Word: germanize
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reminders of how it was until very recently. On the route to Friedrichstrasse, a main Berlin crossing point, the subway train glides through two empty stations bricked up since 1961, when the Wall rose. The platforms are bare, eerily lighted by a few dusty neon tubes. East German border guards have learned to replace their studied sullenness of old with the occasional smile, but West Germans and others still must file through cattle-chute-like passport control points, and are made to exchange 25 deutsche marks ($13.50) for East German marks, at the usurious rate...
What East Germans expect first of all from their new leaders is an effort to build "real Socialism" and sweep away the remnants of a corrupt and repressive regime. They want closer relations with their West German brethren, a growing together with the Federal Republic -- but not necessarily reunification; they insist on being accepted as they are. And finally, they demand economic reward, even though they know they are not likely to catch up with the West any time soon...
Still, the issue of identity nags: Is the G.D.R. a nation, a state, part of a country yet to be unified? "For 40 years we were just letters," says Christian Fuhrer, pastor of Leipzig's Nikolai Church. "G-D-R. But not German. Not democratic. Just letters. We are Germans, certainly. But our German history is submerged: 1917 is when it begins for our students. The people must develop an identity. Only then can we discuss reunification...
...East Berlin housewife. "Our attitudes are different. We grew up more modest. We missed out on a lot, but we make do. Over there it's all money, money, money. We don't have it." There , is the touch of an inferiority complex as well, and given widespread West German complaints about new burdens, it is perhaps justified. "Maybe it's best not to unify the country," says an East Berlin pensioner. "The West would probably treat us as second-class citizens, like migrant workers...
...have to shed their military dimensions. The European Community will have to define its attitudes toward Eastern Europe. The two Germanys will want to expand the web of existing agreements between them, an interweaving of interests that neither can unravel without harming itself. In years to come, perhaps a German confederation within an expanded European Community may emerge, but in an age of new perceptions, it may not matter what it is called...