The Fall of the Wall as a Memory of Joy
Few countries have had to grapple with such a complex historical legacy as Germany. Among the many challenging issues arising from this past has the been the dynamic between appropriately …
Witness to History: An American in Berlin for the Fall of the Wall
I think often of the good luck I had in moving to West Berlin in September 1989. The dramatic events of the months ahead were to leave memories that greatly …
Thirty Years After the Fall: The Lessons of 2019
As we commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, one lingering question remains. Why were so many people shocked when it happened? We had enough warning. There was no reason …
Great Expectations: Germany, America, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall Thirty Years Later
As Germany commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a look back to 1989 and the expectations that surrounded that momentous event reveals some that were …
Anticipating Uncertainty: Lessons from 1989 for 2020
As we approach the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, some of us might recall where we were when we heard the news of …
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Deutschland einig Mutti-Land?
Characterized as “the triumph of the Vaterland,” unification was a male-normed, male-dominated process, despite the significantly different gender regimes found in the two German states through 1989. In July 1990, Helmut Kohl …
Embarking on a New Path of Partnership: Thirty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall
On Saturday, we mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was one of the most momentous political developments in a generation—the climax of the peaceful …
Inner Unity and Regional Diversity
The unification of the two German states in 1990 prompted expectations of harmonization in political culture and promises of equivalent living conditions. Almost three decades later, the revival of narratives …
Fifty Years since Ostpolitik. How Willy Brandt’s Diplomacy Transformed Europe
It is fifty years since the start of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik. Brandt was a peculiar figure in contemporary history. Brandt’s dropping to his knees in front of the Warsaw Ghetto …
Reflections on Legacies and Lessons of 1989
In evaluating history, T.S. Eliot reminded us that human beings often “had the experience but missed the meaning.” In efforts to make sense of our past, we look for patterns …
Remembering George H. W. Bush and Germany: A True Partner in Leadership
The death of former president George H. W. Bush will be mourned in Germany as well as in his home country. He was, along with Harry Truman, the most consequential …
The Berlin Wall: Limits and Legacies of Divisions
Fifty-seven years ago this week, the most tangible symbol of the Cold War started to emerge in the morning hours of August 13. As the East German government stretched barbed …
Guenter Schabowski, East German who announced Berlin Wall opening, dies
Guenter Schabowski, a senior East German official whose cryptic announcement that the communist country was opening its fortified border precipitated the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, died Nov. …
German Unification and European Security
How has German unity impacted the U.S. in terms of its policies and its expectations of Germany as part of that evolving Europe in which it has become so critically important? How have the following years impacted the shaping of U.S. foreign policy, its goals, and its application? What expectations emerged about the global role of the U.S. and our expectations of a unified Germany? The questions above are the ones on which AICGS has asked commentators in this series to reflect upon as the 25th anniversary of the unification of Germany approaches on October 3. They are all significant questions but, given the space constraints, I would like to limit this brief comment to one particular aspect on which I have some modest expertise: the extensive overlap between the process that yielded German unification and the process that yielded expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
