When The Wall Came Down: Reactions To German Unification
A careful and successful selection of diverse and representative views of the march to German unity expressed by Germans and non-Germans in the tumultuous two years from 1989-91. A valuable reminder of past apprehensions, arguments and prophecies, aware that "even the optimists had some unease." As James writes in his introduction, "the hangover [after unification among Germans, east and west] was much more substantial, and lasted longer, than any euphoria about unity."
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German history teaches that malice and simplicity have their appeal, that force impresses, and that nothing in the public realm is inevitable. It also proves that democratic reconstruction is possible, even on initially uncongenial ground.
After 40 years of division, the two former halves of Germany are discovering the psychological stresses of unity. The collapse of the German Democratic Republic released East Germans from public control and authoritarian intimidation. But with freedom, they are having to learn to make choices and to live with risk and uncertainty. West Germans are resentful at the cost of reunification and arrogant about the sad state of their Eastlander brethren. Both halves of Germany will have to deal with their separate and joint pasts. They should expect moral and psychological unity to take longer than the material recuperation of the east.
Daniel Goldhagen's book on the Holocaust--condemning the German "eliminationist" mindset toward Jews--has become an international bestseller and a datum in German-American relations. Pity, because it is a simplistic, monocausal, and unhistorical explanation of one of the most complex horrors in history. For Goldhagen, as for the Nazis, Hitler is Germany.

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