How the Berlin Wall fell

This year Germany will celebrate the 30 anniversary of the unification. In November of the 1989 of the year, what divided a single people collapsed - the Berlin Wall, as the main symbol of not only the separation of Germany, but also the confrontation of the two systems.

GDR citizens in euphoria rushed westward. Someone shouted about freedom, someone even tore his Gadair passport.

Today, Germany itself is trying to comprehend what happened then - 30 years ago. At the same time, the feeling of euphoria was dispelled for many, and was replaced by the realization that Germany remains divided to this day.

Many residents of the eastern federal states understand that in 1989 there was more absorption than unification. A beautiful western picture faded due to economic stratification within a united Germany. In the east of the country the level of poverty, unemployment is higher, the volume of investments is lower. For 30 years, German authorities have not been able to ensure that the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred in the minds of ordinary Germans, millions of whom continue to divide each other into Western and Eastern.

TV channelHistory”Offers a film that was shot earlier and which is dedicated to the process of preparation for the unification of Germany and how, in all senses of the word, the Berlin Wall fell.

Comments

[Terenin]

How the Berlin Wall fell

I, and then and now spoke and say, - I would have been a stone from this wall, but to Gorbachev and the company in the eye!

[Plantagenet]

And what could Gorbachev do?

[Terenin]

Quote: Plantagenet

And what could Gorbachev do?

As Gorbachev and Yeltsin conducted their policies, it cannot be pursued under any circumstances. What do we, in the end, care about the Germans who live in one country. This country went to war with us. She took so many victims from us. And even if we, realizing that we are no longer able to control Eastern Europe, make some concessions, but we had to bargain for the most merciless way, for every clause of these negotiations (open and closed, whatever) in a wild way.

[Plantagenet]

Sorry, but you probably didn’t live on the territory of the USSR at that time? I just lived and remember that time. There was no time for bargaining; there the country itself was in danger of collapse. In order to bargain it is necessary to have power, the USSR did not have it.

[Terenin]

Quote: Plantagenet

Sorry, but you probably didn’t live on the territory of the USSR at that time? I just lived and remember that time. There was no time for bargaining; there the country itself was in danger of collapse. In order to bargain it is necessary to have power, the USSR did not have it.

No doubt Gorbachev thought so. He didn’t stop the collapse, but withdrew the troops into the field - on the initiative that when the German Chancellor G.Kol found out about this initiative, he almost choked.
I lived on the territory of the USSR, and by that time I had 13 years of service in the armed forces.

[Plantagenet]

"He didn't stop the collapse"

Well, then he tried to try.

[naidas]

Quote: Plantagenet

Well, then he tried

Sitting in Foros?

[naidas]

And the Bolsheviks bargained and won.

[knn54]

... you have become slaves to banks. Yes, you had to save up money at Wartburgs, but you just paid in cash for them, like proud free people. Your marks of the GDR on the passbooks brought you good interest, and all of you had substantial savings. Now you have nothing. Not even the German brand. The pension in the GDR was guaranteed to you. Now it is too little for life ... and for death. Your children in GDR schools could read and write in six weeks. Now they are not able to do this even in the third grade. It never occurred to anyone to be afraid of anything, even in a big city, in Berlin, and no one was killed at Alexanderplatz. Today, in the evenings, you are afraid to stick your nose out of the house in your native village, where hordes of Afghan "refugees" roam the streets ...
You wanted to enjoy Germany without limits. Enjoy it.
From a letter (from another world) from Erich Honecker, the last Secretary General of the Communist Party of East Germany and the head of the GDR

[Dietmar]

Some of Honecker's "theses" I, as living in Germany since 1997, cannot be called completely truthful, for example:

Quote: knn54

... Your children in GDR schools could read and write in six weeks. Now they are not able to do this even in the third grade.

My daughter, upon arrival in Germany, immediately went to first grade. Not knowing German at all, six months later she spoke and wrote fluently. But I came across adults who did not know the basics of arithmetic.

... Today you are afraid in the evenings to stick your nose out of the house in your native village, where hordes of Afghan "refugees" roam the streets ...

300 meters from the house where my family lives, there are several hostels for refugees, built after 2015. No crowds of these refugees roam the streets. Although the German press often writes about various incidents and even serious crimes related to refugees.

But many former GDR sheep would exchange today's life in the EU for the then in the GDR, I have heard this many times.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: Dietmar

My daughter, upon arrival in Germany, immediately went to first grade. Not knowing German at all, six months later she spoke and wrote fluently. But I came across adults who did not know the basics of arithmetic.

Well, live and rejoice, we have to do with it, now it’s your Germany, it’s good for you to live 300 meters from the refugees and live, but we don’t want to. To each his own.

[mikle1999]

You live in a country where a Chechen (and he is a Russian citizen, not a refugee, has the right to travel freely in Russia), having killed a Russian, he leaves for Chechnya and there is no way to pick him out.

[Dietmar]

Quote: tihonmarine

Well, live and rejoice, we have to do with it, now it’s your Germany, it’s good for you to live 300 meters from the refugees and live, but we don’t want to. To each his own.

What does "rejoice, do not rejoice" have to do with it, I just do not agree with some of Honecker's theses.

[Plantagenet]

Do you think that if you arrange a vote today, then most Germans will be against the unification of Germany?

[naidas]

In the east, in the federal states that were formerly members of the GDR, the proportion of those who are satisfied with the Union is higher than in the west in the old federal states: 88 versus 82 percent. In general, as noted by AFP, the proportion of those who approve of the Association, since the 90s, has remained stably high (about 80 percent).

[tihonmarine]

Quote: naidas

In general, as noted by AFP, the proportion of those who approve of the Association, since the 90-s, remains stably high (about 80 percent) .2010г.

And this is for us who cares how much interest you have and for whom. You have your own wedding, and we have our own.

[Basil50]

45th
Not so simple. The Germans from the GDR are so indignant, not because there is not enough money, but because in Germany they are all * second-rate *. They are considered * non-Germans *, unlike those invited by the clerk. Already what at the same time voiced the rationale, this is secondary.

[General failure]

Well, yes.
Gorbachev surrendered one of his closest allies as a drunk to glass bottles in exchange for smiles and promises.
That's how we won.

... And if they already passed the GDR, then the rest of the social camp expectedly fell down like a chessboard after the completion of the central figure.

[mikle1999]

Ally, love for the USSR frankly did not suffer

[General failure]

At that time, the GDR was a puppet in the sense of geopolitics.
That is - an advanced barrier against NATO aggression. Real, chx.
About the same as Germany was, just the opposite.

And both of them are GERMANS.
Hitler once said to hold on - they kept to the limit.
Gorbachev said that we must give up - they surrendered.

As for love - the GDR was a faithful ally ALWAYS. Exactly until WE merged it.

[iouris]

RF is the legal successor of the USSR. The USSR betrayed the GDR. The "unification" of Germany did not happen. There was a takeover of the GDR, for a minute, a member of the UN.