From 65438 to 0989, the Soviet-style socialist system led by the Soviet Union collapsed, while the capitalist system led by the United States won.
Now, we should not only celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also continue our dream. Life today is still worrying and sometimes confusing. For people who once had high expectations, the present life has not brought them a good feeling.
Maybe we will really miss the days of the cold war. At that time, we did face the constant threat of nuclear annihilation; However, if we can ignore this threat (most people can indeed ignore this threat at that time), life at that time was relatively more stable and less variable. East and west are the same.
Now, the so-called "East Germany Pain" has appeared in the unified Germany. East Germans still miss the simple and stable life under the socialist system: guaranteed jobs, state-allocated housing, happy youth camps and bureaucratic society, but it is really stable. When people born in the former East Germany complain about losing too much, their compatriots in West Germany will call them "complaining about the East Germans". Of course, in response, East Germans will scornfully call them "Besserwessis". Although East and West Germany have been reunified for 20 years, West Germans will bluntly reprimand their former East German compatriots for being unwilling to work hard, unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives, and blindly relying on the state to take care of everything for them. Both sides have created some cliches, however, these cliches reflect something real, at least the real conflict between the two sides in world outlook. This conflict is rooted in the different experiences of the two sides during the division of East and West Germany.
Germans and westerners often quarrel over such conflicts. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a literary conference was recently held in the former East Germany. A veteran of the East German media cynically declared (of course, what he said is not true) that he had never seen West Germans contribute a penny to the reconstruction of the former East Germany. His words immediately drew insults from a West German. This west Germany is also a media person, and he is more famous. He refuted the wrong views of East Germans on West Germans. This is a classic war of words between East Germany and West Germany. What's more interesting is that they don't care about the large audience sitting under the stage. The next day, I met a German historian who happened to have seen the war of words. He said with a wry smile, "As an Englishman who cares about East and West Germany, you must feel that you are investigating a dispute between two primitive tribes." I didn't have time to tell him a fact at that time. If he saw an argument between the English and Scots over the distribution of government taxes by the British government, he would certainly feel the same way.
I think, in any case, the people of East and West Germany can't deny one thing: in the election of 1990, that is, the first election after the reunification of East and West Germany, Chancellor Kohl promised to "revitalize" East Germany, but at most only part of his promise was fulfilled. During the economic downturn from 265438 to the beginning of the 20th century, the new industries introduced into East Germany after 1989 showed no signs of stability. For example, Dresden, which I am very familiar with, is usually regarded as the so-called "landmark" wealth center in the former East Germany, and the microchip industry, which has high hopes, is also in trouble. In March 2009, Mengda Chip Company, a major chip manufacturer, has fallen into the hands of bankrupt enterprise managers, and "restructuring" has begun. Even in the traditional automobile industry centers, such as Eisenach and Zwickau, although they have successfully switched production, there is still a sense of crisis from the production of Trabert cars and Voorburg cars in East Germany to Volkswagen and Opel, and this sense of crisis has spread to the local auto parts industry.
To some extent, the characteristics of the 20 years after Germany's reunification reflect the present situation of the whole world. In many ways, the frozen world during the cold war was ugly; However, on the verge of confrontation between the two systems, despite the heavy ice, the situation is very stable. When the hard ice melts and overflows, we begin to realize that this kind of melted hard ice may also bring some bad phenomena to our society, such as extreme Islam and neo-Nazism. Al Qaeda in the Muslim world, ultra-nationalist and Nazi groups in Europe, "patriots" in Russia and the National Democratic Party in Germany are all disharmonious factors in the whole society.
Disturbingly, compared with more than 20 years ago, the far-right subculture has a more stable position in the former East Germany. A recent study shows that the proportion of male members under the age of 15 is gradually increasing in far-right groups, although they are very unfamiliar with the 1990s and the Cold War. About 1/40 members admitted to joining such extremist organizations, and 1/7 people expressed "extreme" hatred towards foreigners. It is true that after the reunification of Germany, the overall level of juvenile violence has declined. The higher the education level of young people, the less paranoid they are, but the current situation is still very worrying.
Compared with other countries, Germany has different national conditions. In any case, Germany cannot disintegrate like the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. On the contrary, Belgium and Britain are likely to do so. The conflict between East Germany and West Germany is not rooted in any deep or long historical division (in fact, it is not as big as the rift between the English and Scots). /kloc-traditionally, this long-term strong conflict was not based on the East-West conflict, but on the North-South conflict before and after Germany's reunification in the 9th century. /kloc-the urban-rural differences in the 0/7th century, the split between Catholicism and Protestantism, and the "Thirty Years' War" intensified the conflict in Germany. Generally speaking, the generation born in East Germany and the adults now think that the Berlin Wall is only a topic for their parents and grandparents to talk about; In addition, they have a hope, as the late Willy Brandt commented after the fall of the Berlin Wall: "We belong to the same country and hope to develop together." Of course, not everyone agrees with this view, which has nothing to do with democracy. The division between East Germany and West Germany is likely to be more reflected in some traditional symbols, such as class, religion and political beliefs of free choice.
Although there are still many problems in Germany, there is no sign of extreme left or extreme right in a unified Germany. Recent opinion polls show that the traditional Liberal Democratic Party has gained more and more popular support, while the right-wing Christian Democratic Union has lost a little popular support, while the left-wing Social Democratic Party has lost a lot of popular support. At present, the "grand alliance" government composed of these traditional big parties rules this country. Under the leadership of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (born in East Germany), this "grand coalition" government will last until the general election in September 2009. It is worth mentioning that the Green Party still has a large number of voters.
Now, special attention should be paid to the newly established "Di Kelin". This party gathered the remnants of the United Socialist Party (1989 later renamed the German Democratic Socialist Party, and later became the German Democratic Socialist Party-Left Party) (German Labor and Social Justice Party). The leader of the Left Party is former Finance Minister oscar lafontaine. As the ruling Social Democratic Party became more and more neutral and implemented the so-called anti-labor policy, oscar lafontaine withdrew from the Social Democratic Party and became the leader of the left-wing party. The left-wing party was relatively successful, winning 53 seats in the German parliamentary election in 2005 and becoming the fourth largest party in Germany. However, recent opinion polls show that the left-wing parties are going downhill, and the reasons and consequences remind us of the enlightenment of the Berlin Wall.
The left-wing party has experienced an embarrassing birth process, and it is still uncertain what it stands for. Some people think that especially the old party member, the former East German Producers' Party, the newly established left-wing party is the successor of the former East German ruling party. Among the left-wing political parties, the rest set up "inner party", which is called "production platform". Hans modrow, the former leader of the United Socialist Party, the No.2 in East Germany, the former Prime Minister of East Germany and egon krenz, the first secretary of the controversial United Socialist Party, gave speeches and signed books everywhere. Of course, they will not tell their loyal followers about the problems in East Germany, but only say that East Germany is good. As what capitalism preached after the Cold War gradually lost its appeal, what East Germany once preached was rediscovered. Die-hard supporters of the Berlin Wall and East Germany are wearing black and pink again.
Oscar lafontaine, another leader of the Left Party, once warned the Left Party that relying on this bookish "Besserwisserei", they simply could not cope with the capitalist economic crisis in the contemporary world. It has been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but the stepson of the United Socialist Party is still very loyal to Walter Ur Bricht and erich honecker's political party, Stacy and the Berlin Wall. On the tortuous political road, do the left-wing parties maintain a tough and repressive strategy, or find another way? On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germans are faced with an obvious choice: whether to continue to indulge in the "pain of East Germany" or to abandon the ghost of the Berlin Wall and make great strides?