Opinion / Columnist
Xenophobia in Germany, among Germans: where is the space for the foreigners?
08 May 2016 at 08:13hrs | Views
Part 4.1.1 The fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of Germany
There are two sequences that led to the fall of Berlin Wall. One was the developments in the Soviet Union immediately after the rise of Mikhael Gorbachev, and the other was change of policy in Hungary. In 1985 Michael Gorbachev became the Secretary General of the Soviet Union, as well as the new leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. He was only 54 year old, contrary to other leaders Soviet leaders who came into power when they were old and died early due to old age.
He set the Soviet nations and his Warsaw-Pact allies on revolutionary programs he called Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness). Reasons for these ground breaking reforms was because in the Soviet Union economy was struggling and the majority of the Soviet people lived in very poor conditions in all aspects of their lives. These difficulties were also felt in the Eastern bloc generally, these countries were also known as the satellites states. There was general dissatisfaction in all these satellite countries that communism was failing; something had to be done to change the course of socialist development. That pivotal role Mr. Gorbachev played in his Perestroika and Glasnost; nobody can take that away from him.
Among many other reforms that Gorbachev foresaw was the dismantling of the Soviet Bloc commonly referred to as the Warsaw pact nations or countries behind the iron curtain. This was marked at his ground-breaking speech he made at the United Nations in December 1988, telling the world that there was need for the nations of this world to be free to choose their own destiny without interference of Soviet Union. He went on to reduce the Soviet Military presence and tanks in the frontline countries particularly East Germany. This move led to the dissolution of SU grip on eastern bloc countries of Hungary Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany.
In 1989 Hungary was slowly beginning to dismantle its fortified fence between its border with western Austria. Mr. Gorbachev must have said that he did not see any evil in removing the iron curtain at all. That statement alone invited the first mass flight of German refuges to West Germany through Hungary and Austria. Despite the fact that there were Soviet soldiers still patrolling along the border, hundreds of East German tourists fled into Austria went to West Germany to seek refuge. That was supposed to be the first crack of the Berlin Wall.
At home in East Berlin since the beginning of the eighties, so many events took place in unprecedented form and measure. To recap the time predating the US President Reagan's visit to Berlin; US President Kennedy visited Berlin, 22 months after the erection of the Berlin Wall that was marked by his famous speech: "Ich bin ein Berliner" all free men/women wherever they live, are citizens of Berlin and therefore as a free man, I take pride in the words: "Ich bin ein Berliner." President Kennedy said. Later on in 1987 President Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall of Berlin as a symbol of coming down of the iron curtain.
In November the 9th of 1989 the Berlin Wall fell when the East German government gave permission for the gates to be opened at midnight. Ecstatic crowds immediately began to climb on top of the wall and started destroying it with their bare hands. One should have experienced cold turkey, without being told even reading it in a newspaper, what it was like to see two peoples of one cultural identity, who, within a short space of time had developed yawning different geo-political and economic histories now united after 40 years of separation.
After those big speeches and coming together of two Germans without any drop of blood was the rhythm and music in the City of Berlin sense came back quickly. Amid the euphoria of the German reunification, the sobering moments settled early to the government of West German how the processes of uniting the two Germans will be like economically. East Germany broke down to a standstill after the falling of the Berlin Wall. East German had a bankrupt treasury and the 17 million people needed to be catered for, for their social welfare. The finance Minister made 3,8 billion Deutsch Marks immediately available for the welfare of the German refugees within Germany. East Germans were then called refugees in their own country, in Germany.
The East Germany economy was in a very bad state, and immediately after the reunification, unemployment soared giving uncertainty to millions of Germans in both East and West. There was very little to fall on to economically in East Germany. As a macro-economic response, the Finance put a surtax called "solidarity tax" or levy of 115 billion Deutsche Marks that was to be used to develop East Germany to the level of West Germany. This allocation was going to assist the "Treuhand workload" a company that was government-owned that was going to look into the privatization of companies in East Germany.
With that capital injection into the economy, there were several disadvantages of industrialising East Germany. After the reunification of the two Germany East German had already lost two generations of workers who simply lacked the capacity to be productive in a competitive world. It can also be said that, that is where the problems started in the united Germany. The East German work force did not have managerial skills; there was still in culture-shock that sank in the psyche of the refugee German population. The East Germans felt inferior to their West German counterparts making the transition from socialist to capitalist extremely challenging. Even their mindsets, their inner-selves, to some extent resented capitalism. Only few West Germans who had those managerial skills were willing to go and settle in East German towns and cities.
The mass exodus of East Germans to the western part of Germany was terribly enormous. Over 5 million East Germans left their homes to settle in the West. The West German population welcomed their countrymen/women but it was the enormous costs involved in the integration of East Germany into West Germany that was very uncomfortable then.
There was a dangerous mix of resentment towards the East German citizens. "They are going to take our jobs, they are going to take our homes, we are no secure with our home loans, are we going to get our unemployment assistance, what about the support payments to cover short-term expenses, do they know how to live with the foreigners like us? All those questions lingered in their minds causing anxiety and existential fear. Even foreigners who have lived in Germany for many years were worried about the Xenophobia developments in Germany.
Contrary to what we have read about the homogeneous East Germany, it was really not a homogenous society at all. They were some segments of civilian foreigners from Russia, Romania, Poland and some other nationals from the eastern bloc. Those, together with East Germans competed for those jobs, menial jobs in the labour market, giving rise to sometimes extreme Xenophobia. This hatred against foreigners gave a deadly dynamic, it escalated uncontrollably and it became very ugly with nationalists slogans of "Foreigners out."
The East German territory became very hostile to foreigners and was a dangerous place to live in. The findings of a survey conducted by the Leipzig Institute for Youth Research found that an "abyss of hatred towards foreigners" was mostly in East German side of the entire country. The most foreigners who were affected are those who had visible and distinctive strange appearance to Germans; those of African and Vietnamese origin.
But again in Berlin the 15 to 20% of the population both East and West Germans were asked about their attitude towards foreigners: the findings were the following: about 46% of those who were interviewed agreed with the demand "foreigners out" about 54% from east part of Germany rejected the presence of Turks in Germany. 60% of those interviewed believed they are just too many foreigners in Germany. Every 4th German is believed to support the slogan "foreigners out," half of those who were interviewed agreed with the motto "Germany for Germans."
In the coming essay I will look into how West Germans overcame their fears of the presence of foreigners in Germany and how they learnt to appreciate their migrant labour in boosting their booming economy. The denazification processes that took place immediately after the WW2 assisted the West Germans to embrace that "other" and were going to be long journey in making the Federal Republic of Germany a multi-cultural society. Some literature would like to call it re-civilization of West Germany.
I pen off for now
Ugogo omncane
Chirikadzi
Nomazulu Thata is a political activist, an engineering metallurgist by profession, author of two books, a chemistry teacher and lecturer in her present occupation. Her essays are purely personal and do not reflect any political party affiliation. She can be contacted on Nomazulu.thata(at)web.de
There are two sequences that led to the fall of Berlin Wall. One was the developments in the Soviet Union immediately after the rise of Mikhael Gorbachev, and the other was change of policy in Hungary. In 1985 Michael Gorbachev became the Secretary General of the Soviet Union, as well as the new leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. He was only 54 year old, contrary to other leaders Soviet leaders who came into power when they were old and died early due to old age.
He set the Soviet nations and his Warsaw-Pact allies on revolutionary programs he called Perestroika (restructuring) and Glasnost (openness). Reasons for these ground breaking reforms was because in the Soviet Union economy was struggling and the majority of the Soviet people lived in very poor conditions in all aspects of their lives. These difficulties were also felt in the Eastern bloc generally, these countries were also known as the satellites states. There was general dissatisfaction in all these satellite countries that communism was failing; something had to be done to change the course of socialist development. That pivotal role Mr. Gorbachev played in his Perestroika and Glasnost; nobody can take that away from him.
Among many other reforms that Gorbachev foresaw was the dismantling of the Soviet Bloc commonly referred to as the Warsaw pact nations or countries behind the iron curtain. This was marked at his ground-breaking speech he made at the United Nations in December 1988, telling the world that there was need for the nations of this world to be free to choose their own destiny without interference of Soviet Union. He went on to reduce the Soviet Military presence and tanks in the frontline countries particularly East Germany. This move led to the dissolution of SU grip on eastern bloc countries of Hungary Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany.
In 1989 Hungary was slowly beginning to dismantle its fortified fence between its border with western Austria. Mr. Gorbachev must have said that he did not see any evil in removing the iron curtain at all. That statement alone invited the first mass flight of German refuges to West Germany through Hungary and Austria. Despite the fact that there were Soviet soldiers still patrolling along the border, hundreds of East German tourists fled into Austria went to West Germany to seek refuge. That was supposed to be the first crack of the Berlin Wall.
At home in East Berlin since the beginning of the eighties, so many events took place in unprecedented form and measure. To recap the time predating the US President Reagan's visit to Berlin; US President Kennedy visited Berlin, 22 months after the erection of the Berlin Wall that was marked by his famous speech: "Ich bin ein Berliner" all free men/women wherever they live, are citizens of Berlin and therefore as a free man, I take pride in the words: "Ich bin ein Berliner." President Kennedy said. Later on in 1987 President Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall of Berlin as a symbol of coming down of the iron curtain.
In November the 9th of 1989 the Berlin Wall fell when the East German government gave permission for the gates to be opened at midnight. Ecstatic crowds immediately began to climb on top of the wall and started destroying it with their bare hands. One should have experienced cold turkey, without being told even reading it in a newspaper, what it was like to see two peoples of one cultural identity, who, within a short space of time had developed yawning different geo-political and economic histories now united after 40 years of separation.
After those big speeches and coming together of two Germans without any drop of blood was the rhythm and music in the City of Berlin sense came back quickly. Amid the euphoria of the German reunification, the sobering moments settled early to the government of West German how the processes of uniting the two Germans will be like economically. East Germany broke down to a standstill after the falling of the Berlin Wall. East German had a bankrupt treasury and the 17 million people needed to be catered for, for their social welfare. The finance Minister made 3,8 billion Deutsch Marks immediately available for the welfare of the German refugees within Germany. East Germans were then called refugees in their own country, in Germany.
The East Germany economy was in a very bad state, and immediately after the reunification, unemployment soared giving uncertainty to millions of Germans in both East and West. There was very little to fall on to economically in East Germany. As a macro-economic response, the Finance put a surtax called "solidarity tax" or levy of 115 billion Deutsche Marks that was to be used to develop East Germany to the level of West Germany. This allocation was going to assist the "Treuhand workload" a company that was government-owned that was going to look into the privatization of companies in East Germany.
The mass exodus of East Germans to the western part of Germany was terribly enormous. Over 5 million East Germans left their homes to settle in the West. The West German population welcomed their countrymen/women but it was the enormous costs involved in the integration of East Germany into West Germany that was very uncomfortable then.
There was a dangerous mix of resentment towards the East German citizens. "They are going to take our jobs, they are going to take our homes, we are no secure with our home loans, are we going to get our unemployment assistance, what about the support payments to cover short-term expenses, do they know how to live with the foreigners like us? All those questions lingered in their minds causing anxiety and existential fear. Even foreigners who have lived in Germany for many years were worried about the Xenophobia developments in Germany.
Contrary to what we have read about the homogeneous East Germany, it was really not a homogenous society at all. They were some segments of civilian foreigners from Russia, Romania, Poland and some other nationals from the eastern bloc. Those, together with East Germans competed for those jobs, menial jobs in the labour market, giving rise to sometimes extreme Xenophobia. This hatred against foreigners gave a deadly dynamic, it escalated uncontrollably and it became very ugly with nationalists slogans of "Foreigners out."
The East German territory became very hostile to foreigners and was a dangerous place to live in. The findings of a survey conducted by the Leipzig Institute for Youth Research found that an "abyss of hatred towards foreigners" was mostly in East German side of the entire country. The most foreigners who were affected are those who had visible and distinctive strange appearance to Germans; those of African and Vietnamese origin.
But again in Berlin the 15 to 20% of the population both East and West Germans were asked about their attitude towards foreigners: the findings were the following: about 46% of those who were interviewed agreed with the demand "foreigners out" about 54% from east part of Germany rejected the presence of Turks in Germany. 60% of those interviewed believed they are just too many foreigners in Germany. Every 4th German is believed to support the slogan "foreigners out," half of those who were interviewed agreed with the motto "Germany for Germans."
In the coming essay I will look into how West Germans overcame their fears of the presence of foreigners in Germany and how they learnt to appreciate their migrant labour in boosting their booming economy. The denazification processes that took place immediately after the WW2 assisted the West Germans to embrace that "other" and were going to be long journey in making the Federal Republic of Germany a multi-cultural society. Some literature would like to call it re-civilization of West Germany.
I pen off for now
Ugogo omncane
Chirikadzi
Nomazulu Thata is a political activist, an engineering metallurgist by profession, author of two books, a chemistry teacher and lecturer in her present occupation. Her essays are purely personal and do not reflect any political party affiliation. She can be contacted on Nomazulu.thata(at)web.de
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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