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Richard von Weizsäcker on the Meaning of Unification (October 3, 1990)

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For Germans in the former GDR, unification is an existential adjustment process that affects them directly and personally on a daily basis. It often puts superhuman demands on them. A woman wrote me to say that she was deeply grateful for freedom but hadn’t realized that the change would hit such a raw nerve – that it would literally demand that she bid herself farewell. She wanted nothing more than to be rid of her regime. But to simultaneously replace – from one day to the next – almost every element of one’s own life with something new and unfamiliar exceeds human capabilities.

For the people of the West, joy at the fall of the Wall was infinite. But the fact that unification will affect their personal lives in some way has not become clear to many, or is even highly unwelcome.

It cannot remain this way. We must first of all come to understand each other better. We will only be on the right track when we truly realize that both sides have amassed valuable experiences and important qualities worth preserving in unity. [ . . . ]

On this day, we are founding a common state. No government treaty, constitution, or legislative decision can determine how well unity will succeed on a human level. It depends on the behavior of each one of us, on our own openness to one another. It is “the plebiscite of every single day” (Renan) from which the character of our polity will emerge.

I am certain that we will succeed in overcoming old and new divisions. We can combine the constitutional patriotism that evolved on one side with the human solidarity that was lived on the other to form a powerful whole. We have the common resolve to fulfill the great tasks our neighbors expect of us. We know how much more difficult the situation is for other peoples on this earth right now. The more convincingly we, in a united Germany, manage to live up to our responsibility for peace in Europe and the world, the better it will be for our future at home. History is giving us the chance. We will take advantage of it with confidence and trust.



Source of English translation: “Richard von Weizsäcker on the Consummation of Unity” (October 3, 1990), in Konrad H. Jarausch and Volker Gransow, eds., Uniting Germany: Documents and Debates, 1944-1993. Translated by Allison Brown and Belinda Cooper. Berghahn Books: Providence and Oxford, 1994, pp. 212-14. © Berghahn Books. Please note: additions and slight modifications to this translation were made by GHI staff.

Source of original German text: “In einem vereinten Europa dem Frieden der Welt dienen” [“Serving World Peace in a United Europe”], Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 4, 1990, p. 5.

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