After the Wall: Competing Narratives of Germany's Unification 20 Years after the Wende

Abstract

Germany's peaceful unification 20 years ago can be rated as one of the lasting success stories of German and European history. Nevertheless, some feelings of frustration with unification and the ensuing process of transition in the East continue to exist among many East and West Germans. While West Germans often feel like the paymasters of German unity, many East Germans feel their lifetime in the GDR is not respected and argue that even Communist East Germany would have had a few positive contributions to make to a united Germany. While these frustrations are slowly receding in their significance for day-to-day public affairs, the centre of gravity of German politics has shifted leftward domestically and especially in foreign policy.

Distancing From the Past – Longing for the “Heartland”: Reflections on the East German Teachers’ Subjective Perception of the Wende

“…some scholars (schröter, 1995;Weiler, Mintrop, Fuhrmann, 1996;rodden, 2002) pointed to teachers' skepticism towards "imported" democracy, their questioning of West german political freedom and only partial acceptance for political changes after the Wende. However, there was one high psychological cost of the "overnight Westernization" that dominated most teachers' adaptation strategies: forced "devaluation" of not only their professional, but also their life experiences (Freudenstein, 2009). rodden points to a "psychological purging" as the most psychologically painful result of asymmetrical process of merging east and West.…”