For the peoples of Western Europe as well, the end of the
Cold War brought changes in their lives. Perhaps the
most challenging situation was faced in Germany, where
the decision to unify the two zones created serious strains
on the economy. Chancellor Helmut Kohl had benefited
greatly from an economic boom in the mid-1980s. Gradually,
however, discontent with the Christian Democrats
increased, and by 1988, their political prospects seemed
diminished. But unexpectedly, the 1989 revolution in
East Germany led to the reunification of the two Germanies,
leaving the new Germany, with its 79 million
people, the leading power in Europe. Reunification, accomplished
during Kohl’s administration, brought rich
political dividends to the Christian Democrats. In the
first all-German federal election, Kohl’s Christian Democrats
won 44 percent of the vote, and their coalition partners,
the Free Democrats, received 11 percent.
But the euphoria over reunification soon dissipated as
the realization set in that the revitalization of eastern
Germany would take far more money than was originally
thought, and Kohl’s government was soon forced to face
the politically undesirable task of raising taxes substantially.
Moreover, the virtual collapse of the economy in
eastern Germany led to extremely high levels of unemployment
and severe discontent. One reason for the
problem was the government’s decision to establish a 1:1
ratio between the East and West German marks. This
policy raised salaries for East German workers, but it increased
labor costs and provoked many companies into
hiring workers abroad.
Increasing unemployment in turn led to growing resentment
against foreigners. For years, foreigners seeking
asylum or employment found haven in Germany because
of its extremely liberal immigration laws. In 1992, more
than 440,000 immigrants came to Germany seeking asylum,
123,000 of them from former Yugoslavia alone. Attacks
against foreigners by right-wing extremists—many
of them espousing neo-Nazi beliefs—killed seventeen
people in 1992 and became an all too frequent occurrence
in German life.
East Germans were also haunted by another memory
from their recent past. The opening of the files of the secret
police (the Stasi) showed that millions of East Germans
had spied on their neighbors and colleagues, and
even their spouses and parents, during the Communist
era. A few senior Stasi officials were placed on trial for
their past actions, but many Germans preferred simply to
close the door on an unhappy period in their lives.
As the century neared its close, then, Germans struggled
to cope with the challenge of building a new, united
nation. To reduce the debt incurred because of economic
reconstruction in the east, the government threatened to
cut back on many of the social benefits West Germans
had long been accustomed to receiving. This in turn
sharpened resentments that were already beginning to
emerge between the two zones. Although the Berlin Wall
had been removed, the gap between East and West remained
(see box on p. 186). In 1998, voters took out their
frustations at the ballot box. Helmut Kohl’s conservative
coalition was defeated in national elections, and a
new prime minister, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroder,
came into office. Schroder had no better luck than his
predecessor, however, in reviving the economy. In 2003,
with nearly five million workers unemployed, the government
announced plans to scale back welfare benefits
that had long become a familiar part of life for the German
people.
World History
