Tag der Deutschen Einheit - German Unity Day

Germans gather on the Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Today is Tag der Deutschen Einheit, The Day of German Unity.  Happened 24 years ago.  This nation and life-changing event is known by many names, reunification, unification, the change, and the peaceful revolution.  No, that’s not the day the Berlin Wall came down.  That was 9 November 1989.  But, the wall coming down really was the beginning of the end for East Germany. The rest was details.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/11/06/the-20th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/558/

Nothing in history happens spur of the moment.  There’s always a lead up.  Here’s a short time line of the days and weeks before unification, all of which are significant in themselves.

1990-08-31 - East & West Germany sign a treaty to join legal & political systems

1990-09-12 - US, England, France, USSR, East & West Germanys sign agreements allowing 2 Germanys to merge

1990-09-20 - Both Germanys ratify reunification

1990-09-24 - East Germany leaves Warsaw Pact

1990-09-24 - West German President Richard von Weizsaecker signs reunification treaty

1990-10-02 - Allies cede any remaining rights as occupiers of Germany

Tag der Deutschen Einheit is a national holiday, so you may suppose this was the first unity, or unification.  Not so. There was another in the Federal Republic of Germany.  On the first of January 1957, Saarland (on the French border) returned to German control.  From 1947 through 1956, it had been a protectorate, administered by France.  Separation of the Saar area had happened before.  France and Britain administered the area from 1920 to 1935.

And of course, Germany itself only became a nation in 1871, under the leadership of Bismarck.  I’m fond of telling my German friends that the United States is about a hundred years older than their country.  They scoff and buy another round, but this time they don’t pay for mine.

Deutschland really is a pie that’s been sliced and re-sliced, only to be rejoined.  The sad fact is, everyday, fewer and fewer would remember without a major reminder. People who are 24 years old today, were just coming into this world on 3 October 1990.

Of course the same is true with our own history, even the very recent.  Thirteen years ago, when Islamic terrorists created the horror of 9/11, today’s eighth graders were born.  In another decade, our young doctors, lawyers, and politicians won’t have a first hand memory of those events.  A few years ago, I went to a Pearl Harbor event at my father’s nursing home, compliments of a local U.S. Naval unit.  The sailors knew very well, but I doubt the nursing home staff had a clue.  Just a bunch of old guys gathered for punch and cake.

So many events in our own history are long forgotten, even those which were current events for our fathers and grandfathers.  The frequently quoted saying is as true now as ever:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)

I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.”

― Kurt Vonnegut

Think of Memorial Day.  Ask your kids what it means.  How about Veterans Day and Labor Day?  Forget the kids.  Ask your spouse.

The Germans have many more holidays than we do, many of them Christian, but still celebrated nationally.  Tag der Deutschen Einheit is one of the biggest.  But, I fear Kurt Vonnegut is right.  Time erases the past.