Language
English
ItalianSummary
The Fall of the Wall on 9 November 1989 changed the lives of many people in east and west. The social and political changes in the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the GDR initiated the reunification process of the two German states. This historically unique process proved to be highly complex and there is still something that separates Eastern and Western Germany to the present day.
A short fragment of the story
A year like any other? No, there is no harmony of years. Neither economically, nor metereologically, nor politically. The years resemble rather the ups and downs of a stock market. And some even recall the pattern of a life approaching its end: for me, 1991 was definitely a year with a downward trend. The GDR was deleted from the book of history and on its way into a footnote after the signing of the so-called Treaty of Unification by the chief negotiators of the FRG and the GDR, Wolfgang Schäuble and Günther Krause. For forty years it had been my life and my identity, it had been my way out of a small village in Brandenburg into the capital of the country and onto the heights of science. It had also been the way to my personal happiness.
Countries
Why this story is important
Margrit Pawloff’s contribution gives an account of her personal story, the story of a professor who lost her job as a consequence of these reorganisation measures. By describing perhaps lesser-known aspects of Germany’s re-unification process, her story poses a question of a more general nature: is there a conflict between Europe’s inclination towards free-market policies and the needs and feelings of its people?
How this story was created
This story was created within the european project European Memories. It is an autobiographical narration.
References
This story is part of the stories selected as winner for the "Telling Europe!" Award, created within the "European Memories" project, Grundtvig Multilateral Project - 2008 - 344 / 001-001, created by UNIEDA-Italian Union of Education of Adults (coordinator), ADN - Fondazione Diaristico Nazionale-Onlus, European Information Center (BG), Danish School of Education, University of Arhus (DK), Community Development Foundation (ES), SL- sozial.label eV (DE), VIDA - Association for Intergenerational Enhancement and Active Development (PT).
It is an autobiographical narrative.
It is an autobiographical narrative.
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