Today is Reunification Day.
The day that Germans get together and celebrate the fact that East Germany and West Germany became one again after the Cold War.
Of course the day was somewhat arbitrarily selected—one would assume the celebration would have been held on the day that the wall fell, but although November 9 has three significant positive events in German history going for it (Weimar Republic founding (1918), Hitler’s Coup failing (1923), and the Berlin Wall falling (1989)), it has one enormous mark against it: Kristallnacht—the night that the Nazis targeted Jewish businesses and synagogues throughout Germany and Austria for destruction.
Today, October 3, was the formal day of unification in 1990—the day that everything fell into place legally.
That said, today’s German Unity Day goes by mostly unnoticed by the people—just celebrated by politicians in Berlin.
I have no real explanation for why this day goes by unnoticed. I have the vague feeling that in West German regions the people are bitter because of how much money has been spent bringing the east’s infrastructure up to reasonable standards. In the East, I have the feeling that people miss the old days—when people were guaranteed employment and housing. Unemployment is well over 15% in former East German regions.
Being somewhat cynical, I decided that today was the day that Germans stay home and fix broken machines, put together jigsaw puzzles, and sew together torn clothing.
I didn’t engage in such activities, instead I headed downtown and wandered around until I decided to eat lunch at Texas – Bar & Restaurant, where the appetizer and main course are brought out at the same time. Later, I was told that this is typical in Germany—at the time I was annoyed.
thats not the case.
its because tradition has not been able to form in that short time. also, germans dont really know how to express patriotism etc. this is a country where no one sings the national anthem ever (except at soccer games & politicians) so what do you expect?
has nothing to do with resentment against east/west
You are probably right about it not being resentment about the east/west divide. However my vague feeling about east/west resentment has come from conversations with a number of people–not to mention reinforced by the leader of Bavaria before the recent election.
These points do not aid the cause of Germans celebrating reunification. However it was celebrated on the day it actually happened in 1989. The emotion was understood at that point in time.
Patriotism in Germany is a valid point–I’ve had a few conversations with people where Germans express concern about being too patriotic, something I wish Americans were worried about.
This is kind of a rambling response–but I think it conveys a lot of what I’m thinking…