It should be emphasized once again: the proposed steps for the East do not relieve Germany as a whole from the need for a substantial general structural renewal (reform) of the nation. For there is no conflict between a reform policy for all of Germany and a targeted strategy for the economic rebuilding of the East. On the contrary: one is contingent upon the other. Only together, and only if the problems of East and West are put into a politically comprehensible context, can we in Germany finally create the positive climate we have longed for for so long. The Germans must be able to recognize that it is not their inefficiency, but rather the special challenge they face as a result of unification that is hampering growth in Germany today. And only if the economic rebuilding of the East is undertaken with resolute determination will all of Germany once again have the prospect of a promising future.
The Gesprächskreis sees itself as an all-German advisory council to the federal government, one tasked with focusing on the problem area of the New Länder. We hope that our proposals will also be received in this way and that they will be regarded with the same seriousness with which they were drawn up. With our proposals, we wish to advance the East and contribute to a new mindset that focuses on development in East and West.
It is our hope, therefore, that the federal government will succeed in creating what we regard as the necessary organizational preconditions, and that after the 2004 summer recess it will thus work together with the federal states, collective wage agreement parties, and scientific organizations to create the necessary foundation for a course correction through an Economic Rebuilding Pact for the East.
For what Germany needs is the spirit of a new beginning borne by all strata of society.
Source: Kurskorrektur des Aufbau Ost. Bericht des Gesprächskreises Ost der Bundesregierung [Course Correction in the Economic Buildup of the East. Report by the Federal Government’s Roundtable East]. Edited by Klaus von Dohnanyi and Edgar Most. Hamburg and Berlin, 2004.
Translation: Thomas Dunlap
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