Germany Still Divided essays

Germany Still Divided essays The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe in the late eighties was remarkable for both its rapidity and its scope. None more than for East and West Germany. The unification of Germany has been one of the most significant and moving events of the 20th century. Yet the euphoria of those heady days in autumn 1989, when the world watched in rapt attention as the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, has since fizzled. The process has proven to be far more painful than (then) Chancellor Helmut Kohl had promised Germans in 1990 on the eve of the first all-German elections since the Nazis rise to power.(Ireland, 541) This resulted from the underestimation that was placed on integrating the democratic system of government and free-market economy of West Germany with the communist foundation of East Germany. The shift from communism took a whole new context in Germany. The peoples involved were not looking to affect a narrow set of policy reforms; indeed, what was at stak e was a hyper-radical shift from the long-held communist ideology to a western blueprint for governmental and economic policy development. According to theories of modernization, higher levels of socioeconomic achievement facilitates an increase in open competition and, ultimately, assists in the establishment of democracy. The problem inherent in this type of monumental change is that, according to Helga A. Welsh, the collapse of authoritarian rule has released national, ethnic, religious, and cultural conflicts which cannot be solved by purely economic policies(27). Generally it has been theorized that the most effective fashion in which to remedy these many difficulties is by drafting a constitution. But, what seems to be clear in Germany is the unsatisfactory ability of a constitution to resolve the problems of nationalism and ethnic differences. Germanys current situation gives validity to the statement tha...