Where the Berlin Wall Stood

Image: Where the Berlin Wall Stood, 1961-1989.

Twenty years after the treaty reuniting Germany was signed, Germany prepares for a celebration. Barely a trace of the original wall can be found now; many tourists enjoying Berlin's reunification festivities are drawn more by its reputation as a cutting-edge party city than by ghosts of the past. Those who seek out museums and memorials emerge from visiting the chilling historical documentation into the light of a major European metropolis. Land reclaimed from where the wall once stood now boasts modern architecture, itself drawing tourists.
But after twenty years, celebration still takes a backseat to analysis. What has been achieved? Is it enough? The questions raised each year as the third of October approaches focus mainly on the economy and integration. The GDP of the former Eastern States has grown from 33.5% in 1991 to 73% of the standard set in the former Western States today. Germany's Chancellor Merkel is an "Ossi," as people who grew up in the GDR are known. But there is another aspect to German reunification that deserves analysis. And celebration.

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