Thursday, August 29, 2009

Today was the hottest day in Germany this year, 34 degrees and very very hot! Today in class, we did the HV- and I didn’t do too well. The HV is a total gamble, you either get them all right or most of them wrong! I got a 15 on 25, SCHLECHT!

Post class, we did lunch at Papaya, Kavita, Ketaki, Deepak UND ICH. I had the Burnt rice, without egg, since a lot of egg on a hot day may not help. There is this yummy GEMISCHTES SALAT (Mixed salad) that is basically the usual suspects among the veggies, peanuts and a liberal dose of lemon juice. Absolutely divine and a great refresher. This is a Kavita discovery and must say EINE GUTE ERFINDUNG! They have this afternoon meal option, which is a reduced rate, qty also I guess, but more than enough for one.

Post that, I settled down to study some for the exam next week. Also finished the re-read of NICHT ALLE WAREN MOERDER, wanted to jot down interesting parts of the book. Post that, there was a VORTRAG by Antonio Hilbers, the last one before class ends next week (SCHADE).

The topic was Germany post 1989. He started off with a background on the reasons behind the events that unfolded and changed world-history on 9th November 1989 (the day the wall fell). ‘The day the wall fell’ is not really true, which I didn’t know. More on this later.

The reasons behind the MAUER-FALL and the great revolution in Germany, including the unification:

1986: Mikael Gorbachov heads the USSR. With him a new thought of reforms and freedom arrive on the world-stage. His induction into the centre-stage brings on sweeping changes, key among them in Poland and Hungary (shift in the political system from SOZIALIST to DEMOKRATIC). The press had a term for this, until 1985 the political doctrine in the USSR was termed the ‘BRESHNEV DOKTRIN’ (Breshnev, being the predecessor to Gorby). 1985 the term was replaced by ‘SINATRA DOKTRIN’; the inspiration being Frank Sinatra’s single ‘I did it my way’. To imply the changes playing about in Western Europe. The then DDR and BDR populations (DAS VOLK) reacted very positively to these changes. However, the then REGIERUN (SED) did not. They actually started distancing themselves from Russia and Gorby, basically anything that remotely had a sense of freedom wasn’t acceptable to the then-regime. They tried to make DDR into an INSEL DES ORTHODOXEN DENKENS (An island of orthodox thoughts).

The main point was that that then-DDR_regime had the fear that, if DDR were to go the Polen way, then it would also bring into question the very existence of the DDR_REGIERUNG. It would not make sense to have 2 divided German nations, following the same political system of KAPITALISMUS. The DEUTSCHE EINGHEIT (German unification) was a reality that they hoped would always remain a dream for the then DDR-citizens. Also, since the economic situation in DDR was rather chaotic, a large majority of the citizens were beginning to migrate to West-Germany, rather leave East Germany. It would not take much to escalate these feelings into a revolution and the REGIERUNG wanted to avoid juts that. Did they? Read on.

May 1989: Ungarn, Hungary and Austria
The borders between these 2 countries vanished, another of those sweeping changes that were rapidly spreading across Western Europe, spear-headed by a new face representing the USSR. This breakdown of the border led to an unimaginable 220000 people from DDR who crossed over to West-Germany. It’s called DIE GROESSE MASSENFLUCHT since 1949, when people tried to cross over before the wall came up. The REGIERUNG reacted strongly and negatively.

If you’d refer to the map of Europe, Warsaw, Poland is got the right of Berlin, Prague to the bottom and Hungary and Austria at the very bottom. People tried to cross over to Warsaw and Prague, since the West DL (Germany, DEUTSCHLAND) BOTSCHAFT (Embassy) existed there and they could get permission to enter the West via this route. There was this picture that Dr. Hilbers showed us, representing some 3000 people outside the embassy in Prague, who camped there for 3 weeks and finally got the ERLAUBNIS to travel to West Germany.

One needs to understand that the basic cry of the citizens of DDR was ‘please give us the freedom to travel wherever we want, whenever we want. They were starting to suffocate under the then DDR-regime’. This inner desire to leave or, rather step out of the 4 walls of DDR was combined with internal strife in the political system of DDR. The opposition to the SDE was getting stronger by the day. These were also the times where one could speak her mind only in the church. Leipzig is the place where initial demonstrations against the regime started, in small numbers of a 100 at the Leipzig Ring. Crowds would gather every Monday since May 1989 to protest against the current way of life.

Slowly the word spread, and people gathered their courage to come out and demonstrate in the open.

7.10.1989: This day is of special significance since it was the day that DDR came into existence 40 years back, on 7.10.1949. On this day, Mikhail Gorbachov and several world leaders came to Berlin. The crowds were aplenty, and cries of ‘Gorby Gorby’ rent the air. The then DDR-CHANCELLOR Ehersch Honicker was extremely nervous about this and this was a sign of the times to come.

9.10.1989: Leipzig 70000 people gathered to demonstrate, despite the Police virtually isolating the city, so that no one could enter.

This demonstration spread like wild fire, and similar gatherings were held at Erfurt, Dresden, etc. There is also a reference made to the TIANEMMEN SQUARE demonstrations, where the Chinese police brutally used violence against students, who were protesting quietly. This violent way of suppression was thankfully not used as much during these demonstrations in Germany.

18.10.1989: the party was taken over by 3 new faces, and Ehersch Honicker‘s day in the sun were over. Krenz, was now the new man of the SED and undertook the job of bringing reforms. He started with the one, that would allow Germans to travel from east to west, albeit with a visa and with proper Governmental permissions.

End Okt 1989: A wave of 300000 people gather in Leipzig and it’s imminent that something is bound to happen anytime soon; in this case, 9th November 1989.

The setting is Berlin, 9.11.1989. At a press conference intended to announce to the western world that DDR citizens now have the right to move freely, an Italian journalist questions the regime, about the date from when this would be effective. This was obviously not yet decided, but the answer came out as ‘ as far as I can see, it’s effective immediately’. With these words, history was made, the radio, the TV, the papers had only 1 headline ‘ the Berlin wall has fallen’! A nice journalistic ring to it, but with great implications. Within hours, thousands had gathered at various borders of the Berlin wall, and they told the wall-guards that they need to cross over. The guards had no clue, and with 20000 odd citizens, all clamoring to cross over, the wall was first opened. The Brandenbuger Tur also had a wall, dividing the city, and people started breaking the wall, inch by inch.

The Berlin wall had finally fallen!

He then spoke about the events after the wall, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor West Germany wanted to grab this opportunity and drafted a 10-point plan for German unification. The cries of ‘WIR SIND DIE VOLK’ during the DDR-regime changed to ‘;WIR SIND DAS VOLK’.

There was this question as to why was the question of German unification also needing an answer, so soon after the fall of the Berlin wall. Of course, the obvious answer was to capitalize on the popular sentiment, that wanted a unification and the other was that Kohl knew that this would be possible only with buy-in from Russia and although Gorby was hugely popular in AUSLAND< he had enemies in his home and God-forbid, if anything amiss were to happen, the dream of a German-unification would remain just that. He wanted to use this once-in-history opportunity, DIE EINMALIGE HISTORISCHE CHANCE NUTZEN.

Finally on 3 .10. 1990 Germany became one nation, The Federal Republic of Germany, under the leadership of Helmut Kohl. There were other factors too, like Polen, Israel, the Czech Republic who were skeptical and worried about this new country, based on events in the past; is this the FOURTH REICH? Questioned some. Also, there was the question of which should be the capital city, Berlin or Bonn. Logic said Berlin since it was a law. But after much deliberation in the Parliament, Berlin regained its status as capital.

Also, this was a political unification but the community, the people of the former DDR, had several issues to face, the huge ARBEITSLOESIGKEIT (approx 20%), the fear and insecurity with the new way of life. Yes, this was a change they wanted but didn’t completely realize the cons with the pros. It has taken a while for the former DDR, to project its own identity and integrate with the rest of the country. The costs of this unification are still being borne by all in Germany.

However, 70% of former DDR citizens, when recently questioned ha this to say ‘ despite everything, the unification was well worth it’. To cite an example, the homes in the then DDR in 1990 were some 40 years behind in terms of modernity compared to the West.

Yes, the wall broke on 9th November 1989, but so did the barriers between 2 nations and millions of people. ENDLICH, SIND WIR WIRKLICH EIN VOLK!

Post the Vortrag, I bumped into Ketaki and Kavita and we all had dinner at Subway, basically redeemed our coupons, long overdue and totally worth it! I paid 1,99 and got a 6-inch sub free. Deepak got a 6-inch free with another 6-inch Sub. And so did K and K. I also saw this Indian family walking about, who saw, stared , turned around a couple of times but refused to smile back. Why is it that we Indians many a time, refuse to acknowledge another Indian when abroad? Weird!

Post dinner, Deepak went home to prepare for his VORTRAG tomorrow. The 3 of us sat on the WD Strasse (WILMERDORFER STRASSE) and chatted and chatted for a long time, it was a Fab time. We spoke on corruption, Bombay, travel, tourism, the world :D and a lot of topics under the sun. We also mentally hopped over to Polen for the weekend. We badly needed to go the loo, so walked to the public one just around the corner. Guess what, its shut from 21.00 to 6.00. Makes sense? Not to me. There was also this instruction outside which was hilarious, to say the least. The maximum time allowed inside is 20 minutes, post which, the door would automatically open! Is it to prevent drug-taking, a mad passionate love affair or to not inconvenience others??? I really don’t know. Do let me know, if you have any ideas on this one.

We then walked to Mc-Donalds, open till 3 a.m. and downed 2 large fries and a coffee and continued talking and talking and talking. There is a plan to do a night out tomorrow, so I should go to sleep now.

I can’t believe I have less than a week to go in Berlin, will SO miss it!

Sleep well,
Anya