I totally ignored the big German Unification party. For me the united Germany is already normality.

I can remember the day we “united” – I was on a plane to London and happy to have left Teutonia and all the hysteria.

I consider the reunification process a great failure – thanks to one man: Helmut Kohl. He suffered like our modern Kaiser Wilhelm the II. from delusions of grandeur.

Many smart people warned us about the many dangers and difficulties of uniting these totally different countries. Especially the economic stumbling blocks were easy to spot.

But Herr Kohl couldn’t make history fast enough and wasted a lot of money and opportunities to “get it done”. I blame him for many social and economical problems we have now on him.

Taking the piss out of East-Germans: My first Banana

Today we still pump billions of Euros into the East, while millons of Ossis have fled their side of the fence. Many towns and rural areas in the east are deserted – so deserted that wild animals making a comeback from Hungary.

Those left behind have no jobs and are often badly educated and motivated. So it’s no surprise that east Germans more often vote from Neo-Nazis and Communists than their western brethren.

And I don’t blame these people: they are the toxic leftover of a rushed unification.

Today the west is in need of renovation and additional funding. Many eastern cities have brilliant infrastructure, but hardly any citizens, while western cities are rotting.

This has to change: the west is no longer the “golden west” and the east no longer the “wild east”.

All of Germany has to be treated equally.

PS: I hope that in 20 years time we can celebrate with the good people of Korea their reunification – which will be even more difficult to manage …

PPS: Great thanks for Michael Gorbachev – he really is the man behind the reunification, because he allowed it to happen. No thanks to Ronald Reagan or David Hasselhof!

Adam Curtis / documentary / ca 44 minutes

From Wikipedia:

Focusing on the men of the Cold War on whom Dr Strangelove was based. These were people who believed that the world could be controlled by the scientific manipulation of fear – mathematical geniuses employed by the Rand Corporation. In the end, their visions were the stuff of science fiction fantasy.

Curtis most recent documentary ‘The Trap’ also comes back to these think tanks featured in this documentary.

More? Pandora’s Box Series

No Ronald Reagan did not bring down communism – it simply collapsed under it’s own weight. Soviet economists already warned their ignorant Politbüro in the 70’s that without market reforms the union could no longer ‘work’. Gorbatchev was smart enough to admit the final failure instead of doing anything stupid.

I recently found this rather disturbing news reel about the still lingering possibilities of a nuclear war. It shows that almost all the atomic nations have learned nothing.

[21 Minutes]