“Many people today say they feel it’s intolerable that their life histories are being devalued, even though they never had anything to do with the SED,” says Brandenburg’s Minister President Matthias Platzeck (SPD). That also applies to the public devaluation of old structures: the outpatient clinics [Polikliniken] that are now called doctors’ houses [Ärztehäuser], or the Kinderkrippen [GDR daycare centers] that were long mocked as socialist hokum. “In the East there are a lot of scientists, doctors, and workers who say to me: We weren’t stupid at all. But in West Germany, the only thing I hear is: Those people in the East can’t get anything done,” says Platzeck. And that’s also his explanation for the intense protests: “Something is bursting out that has been building up for years.”
This could already be felt in the spring, when the economic rebuilding of the East became a media topic. Der Spiegel reported that a government commission had concluded that the economic rebuilding of the East had failed. The unfathomable sum of 1.25 trillion Euro had flowed from the West to the East since reunification. The result was virtually zero. “This discussion was poison for the soul of the people in the new Länder,” laments Manfred Stolpe (SPD), the minister in charge of the economic rebuilding of the East. And Günter Nooke, a CDU politician and former co-founder of “Demokratischer Aufbruch” [“Democratic Awakening”] says: “Unfortunately there are many people who didn’t want unity in 1990 and are now happy about every bit of bad news.”
All that’s left in people’s head is: “East Germany? A gigantic flop.” In reality, the commission also highlighted many successes of reunification. “The world ‘failed’ doesn’t even show up in our report,” says commission chairman von Dohnanyi. And still today he wonders who launched the claim about the 1.25 trillion. It wasn’t his commission, that’s for sure.
In fact, von Dohnanyi is generally puzzled by the way East German reality is handled. He feels that the Hartz uprising was avoidable. “I’ve been saying for years now that we’ll get vociferous protests in East Germany if you lie to people,” Dohnanyi asserts. The East Germans are “very reasonable.” They deserve openness and honesty. “But neither the Kohl government nor the current government has told the people in East Germany the truth of the situation,” Dohnanyi continues.
It would be absurd to believe that the new Länder would be at the level of the West in only 15 years, as Stolpe just prophesied once again. “Whoever says anything of the sort doesn’t know the situation in the East,” counters Dohnanyi. Real reforms are needed. “The physician must tell the patient the truth, unless he thinks he’s doomed. The East is rich in opportunities.”
More than a hundred thousand people are likely to demonstrate in the East. “We’re sick and tired of the fact that politicians are constantly downplaying Hartz IV,” says Rainer Roth. “Hartz IV must go.” But by now there’s far more at stake.
With contributions by Jens Krüger
Source: Cornelia Schmergal, “Aufstand Ost” [“Revolt in the East”], Welt am Sonntag, August 22, 2004.
Translation: Thomas Dunlap
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