Berlin - Sixteen years after the wall
11.01.2005: Tiffany Bird, Brigham Young University; Provo, Utah
Coming from a history of dictatorship and communism, Germany may not be favored in American school textbooks. And those who only read about Germany in textbooks or watched Hollywood movies develop certain stereotypes about the country and its people: Nazis, Hitler, the Berlin Wall and a divided country. Although it all happened, the truth is Germany today is a whole new country with a new attitude.
Nothing to hide
Marking 60 years since the end of World War II, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial completed construction and opened to the public on May 12, 2005. Sitting on approximately five acres of land sandwiched between former East and West Berlin and near the Brandenburg Gate, the memorial catches the eyes of anyone passing by. Over 2,700 stones of different heights set on an undulating pattern tell a personal message to visitors about those who died during the Holocaust. At the opening ceremony of the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Parliamentary President Wolfgang Thierse said the memorial signified the fact that Germany "faces up to its history." Unafraid of acknowledging mistakes, Berlin built many museums, memorials and monuments to remember and respect those who died because of German history. The country has no hidden past, and it is noticeable to its citizens as well as visitors to the country. Germany endured centuries of challenging history. Now, 16 years after the electrifying fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin picked up its pieces and started over again. Piecing Berlin back together after WWII and the Berlin Wall is not an easy task - especially with staring eyes and criticism from the rest of the world. Everyone watched in wonder as Germany integrated East and West Berlin beginning in 1990; East Berlin being so poor from socialism blended with the richer, republic West. The task was and is still damaging to the economy, painful for its citizens changing their way of life and full of trial and errors. Humbled by its experiences, Germans are open to suggestions and new ideas - most of the time. Although Germany may be at one of its weak points reunifying the country, it is careful with trying new ideas. It takes an open mind, courage and motivation to make drastic changes, and most Germans are up to the challenge. The things the Germans learned from their history made them wise in decision making. They can see how decisions can lead to major consequences - positive or negative.
Economic struggles with change
Germany, populated with 82.5 million people, is slightly smaller than the size of Montana. Major changes to any country needs time, especially for Germany during the integration process of the East and West. Dr. Hans D. Jacobsen, a professor and economist in Germany, thought the reunification of Germany happened too quickly and is part of the reason why it is currently facing an economic crisis. According to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, Germany's affluent and technologically powerful economy -, the fifth largest in the world - has become one of the slowest growing economies in the euro zone. And this affects the employment rate where 10.6 percent, approximately 5 million people, of Germany's workforce are currently unemployed. The World Factbook stated, "Germany's aging population, combined with high unemployment, has pushed social security outlays to a level exceeding contributions from workers. Structural rigidities in the labor market - including strict regulations on laying off workers and the setting of wages on a national basis - have made unemployment a chronic problem." Another explanation for this high unemployment rate, in an economic sense, is the astonishing generosity of the current social welfare system, which causes a negative impact on employment by making work look unattractive to those already on welfare. Former Berlin Commissioner for Migration and Integration Barbara John said: "We [the German government] are not as generous with the work force but very generous with welfare money. We make people weak; we have the wrong incentives. We need to try harder to put people into work." Because of the near indifference in income as an unemployed individual and a low wage industrial worker, there is very little incentive to move into the working class. This life has created a parasitic class of the population and is over burdening the working class with high tax rates. According to Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Germany's individual tax rates vary with income, meaning the tax rates are as progressive as they are in all industrialized countries of the West. On salaries and wages, income taxes are paid as it is earned. Income taxes have been reduced recently, and the maximum marginal rate is 42 percent in 2005. By law, employees pay a compulsory fee for their individual social security of approximately 20-21 percent of what they earn. The same amount is paid by the employer, which is a continual contentious political issue in Germany. "Once you spoil people too much, you make people dependent on the state," John said. "Politicians are the ones who can influence public mood and ideas. But they address public fears and play off of it. It makes things worse." Since reunification of East and West Germany, both sides have struggled to agree on acceptable social welfare reform. The median voter in West Germany believes that any reform of the welfare state is yet another sacrifice due to reunification. And the median voter in East Germany must feel betrayed since it was the social market economy in West Germany for which they protested. This situation places the political institutions in a difficult position. Unless there is a unanimous plan of reform taken each party risks losing political power to the other if they solely back the welfare reform.
The invisible wall
The Berlin Wall survived 28 complex years. Then, November 9, 1989, mark the momentous day when the wall fell allowing East Berliners to cross over to the west side and reunification began soon after. But even though the wall physically fell almost 16 years ago, there is still a wall up in many Germans' minds. Prejudices and economic differences between East and West Berliners still exist today. "Despite more than a trillion dollars in subsidies and investment for the East, Germany is still very much two countries," said Jon Sawyer post-dispatch Washington bureau chief for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Unemployment in the former East German states is 25 percent, more than twice the western rate." Westerners are sometimes belittled as arrogant know-it-all "Wessies," while easterners are referred to as "Jammer Ossies" - whining easterners - in the West. East Berlin is still considered the poor side of town with citizens who are afraid to try new ideas. West Berliners think of themselves as more courageous in education, work and social life. West Berliners think they work to pay for East Berliners who depend on the government for help. According to the CIA Factbook, "The modernization and integration of the eastern German economy continues to be a costly long-term process, with annual transfers from West to East amounting to roughly $70 billion." The integration of East and West Berlin, several years after the fall of the wall, is still a hard adjustment for Berliners. A September 2004 poll by the Forsa Institute found that 25 percent of West Germans and 12 percent of East Germans wished that East Germans were again cut off from West Germany by the Berlin Wall. Neither side found reunification financially beneficial to them. When compared side-by-side, East Berliners are least likely to get a professional job than West Berliners. And some West Berliners would much rather marry a foreigner than an East Berliner.
Unacceptable immigrants
It is an arduous task for Germany to attract immigrants, and truthfully, it is a task Germany is not really interested in attacking. "We do immigration not for our interest but for their [foreigners'] interest," Barbara John said. In 2005, the CIA World Factbook estimated 2.18 migrants for every 1,000 persons of the German population. And 91.5 percent of the German population is German. The next biggest ethnic group is the Turkish at 2.4 percent. Other ethnic groups consist largely of Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, which makes up 6.1 percent of the population. For those who do seek asylum in Germany receive € 345 per month and are provided with shelter and other housing "necessities" including utilities, John said. And they receive additional money for spouse and children. In this case, the native Germans think their tax money provides a living for foreigners who would not work because everything is paid for. However, there are several contributing factors as to why many foreigners are not drawn to migrate to Germany. First, the economic crisis and unemployment rate makes it hard for immigrants to find jobs and live comfortably in Germany. Foreigners have less chance of being employed in Germany than the natives. Second, not many people in the world speak German. German ranks as the 9th most spoken language in 18 different countries with 120 million speakers total. Sixty-eight percent of German speakers already live in Germany. Third, Germans are not yet willing to accept different cultures and behaviors unfamiliar to them. "We [Germans] are not yet really ready to accept pluralism," John said. "We are not educated about other cultures." She also said Germans would like to have a multicultural system, but want the foreigners to adapt to the German culture rather than accepting other cultures, maybe because they look differently and behave differently. Jon Sawyer gave this example: "Friedrich Wilhelm Rothenpieler, state secretary for the government of Bavaria, defended a regulation that bans the wearing of head scarves by teachers and other state employees. He said he favored programs aimed at integrating Turks in the mainstream of German life and chastised Turks for not taking more advantage of such programs - but he also insisted that multiculturalism is not Germany's future." The Turks are sometimes viewed as criminals and lower class in German society. Many Turks came as guest workers during the manufacturing boom in the 1960s. They later stayed and brought their families, who have created a second generation of Turks. Now that there is a shortage of employment, Germans can't ask the Turks to go back home. Ozcan Mutlu is one of just five Turkish representatives out of 141 members in the parliament of Berlin. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that many Turks in Berlin are alienated, isolated from the broader German society, prone to Islamic fundamentalism and treated by the broader community as invisible, or worse. "On television here the only Turks you see are drug dealers and street sweepers," Mutlu said. "You have black anchormen on CNN. We don't have a single Turkish anchor on German TV."
A childless generation
With low immigration rates, the recent population trend is not doing so well either. Low birth rates and little to no immigration have caused the population growth of Germany to come to a standstill at 0 percent growth in 2004. "Germany as a whole is headed toward depopulation, with birth rates vying with Japan and Italy for lowest in the world and the prospect that when Germany marks its bicentennial as a unified nation, in 2071, it will have fewer people than when it began," Sawyer said. This is one of the major issues facing the German government in the future: How to promote immigration and create incentives to allow the population to grow. In highly socialist economies with high taxes, the older generation relies on the younger generation for support and without a younger generation the old-age insurance programs will fail. "The old-age pension system, for one, is totally dependent on subsequent generations - having enough young people working and paying retirement dues in order to finance the retirement of the older generation,", said Christine Schulz-Reiss in an article in The Atlantic Times. "Without enough young people, the age pyramid becomes unbalanced. For every 100 employable persons in the year 2050, there will be 80 retirees." This disinterest in having children lies mostly in the decisions of the women, who are trying to finish schooling and establish a prominent career. The education system in Germany allows students to finish college at average age of 27 with two years of apprenticeship in the work field. "Women of childbearing age (and their partners) either wait so long that a pregnancy becomes about as likely as winning the lottery, or they adopt a 'wait and see' approach - resulting in more and more childless families," Schulz-Reiss said. "The third option is that both partners clearly agree not to have any children and are openly comfortable with their decision. More and more, Germans prefer life alone or remain undecided for so long that they become too old to have kids." The German government is especially concerned with the population issue and is trying to think of ways to promote more childbirth. Even Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a German liberal member of the European Parliament, advertised her pregnant belly in a magazine to encourage Germans to have more children. However, in a recent poll, one in 10 Germans, both men and women, said they are still not interested in having children even if the government provided them incentives. Some middle-class Germans are satisfied with their life financially and think children could bring them into poverty. Others complain the politicians do not provide a work environment suitable for employees to have children. Lack of ability for a flexible work schedule, short maternity leave and a bad childcare system make it harder for women to consider childbearing.
The meaning of a new election
Sunday, May 22, 2005, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) lost the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia with 37.1 percent, while the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won with 44.8 percent in an area that has long been regarded as safe SPD territory. The results of this election surprised Germans throughout the country. It was a sign that the German citizens want a change. It also signaled to Schröder that the majority of citizens were not happy with some of his decisions and leadership. So he threw in the towel. Schröder's called for early elections to prevent one and a half more years of gridlock and agony, said Theo Sommer in a report for The Atlantic Times. The election is predicted to be sometime in September. "Chancellor Schröder is proud of his achievements during his seven-year term," Sommer said. "After 16 years of do-nothing politics under his predecessor, both with regards to demographic change and diminishing economic strength, he claims he has steered the country out of the dead end alley. And he takes credit for his foreign policy… He also stood up against the Bush Administration's Iraq war. This stance earned him a great deal of respect around the world." However, the members of the CDU see things differently. A senior advisor of the CDU said Schröder developed an atmosphere of anti-Bush in Germany, and it began with his statements against sending troops to the war in Iraq. The senior advisor also said Germans must keep a good relationship with the Americans in order to survive as a country. He also criticized Schröder for making foreign policy decisions on his own, before discussing it with the rest of the German government. "There is an element of anti-Bush in the atmosphere, but we want to correct that," he said. "Not because we agree with all U.S. policies, but because studies show, and we believe, that the only way to solve problems is by working together with the Americans." Other Germans are upset with the way Schröder handled the unemployment rate. "In Germany as a whole unemployment passed 5 million earlier this year, a million more than when Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats took power in 1998 on a pledge to cut the jobless ranks in half," Sawyer said. "Anger is building over cuts in unemployment payments and other benefits that were supposed to trigger an economic rebound but so far have not." Whatever the reason, the surprising consequences of the election in North Rhine-Westphalia demonstrates how the Germans and their political leaders are still open to changes and new ideas. This attitude of change for the better through trial and error has made Germany what it is today.
