Western competition wanted to crush them and of course they had the usual influence upon the government. What should have happened? Simply a slower process. Install some protectionist measures in order to save those companies who can be saved, regulate capital markets to allow an inflow of capital but not an outflow and labour markets should of course be totally open as people wanted to unite with their relatives. The artificially imposed exchange rate of 1:1 was of course also totally nonsensical. China did not listen to the neoliberal nonsense of the West, slower transformed from socialism to capitalism and that's why the country is on a better path than Russia (of course I am not sanctioning authoritarianism or sweat shop labour).
Happy Unity Day! I remember being really excited when I heard it on the news. (And, btw, all of you talking about being little kids at the time are making me feel really, really old.)
I'm not a German, of course, but I was one month into my second year of German language classes in high school when reunification occurred and our teacher had a special day of celebration to commemorate the event. If I recall, we were treated to genuine (or as close as genuine as you can get with an American woman cooking and making them using the native German recipes) Deutschlander foods. After a lifetime of school classes that had World and European maps showing two Germanys it was a bit of an adjustment to see the first maps depicting one solid, single and reunified Bundesrepublik, but very pleasant and rewarding. That meant the Cold War was finally ending and a lot of the worst fears of my childhood and teenage years were receding and going away.
I was serving in Germany. My wife was preggers - our son was born in Germany in November, a little over two weeks after the wall went down. Coincidentally, my father was also in the military and I was in Germany in 1961 when the wall was started. I was also in Germany serving in 1980 when the 4th generation wall was completed.
My husband was stationed in Germany and we were living right off the USArmy base in Bamberg. It was, to borrow from good ol' Joe - "A BIG EFFING DEAL!" Our German neighbors were both ecstatic and a little apprehensive.
Happy Unity Day, meine freunde. Yeah, the reunification didn't go as smoothly as one would have liked, but it was still a great day in Human history. It was the end of a bad era and the beginning of hope for peace, freedom and cooperation. Indeed, we should do that more often. And, no, I wasn't a teenager then.
Um... You should probably look for the version that only has the third verse, not the first one with "Deutschland über alles" which we don't sing anymore (since about '45, though not everyone got the memo...). Anyway, the third verse is the official anthem.
I already pulled it after I was reminded about the context of and sensitivity concerning the beginning. My apologies. If I repost the anthem I'll find one with only the third verse in it.
Yeah, I sent poor CE a PM right away. I was also tempted to tell him that "Schland, oh, Schland" is the official national anthem now.
Mmh, a guy named Toby Wilson who is from Chemnitz of all places - sometimes this country is weirder than I anticipate. Don't feel bad. It wouldn't be the same without one awkward moment.
Happy Unity Day to our German posters and indeed to everyone who was alive then, since it was a revolutionary day for all of us. I was a freshman in high school at the time and we were very excited about the changes that were happening around the world.
Happy Unity Day! I was 4 at the time and more interested in DuckTales, but I'm sure my parents were very excited!