Post-Wall Europe and an Uncertain Future

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-germany-wall-anniversary-2014109-wtory.html#page=1

Lichtgrenze
Berlin Wall
now-here-this.timeout.com

Hello Everyone:

Yours truly has been a bit under the weather the last two days, thus the slow output.  However, I'm feeling much better and can get back to spending time with you.

Now that the excitement over the American Midterm Elections has died down, it is time to turn our focus on an event that irrevocably changed history, the fall of The Berlin Wall.  This past Sunday November 9, Germany celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Western and Eastern Europe.  To mark the occasion, 8,000 stationary lighted balloons lined nearly ten miles of the German capital city.  This public art project, called Lichtgrenze, traced the path of this most detested symbol of the Cold War divide.  The balloons were released on Sunday night amid celebration of The Wall come tumbling down.  In their article for the Los Angeles Times titled "As Germany celebrates Berlin Wall's demise, harsh realities lurk," Steven Zeitchik and Carol J. Williams look at the realities of post-Wall Berlin and its impact on present day struggles in Europe and a resurgent Russia.

The Berlin Wall
date unknown
bbc.co.uk

On June 12, 1987, then-President Ronald Reagan was the former West Germany to commemorate the 750th anniversary of Berlin.  Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, Mr. Reagan issued this challenge to former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev:

...General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! (http://www.historyplace.com//speeches/reagan-tear-down.htm)

Two and a half years later, this belief became action, The Wall came down and with it a joyous rush of people surging westward.  Twenty-five years later the urban landscape of Berlin is dotted with digital start-ups, delights for the culinary adventurers, and Las Vegas-type entertainment that make Berlin 2014 seem an entire planet away from the hardships of the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik-the former East Germany.  For the most part, the Cold War wounds have healed.  Berlin is no longer identified by East and West. Beyond, the healing of Germany, the collapse of The Wall brought about a post-communist transition that has had bumps along the road; nor has it been simple to obliterate the metaphoric Iron Curtain that once bisected Europe from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

The first guard house being set up at Checkpoint Charlie
telegraph.co.uk

The region, once a place abundant with post-wall promise, has been plagued by "...deeper divisions and taller obstacles than many could have expected on that night in 1989.  While the demise of the Iron Curtain lifted many from poverty, despair and isolation, the making of a "Europe whole and free," the battle cry of many politicians, remains a work in progress twenty-five years later.  For example, the wealth generated from Russia's natural-resources have emboldened and encouraged the Kremlin to reassert the strategic clout it once wielded during the Soviet days.  Specifically, President Vladimir Putin's incursions into the Ukraine have raised the specter of the return of Stalin-era land grabs, instilling fear in many former Warsaw Pact nations. This fear is further stoked by Moscow's stranglehold on most of the continent's energy supplies.

East German guards spying on the West
dailymail.co.uk

Meanwhile, economic progress in the former Soviet satellite states has been uneven, as once bright hopes for the Eurozone have faded over recent months.  Countries such as Ireland, Italy, an the Czech Republic have fallen into a recession.  The euro-once the happy success-has lost 10% of its value against the American dollar over the past six months.  The economic woes have contributed to class disparities between Western and Eastern Europe, with the former continuing to shoulder a disproportionate load that resulted with reuniting with the latter.  Added into this volatile mix, is political centrism, endangering parts of the European Union.  Case in point, the far-right National Front party, led by Marine Le Pen daughter of Honorary Chairperson Jean-Marie Le Pen, has recently made political gains  in France.  So much so, that in a survey taken last week, if elections were held today, Ms. Le Pen would out poll President François Hollande.

Béla Kun speaking before a crowd
en.wikipedia.org

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has advocated a version of "illiberal democracy," which rejects the economic inequalities that can come with Western constitutional democracies and supports the economic disparate economic models of Turkey, India, Russia, China, and Singapore.  Steven Zeitchik and Carol J. Williams note the irony that Mr.  Orbán was once an anti-Soviet activist.  Further, Mr.  Orbán's suppression of  press freed and Magyar nationalism has set off alarms throughout the continent.  At the same time, many European countries are seemingly stymied over how to deal with the wave of immigration from predominantly Islamic nations, creating conflict in the streets and erratic national policies.  For example, pro-Palestinian rallies in France and Germany this past summer often took on the stench of anti-Semitism.  Meanwhile, German courts ruled against the practice of religious circumcision and the European Court of Human Rights upheld the French burka ban which has exacerbated tensions with the Muslim minority.

Demonstration on the first anniversary of Prague Spring
artblart.com

Sudha David-Wilp, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund stated, "There is no question that this is a time to celebrate...But the European project faces epic challenges.  Every time we commemorate a 1989, we should remember there may be many more 1989s ahead."  An EU that brings together twenty-eight nations, each with their own agendas, can often appear ill-suited to handle the challenges. While the awarding of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the organization was hailed by most, others said "...it underestimated the bloc's limitations."  Yet, there is the opinion that Europe is immeasurably better off today than before, "...and that, for all the challenges, Mauerfall, as the wall anniversary is known in Germany, offers a chance to count collective blessings."

Opening the Berlin Wall 1989
jdayhistory.weebly.com

University of Southern California history professor Mary Elise Sarotte recently released broad account of the events titled "The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall."  In Prof. Sarotte's account, she observed the social, economic, and political progress made in Europe was torn asunder by two world wars.  The former divided German nation is an economic powerhouse that serves as geopolitical bridge between West and East.  The popular German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the first post-wall leader raised in East Germany and symbolic of this geopolitical bridge.  The anniversary reflects Germany's determination to keep the memories of this division alive as a warning against any recurrences.

The Brandenburg Gate
flickr.com

The Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse reopened on Sunday after an almost yearlong renovation.  Beyond the joyous celebrations there is the decades-long feeling of Ostalgie-"historical East German's nostalgic and often amnesiac memories of the Cold War as a time of solidarity and greater care for one another..." that has not dissipated.  Many in Western Germany still carry resentments over having to pay Eastern municipalities.  What that payment is for is unclear.  Further, for the first time since the fall of The Wall, Die Linke, a far left party born out of the East German Communist Party, seized control of the East German state of Thuringa.  This momentous event prompted protest from German President Joachim Gauck, a former East German dissident.  Steven Zeitchik and Carol J. Williams  note that these divisions within Germany "remain beside the point."

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall reminded yours truly of the great Jesus Jones song "Right here, right now."  It was about the cataclysmic changes taking place in Europe in the late eighties and early nineties.  The chorus "Right here, right now/watching the world wake up from history," tells of a new history being created following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the newly emerging Central and Eastern European countries.  It tells of the enormous potential to create a better future.  Another song yours truly is thinking about is beautiful ballad by the German heavy metal group "Winds of Change."  It expresses an sense of optimism for a freer future.  The future of post-wall Europe is a work in progress.  What the next twenty-five years holds is up to the people.