Five years after German reunification

FRANKFURT (JP): In a recent interview with Deutschland magazine, Mikhail Gorbachev, said the events of the late 1980s caught him by surprise.

"Neither I nor any of my negotiating partners, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl, realized at that time that the stream of events would soon develop into a great flood sweeping everything before it," he said, referring to the impact of perestroika and glasnost in eastern and central Europe in mid 1989.

When Kohl was praised for his quickness in seizing the momentum, he in turn credited Gorbachev.

"I am still grateful to him for this today," Kohl said of Gorbachev's readiness to ratify the German reunification treaty in 1991.

Kohl agreed that the opportunity presented itself quickly.

"I am certain that we Germans only had the opportunity to attain unity during a period of four to five months. After that this opportunity would have passed," Kohl explained.

On Feb. 10, 1990, Gorbachev, then president of the Soviet Union, promised the German people the right to be able to live in a single state. On March 15, 1991, the Soviet Union presented the ratification document for the "Two Plus Four Treaty". It was the last of the four victorious Allied powers to do so.

Within this framework, the Soviet Union, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, as well as the representatives of the two German states, confirmed the reunification of Germany consisting of the territories of the former GDR, the Federal Republic and Berlin. The United Germany formally became a sovereign state.

Prior to 1990, no one could have imagined that West and East Germany would reunite. People were fond of saying the prospect was like uniting Venus and Mars.

"The process was very quick. No one could imagine that East Germany could crumble so fast," said Thomas Frankenfeld, political editor of the Hamburger Abendblatt daily.

Like many other West Germans, Frankenfeld is quick to credit Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl for the reunification.

"It would not be possible under Yeltsin. And despite heavy pressure Kohl went ahead with the reunification," Frankenfel said.

Dr. Erich Follath of Der Spiegel said reunification was just the breakdown of eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, but Kohl seized the momentum.

Dr. Christoph Bertram of Die Zeit said many people never believed that reunification would happen.

"Our paper had been very skeptical about it, not only because few of us believed it would happen but also because we were not quite sure whether we really wanted it," said Bertram.

Reunification added five new states, giving United Germany 16 states. The five new states are Brandenburg, where Berlin is located, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. Berlin, however, has a separate administration. It will be merged with Brandenburg in four years.

The five new states give 109,000 square kilometers of land to United Germany, to make up a new geographical area of 357,000 square kilometers.

German's total population is now 81 million after the addition of 17 million East Germans in 1990.

The West German government has pumped more than 150 billion marks (US$ 105 billion) a year into eastern German states to boost their economies. The standard of living in eastern German is rapidly catching up to the west.

In comparison, the American Marshall plan provided US 1.4 billion between 1948 and 1952, just prior to Germany's economic miracle. (hbk))