Fall of the Berlin Wall: A Victory for Europe

Two decades after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Europe and the world have gained enormously from democratic and economic integration

By Gabriele Suder

On Nov. 9, 2009, Germany will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event epitomized the collapse of the Iron Curtain and provided the final impulse for the end of communist rule by the Soviet Union. Everyone in Europe has been affected by it and has reason to celebrate. Almost forgotten by some, it is one of the events that has most shaped our contemporary history, identity, and future options.

Across the world, the fall of the Berlin Wall has become as strong a symbol as can be found for democracy and the voice of the people. The integration of countries under democracy has proved itself, once and for all, as the system that lasts and that benefits citizens, vs. the oppressive union of states under totalitarianism.

German by birth, I was a student in Scotland (thanks to the EU—at that time the EEC), and I saw the events from an outsider's perspective: On Nov. 9, 1989, following many weeks of unrest, the East German government authorized private travel to the West. Hundreds of citizens had already tried to flee the East, through Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and over the wall—and much blood and many lives were wasted on those and other communist frontiers.

Rapid Transformation

I had learned about the economic and political systems of the East at school. My parents took me to Berlin when I was a teenager, so that I could see the divided city and better understand it. At home, we regularly collected items such as clothes, school materials, and toys to send to East Germany. We were trying to help people there we did not know but with whom we shared a history, divided by the Iron Curtain.

When the wall came down, change came rapidly to the East: Hungary opened its borders; Vaclav Havel was elected President in Czechoslovakia; Solidarity came to power in Poland. The Baltic States were freed two years later, and through this movement, Eastern Europe became democratic.

The Federal Republic of Germany, comprising the former East and West Germany, was inaugurated on Oct. 3, 1990. In a stroke, the European community was enlarged—though without the traditional accession process. The inclusion of East Germany was the community's only expansion that did not add a new member state, but it did bring in 16 million citizens, 108,000 square kilometers of land (almost 42,000 square miles), and much more.

Reunification opened doors to the accession of Eastern Europe, and hence altered the scale and scope of European integration forever. This was not painless: Economic aid and assistance to the transition of Eastern European countries was costly. Rapidly, Western taxpayers felt the effects on their wallets (the total costs of reunification are estimated to be more than €1.5 trillion, or $2.2 trillion at current exchange rates). Citizens of the West who held ownership or investments in the East before World War II started to claim rights, with more than 2 million claims filed in all.

Culture Clash

The repercussions were enormous. Labor moved around the countries, causing a brain drain; unemployment rose because of the transition, and salaries diverged. The government of Helmut Kohl pushed wages way up beyond productivity levels in the East. The disappearance of communist promises such as total employment and guaranteed child care caused dissatisfaction among the populace. Infrastructure, productivity, and innovation levels were terribly low in the East. From here on, mindsets had to change—in the East and the West. Policies had to enforce positive transition, and business had to play its part through investment.

The fall of the Berlin Wall may have been a peaceful revolution, but the violent end of the communist dictatorship in Yugoslavia and the continuing struggles over ethnicity and identity in the Western Balkans painfully illustrated that taking such a path was rarely that easy.

By the time I returned to Germany, its capital had moved from Bonn to Berlin. There had been massive investment from Western companies.

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