German reunification: 20 years gone

Today marks the 20th anniversary of German reunification.

Since courses on recent European and world history were shamefully not required in high school or for my English degree, I did not take them. As a result, I knew only the bare basics regarding the major events surrounding the fall of the Eastern Bloc. (I did take European History II, and, ironically, learned more about the Reformation in public school than at a Lutheran church.)

German reunification, I knew, was a massive event, but it was overshadowed in importance by the fall of the Berlin Wall one year earlier. I knew very little about reunification — all it was for me was simply the fusing of two nations — or much about German history after World War II until I became good friends with Zee German. Thanks to him, I was able to see and appreciate the immense scope of reunification.

The events leading to and following reunification are fascinating. The fusing of two countries, which had been governed and operated by differing political and economic philosophies, was no small undertaking. It was far from simple, and, socially, has been an ongoing process for the past 20 years. The inter-German border has been removed (a fascinating topic by itself) and the differences are not as pronounced, but there is still an emotional and cultural divide.

I encourage everyone to read up not only on German reunification, but on the Berlin Wall and the histories of both Germanys between 1945 and 1990.