Margaret M. Manchester Writes

I have just returned from Berlin where B and I and several of my Fulbright-Hungary colleagues attended a conference organized by the German Fulbright Commission.  Germany is celebrating two anniversaries this year:  60/20– it is the 20th anniversary of the collapse of collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany.  And it is the 60th birthday of the German Republic.  The photo above was taken from the top of the Fernsehturm (TV tower) and shows older traditional buildings in the foreground juxtaposed against the background of Socialist Realist concrete block  buildings that were favored by the communists.

Being in Berlin was quite a shock after having spent the last two months in Hungary.  The differences are palpable.  There is a pall that hangs over Hungary…in previous posts I have mentioned the lack of hope that many Hungarians have expressed when discussing the current crisis and the future.  While the Hungarian economy is in dire straits, it seemed that Berlin was booming…there were crowds of tourists in the streets and at all of the historical sites.  Shoppers milled about in the commercial areas, and the restaurants, cafes, and hotels seemed to be doing boom business…this despite the intermittent rain and cold.  My colleagues and I found it hard to believe that Germany is experiencing an economic downturn.

The conference was organized in such a way that there were opportunities each day to take a variety of tours…Many of the workshops, panels, and programs were in the mornings and in the evenings…so B and I took advantage of every opportunity to learn.  Here’s what I found…Berliners and East Germans, like the Hungarians, suffered incredible hardships and pain under the 40 years of Communist regime.  The stories we heard and the evidence we saw at the Wall, at Checkpoint Charlie Museum, and the German History Museum, etc. attest to  indescribable cruelty and callousness by those in power.

When communism collapsed and East Berliners literally began to take the wall apart stone by stone in November of 1989, Germany was at long last reunified. But, the legacy of communism, again like in Hungary, was horrific. 80% of Berlin was bombed during WWII.  The economy and the infrastructure of East Germany had been devastated under 40 years of a command economy…everything had to be replaced, repaired, and/or renovated. Of the 7000 factories in East Germany, 4000 closed.  The estimates for rebuilding the east ranged in the hundreds of billions of euros.

The Germans had a choice:  gradualism or immediatism.  Generally speaking, although many thrifty West Germans were loathe to spend their hard earned cash on repairing the devastation of the east, they also agreed that unless the standard of living in the east was raised to a level of parity with that of the west, that communism would resurge.  So, a decision was made 20 years ago to fix everything right away.  Included in the estimates were the costs of welfare and social security for those in the east who could not sell their homes, who were older, or who had less education and fewer skills…Germany understood that many of those 4000 factories would never reopen (remember that employment had been kept artificially high under the communists).

The wall has been dismantled and many of the stones have literally been used for rebuilding East Berlin.  A line of double bricks in the sidewalk, as well as some remnants of the wall scattered around the city,  remind Berliners of that past time. In the last 20 years,they have built more than 2300 buildings in Berlin alone, most of them in East Berlin.  Many of the SocReal monstrosities of the communist regime have been razed.  In their place schools, train stations, public buildings, residential and commercial areas stand as a testament to the German will to create a modern and humane state where the seeds of totalitarianism can never again take root.  When the wall came down, hundreds of thousands of East Germans moved to the west…many of them moved to Berlin…more than half of the population in the city is under the age of 30…there is a vitality and energy that almost vibrates in the air. The literature indicates that the standard of living of East Germans has now reached more than 80% of that of the western part of the country, although unemployment is still twice as high. Again, you would find it hard to believe that there is a recession.

I came home this week…as I rode the train into Budapest from Ferihegy Airport, I couldn’t help but notice the rubbish and the graffiti–it was especially striking after the cleanliness and order of Berlin. I feel incredibly sad that Hungarians are having such a hard time  of it…my feeling is that one of the worst legacies of communism is the moral decline…my cousins are distraught about the rampant corruption, the blatant self-aggrandizement that is occurring at the expense of the nation.  It seems to be an epidemic.  I wrote about Hungarian politics just prior to my departure for Berlin…well, guess what?  Prime Minister Gyurcsany has resigned! There is talk of new elections as early as 5 or 6 weeks from now…whichever party (or coalition of parties) wins will confront a monumental task.  Unlike East Germany, which had a wealthy and prosperous West Germany to deal with its communist legacy, Hungary has to go it alone.  It must confront the deepening economic crisis, the incredible national debt incurred by government policies and the loans from the World Bank and EU, and this moral decay that I believe is the deepest and most damaging legacy of the communist era.

I know you will join me in wishing them the very best.

Thanks for tuning in and best regards,

Marcsi

PS:  If you are interested in reading about Gyurscany’s resignation, click here.