DATE=11/7/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BERLIN WALL ANNIVERSARY (L-O) CQ
NUMBER=2-255913
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=BERLIN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Germany begins its official celebration of the
10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by
giving honorary Berlin citizenships Monday to former American
President George Bush and former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev. Correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from
Berlin.
Text: Ten-years ago at this time, thousands of East
Berliners gathered in the central Alexander Platz to
demand their human rights. Ten-years later, thousands
of Berliners came back to Alexander Platz for a
different reason. They crowded into the Kaufhof
department store to take advantage of the pre-
Christmas shopping hours.
There are seven weekends before Christmas when stores
are permitted to sell their normal products late on
Saturday and for seven-hours on Sunday. Church and
Union leaders oppose it, but Sunday shopping is
endorsed by thousands of German shoppers voting with
their credit cards.
Ten-years ago, when the Berlin Wall fell on November
ninth, Joachim Gauck was leading a human rights march
in the northeast town of Rostock. Now, Mr. Gauck
supervises the files of the former East German secret
police.
The German government decided at the last minute to
let Mr. Gauck speak as the single representative of
East German human rights campaigners at the 10th
anniversary of the wall's demise.
In an interview with the newspaper "Tagespiegel", Mr.
Gauck says all the human rights goals he marched for
10-years ago have been achieved in today's reunified
Germany.
But a contrary view was expressed by one of this
week's honored guests, former Soviet leader, Mikhail
Gorbachev. He told German television that the
resulting 18-percent unemployment rate in eastern
Germany is one of the failures of a united Germany.
Mr. Gorbachev's view is supported by British historian
Timothy Garten-Ash who says West Germans bear some of
the responsibility for the lingering resentments of
many East Germans.
/// GARTEN-ASH ACT ///
I think the East Germans feel that the whole
system of the West was simply imposed on them
after reunification and, although they obviously
wanted reunification, they resent that and they
resent the way they have been treated by many
West Germans. There is something like
colonialism in one country, and so I think much
of the responsibility does lie with the
attitudes of the West Germans.
/// END ACT ///.
Harold Jager has another perspective on the 10-year
anniversary. Ten-years ago on the evening of November
ninth, he was guarding the Wall's Bornholmer Strasse
border crossing when he was besieged by thousands of
East Germans demanding their right to travel to West
Berlin.
/// JAGER ACT IN GERMAN, FADE UNDER ///
There were thousands of East German citizens
overwhelming us here, he says, people carrying
children, with baggage, going slowly past us.
This was a significant moment that so many
people were leaving the D-D-R (East Germany) but
that this meant the end of East Germany on the
ninth of November. That was by no means clear.
/// END ACT ///
Ten years later, the former border guard runs a
newsstand and says he does not feel better off.
Mr. Gauck notes that many East Germans have better
living standards than other post-communist societies,
but at the same time psychologically they feel worse
off. The former human rights campaigner dismisses
today's complaints as growing pains that will
disappear in future generations. (SIGNED)
NEB/RP/DW/RAE
07-Nov-1999 14:23 PM EDT (07-Nov-1999 1923 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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