Brigitte Fehrle on remembering Germany's unification

Eighteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, the German Bundestag is to vote on the construction of a monument to "unity and freedom". Brigitte Fehrle questions why all that was a genuine reminder of those times has been torn down in the years since the collapse of Communism. "Long before the West realised with what kind of a country it had reunified, the symbols had disappeared, beginning with the Wall. Naturally it had to come down, but was it right to tear it down completely? Then there's the Lenin Monument in Berlin. What could serve better to illustrate the fatally misguided direction the GDR took? Or the Palace of the Republic - a place that could have showcased life the rise and fall of the GDR, now reduced to a sombre steel skeleton. And the drive to obliterate continues. Many would love to see the Stasi records authority with its unique archive disappear. Yet this institution, with all its faults and shortcomings, is the most vivid monument to the GDR and the glory of unification."

» to the homepage (external link, Die Zeit)
More from the press review on the subject » History, » Germany
All available articles from » Brigitte Fehrle

» To the complete press review of Thursday, November 8, 2007