Tearing down the wall

People have a tendency to simplify things. We often look at issues colored in
every degree of grayscale as black and white.

This is exemplified by the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Wall, which fell on Nov. 9, 1989, nearly every news headline reads with the simplicity of a caveman grunt: “Capitalism: good. Berlin Wall: bad.”

While the fall of the Wall was certainly a momentous occasion at the time and continues to be a great victory for the global community, it is important that we not gloss over the deep divisions and complications that were created both by the Wall and its downfall.

Berlin, Germany and the world have continued reeling from with the repercussions of the reunification of the German state.

Some East Berliners miss their simplified way of life. When Hungary opened its boarders and al- lowed East Germans to exit to Austria in September 1989, Harvard Historian Charles S. Maier recalls that “Most East Germans, of course, did not want to leave, even if many longed to travel unhindered.”

Throughout the summer and fall of 1989, East German protestors raised calls of “We are staying here” and “We are the people!”

Some West Berlin Germans resented the economic burden that came with the annexation of impoverished and largely dilapidated East Berlin. The East German econo- my had relatively poor productivity in comparison with West Germany when the two were reunified. Additionally, East Germany suffered from economic ties with the collapsing socialist economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Not to mention that the reunification has created an underclass of former East Germans, some- thing that has caused many unforeseen consequences, such as a population imbalance between men and women.

In 2008, The Guardian report- ed that “Eastern Germany is facing a demographic crisis as huge numbers of women abandon the former communist region, leaving behind an underclass of poorly educated, jobless and disillusioned men.”

Maier wrote in a column for The Telegraph, “Unfortunately, the rush to liquidate the East’s rust- belt economy, the unemployment that furloughed many workers and professionals over 50 while keeping the young in make-work jobs, as well as the feelings of victory on one side and of failure on the other constituted the shadow side of unification.”

Too often we brush over these historical intricacies that linger, deeply affecting us even 20 years since the Wall came down. The World Bank has issued a report stating, “The economic policy choices made by some countries of Europe and Central Asia during the transition from centrally planned to market economies contained the seeds of vulnerability when facing the global economic crisis, and are also likely to shape the recovery.”

Formerly communist countries have certainly benefited from integration into the world economy, but they have also been exposed to channels through which the economic crisis has had a particularly negative impact such as financial, market and labor, according to the World Bank. As we remember the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years later, we shouldn’t overlook the complications involved in reunification for the blunt statement of triumph that “capitalism is good.”

In reality, it’s all much more complicated than that.