Germany celebrates sixth anniversary of unification

The effects of German unity have been, on the whole, positive. On the sixth anniversary of German unification on Oct. 3, 1996, this event continues to be more of a happy occasion than a cause for concern for the vast majority of Germans. This is also particularly true for Germans living in the eastern part of the country.

According to representative opinion polls conducted on a regular basis by the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopic Studies, nearly 60 percent of the people surveyed in eastern Germany tend to view unification with gladness and some 20 percent with concern. Despite slight and brief fluctuations, these figures have remained largely constant in recent years.

Germans living in Germany's new federal states also approve of the way things have developed in the six years since unification. Surveys conducted by the Bonn-based Infas Institute reveal that although the number of satisfied and dissatisfied people remained more or less equal until early 1994, the group of satisfied people has grown into a clear majority in the last 18 months. At present, approximately 60 percent of all east Germans are very or quite satisfied with developments since unification, whereas some 40 percent are dissatisfied.

These findings are worth noting because they indicate unabated approval of German unity among Germans, despite high unemployment and a difficult economic situation, which is improving only gradually and demands austerity at all levels.

This does not mean that all the problems involved in the difficult process of unifying the two parts of a country that were divided by walls and barbed wire for more than 40 years have been solved. The majority of east Germans still feel themselves to be second-class citizens, who trail far behind the living standards enjoyed by west Germans and are, therefore, more entitled to government assistance.

West Germans contest this more and more. However, these understandable and necessary disputes over details of day-to-day affairs have not -- as already indicated above -- affected the Germans' fundamental approval of unification and its outcome. These stable bearings provide a solid foundation for pushing forward Germany's domestic unification on an ongoing basis.

Enormous financial transfers for the reconstruction of eastern Germany have been a decisive factor in helping Germany grow into one nation. Germany's federal government and its states and communities in the western part of the country have supported eastern Germany with a tremendous amount of financial and reconstruction assistance since German unification.

The net capital transfer from western to eastern Germany totaled more than 140 billion deutschemarks in 1995 alone. As a result of this assistance, the gap between Germany's old and new federal states could be quickly narrowed or already virtually closed in many areas.

This is just as true of the transport infrastructure as it is, for example, of efforts to establish a new social security system. More than 31 billion deutschemarks had been invested prior to last year solely to modernize eastern Germany's railway system. Investments of some 58 billion deutschemarks had been made throughout the entire transport sector during the same period.

Plans for building telecommunications networks foresee investments of approximately 60 billion deutschemarks until 1997. It has been possible to reduce often dramatic pollution problems -- involving air pollution and water pollution in pqrticular -- to the benefit of the population and nature.

Some 178 billion deutschemarks were spent on employment and training measures in eastern Germany between 1991 and 1995. Nevertheless, unemployment in the new states averaged 15 percent in June 1996 -- 6.3 percent more than in western Germany -- a clear sign that sizable efforts are still necessary to bring economic conditions in particular in line with those in the western part of the country.

The enormous complexity of the alignment process is reflected by the problems involved in raising eastern wages to western levels. In this case, the process has already reached an advanced stage, yet productivity levels still lag far behind western standards.

The strong faith the Germans have in their country's main democratic and political institutions indicate that Germany can and will continue to master these difficulties without internal rifts in the future as well, according to the findings of representative surveys which the Emnid opinion research institute conducts on a regular basis. These surveys show that 90 percent of all Germans have faith in democracy and nearly 10 percent do not. Some 80 percent have faith in the country's political parties, compared to 20 percent who do not.

This domestic stability guarantees that Germany will continue to be a reliable and predictable international partner for building peace, freedom and prosperity in the future, as well as in respect to Europe's further unification and to efforts to deepen its friendship with the U.S., to develop transatlantic cooperation even further and to fight hunger and poverty throughout the world through a fair balance of interests with developing countries.