Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0018/00189.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00189}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Unified Germany
The New Federal States}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{German Embassy, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{German Embassy, Washington DC}
$Subject{federal
states
gdr
state
german
berlin
city
now
old
house}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Title:       Unified Germany
Book:        Scala
Author:      German Embassy, Washington DC
Affiliation: German Embassy, Washington DC
Date:        1990

The New Federal States

     The GDR has gone and five states have returned in its place:
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and
Saxony.

The Empire: an "eternal confederation" of states

     After the war federal states were formed in the Soviet zone of
occupation - as was also the case in the occupation zones of the three
victorious Western powers, the United States. Great Britain and France. As
in the Western zones, in the East what were involved here were states which
represented the remains of Germany's federalist past and at the same time
newly created territorial entities. The five states in the Soviet zone were
able to lay claim to long historical traditions. They fulfilled the intention
which the victorious Allies had laid down in the Potsdam  Agreement that
initially the right to exercise state authority be returned to the German
federal states. However, things never went as far as the envisaged
establishment of central administrations responsible for specific policy
areas which were to function as a German national government under the
auspices of the Allied Control Council. However, in the process of creating
the federal states the victorious Allies largely respected the "federalist
structure" which had previously existed in Germany for a very long time. The
German Confederation which was founded in 1815 was a loosely structured
confederation of states. According to its constitution, the German Reich,
which was established in 1867 as the North German Confederation and then
became an empire in 1871, presented itself as an "eternal confederation" of
individual German states. It was a nation state based on federal principles.
Foreign policy was determined by central government, and there was - to
use a concept taken from the vocabulary of the present day unification
process - economic, monetary and social union, the latter in the form of a
system of social security which had been introduced by Bismarck. Above all,
however, there was an overall national parliament, elected by free and secret
ballot: the Reichstag. Nevertheless, the individual federal states - which
included a majority of constitutional monarchies as well as three city
states - retained their independence in the fields of education, art and
culture, general administration and the police as well as legislation on
regional matters and the administration of justice, the latter, however, only
to a limited extent. There was a unified code of criminal and civil law, and
its application was supervised by the Imperial Court. Some federal states
retained their own Post Offices, their own railways and their own army
contingents. This was a complex system of distributing authority, but it also
represented a check on the way state power was exercised and thus served the
freedom of the individual. This system was only destroyed by the
centralisation implemented by the Nazis. When their rule came to an end in
1945, the Allies decided to reconstitute the German confederative system.
However, with the failure to bring about a joint occupation administration as
a provisional "government" of the whole of Germany developments took a
different course in East and West.

     In the West the federal system was retained; it was guaranteed in the
constitution, the Basic Law. According to the Basic Law the federal states had
their own rights - as previously, in the fields of administration and
policing, culture, education and the judiciary. In addition to this their
governments also indirectly influence the legislation and government of the
federation, i.e. the Federal Republic as a whole, through the Bundesrat, the
second chamber of parliament. The first constitution of the other German
state, the GDR, was also initially based on federal states as administrative
units with their own rights. The central government was to decide on  all
matters "significant for the survival and development of the German people in
its entirety", all other matters were left to the individual states. This
represented a definite break with the traditional precepts of German
federalism. These say that the federal states are responsible for a matter if
it has not been expressly allocated to central government. According to the
first GDR constitution, however, central government was responsible for the
essentials and the federal states only received responsibility for what
remained. Yet at least a second chamber representing the federal states was
allowed a certain amount of influence on legislation; by using its veto it
was able to delay, but not prevent, laws which had been passed by the lower
house. Yet, the People's Chamber, the GDR national parliament, was totally
controlled by the Socialist Unity Party, as were the parliaments of the
individual federal states. Thus, as early as 1949 the federal system existent
in the GDR was only a pale reflection of a system based on a regional
distribution of state power.

The GDR: the federal states were simply abolished

     In the GDR even this poor reflection was abolished by a rather short
law which was passed on 23 July 1952. The federal states were replaced by
new units known as districts. The chamber of parliament in which the federal
states were represented continued a shadowy existence for a number of years
until it was eventually abolished. The districts served the function of
realising the goals of the centralised state, in other words, of ensuring
that directives reached down to all levels - from the centre, the politburo
of the ruling party, to local level via the districts and the local councils.
Mecklenburg was divided up into the districts of Rostock, Schwerin and
Neubrandenburg, Brandenburg into the districts of Potsdam. Frankfurt
(Oder) and Cottbus, Saxony into the districts of Dresden, Leipzig and
Chemnitz - whose district capital was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1953, a
decision which has now been reversed. Saxony-Anhalt was divided into the
districts of Magdeburg and Halle, and the state of Thuringia was partitioned
into the districts of Erfurt, Gera and Suhl. Attention was paid to the fact
that the old federal states could not even continue to exist in the form of a
collection of districts. The district of Dresden, for example, was reduced in
size in the north-east and the district of Leipzig was enlarged at the expense
of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. In 1968 the federal states were deleted from
the GDR constitution. Despite all this, feelings of attachment to the
individual federal states have survived. An outward sign of this is to be seen
in the fact that even the SED newspaper for the Dresden District continued to
be called the "Saxon Newspaper". In the final days of the GDR, associations
increasingly worked to preserve regional traditions. Then during the
revolution of last autumn the demand for the reconstitution of the old
federal states was taken up almost automatically. It was recognised or sensed
that the federal states had to be reformed as a precondition for the
reunification of Germany which so many people wanted; this would allow the
GDR to join the Federal Republic of Germany in a form in which it would not
represent a foreign body: one federally structured German state - with federal
states with their own rights - would be able to join the other. In the winter
of 1989/90 one could already see the white and green colours of the old free
state of Saxony everywhere. All the parties organised themselves in state
associations in spite of the fact that the states did not yet exist.

The revolution: a white and green flag for Saxony

     The first free elections to the People's Chamber, the GDR parliament,
took place on 18 March 1990 and on 23 July it passed a law which reconstituted
the five old federal states. In the process several changes had to be made to
territorial borders as the existing districts had cut across old federal state
boundaries. Plebiscites have been carried out in the areas concerned. The
return to federalism was sealed by federal state elections on 14 October. The
SED regime never succeeded in eradicating the old federal states from
peoples's consciousness and thus removing a latent obstacle to centralised
state power. In Germany there is a tradition that matters which can be dealt
with by smaller territorial units should also be decided there, because of the
advantages brought by variety and despite the disadvantages of fragmentation,
and this tradition was already alive during the revolution last autumn. The
reconstitution of the federal states in the GDR which was demanded at that
time was proof of the fact that the SED had never understood the real feelings
of the people.

FRIEDRICH KARL FROMME

MECKLENBURG-WESTERN POMERANIA

     Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor, is once supposed to have said:
"In mecklenburg everything happens a hundred years later." Initially at least
the people here tend to be sceptical about "new-fangled" ideas.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is a thinly populated agricultural region with
castles, palaces and the 650 lakes of the Mecklenburg lake district where
storks and eagles are still able to feel at home. In summer, however, the
state is awakenend from its tranquillity by the tourists (even if there is
still a shortage of tourist accommodation). They are attracted by the romantic
resorts and fishing villages on the Baltic Sea coast.

     On the island of Rugen the chalk cliffs tower up to a hundred metres
above the sea. The old Hanseatic city of Rostock is also famous-in 1960 it
received a large new international harbour.

BRANDENBURG

     The region seemed to have no future: it had nothing but marshes, sand and
fir trees. Brandenburg was once referred to as the sandbox of the Holy Roman
Empire. However, for a long period it represented the heartland of Prussia.
The state had risen to importance on its sandy foundations. In Potsdam,
Frederick II, the Great, had a vineyard planted - a difficult enough task on
the poor soil - and alongside it he built a residence which is now famous as
Sanssouci Palace. The novelist Theodor Fontane came from Neuruppin. He
described the melancholy of the landscape here and is still known to lovers of
literature for his impressive novels such as "Effi Briest". "Rheinsberg
Palace", the satirical love story by Kurt Tucholsky, is also set in
Brandenburg. Rheinsberg Palace really exists and is now a tourist attraction;
it was built by Frederick II. The following also came from Brandenburg: the
painter Adolph von Menzel and the sculptor Gottfried Schinkel, the painter Max
Liebermann and the pioneering pilot Otto Lilienthal, the poet Heinrich von
Kleist and the surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch. The state - in the centre of
which lies Berlin - has long since ceased to have a barren appearance; to the
attractive lakes of the Brandenburg Marches in the north of the state a great
deal of industry has been added: one will find chemical, textile and clothing
factories as well as oil refineries and the enormous lignitefired  power
stations in Cottbus, which are regarded as the largest in the world.

SAXONY

     It doesn't have to be a monarchy, but a Free State of Saxony is something
which Prince Albert von Sachsen, who lives in Bavaria and is a grandson of
the last Saxon king, could quite well imagine. After all, conditions are
rather similar to those in the "Free State" of Bavaria, As in Bavaria the
Saxons have their own very special dialect which easily stands out from all
others. The Bavarian kings and Saxon dukes also had the same interests: they
loved luxury, hoarded art treasures and regarded themselves to be free. At
court in Dresden with its palace and the Zwinger the life was no less
magnificent and frivolous than in Munich. The glory of Saxony was never
completely extinguished even in its darkest hours. The SED regime liked to
send paintings from the Zwinger on goodwill tours abroad. Leipzig has also
always had something special about it. It is mainly music which made the city
famous: the new Gewandhaus Orchestra has long enjoyed an international
reputation. Richard Wagner was born here. Johann Sebastian Bach was cantor at
St Thomas' Church in Leipzig (he is buried in the choir room of the church).
It was also in Leipzig that the downfall of the SED regime began. Here, where
the gloomy tower blocks make life particularly depressing, hundreds of
thousands went onto the streets in October 1989 with banners and
torches - which is why the trade fair city soon received yet another title:
"Leipzig, city of heroes". Many intellectuals and artists have come from
Saxony: from the philosophers Fichte and Leibniz to the mathematical genius
Adam Riese. Nowadays most of Saxony has been urbanised and industrialised:
cars are made in Zwickau, motorcycles in Zschopau, and electrical equipment
and pharmaceutical products in Dresden. More impressive, however, is its
elegant craftsmanship: renowned Meissen porcelain continues to be handmade in
Meissen.

SAXONY-ANHALT

     It is typical example for a state with a hyphenated name: Saxony-Anhalt,
situated along both banks of the Elbe and Saale, is an artificial construct
which arose after the Second World War and is made up of various territorial
units. It also includes a piece of the Harz mountains with their forests, old
villages and half-timbered houses.

     However, the most important characteristic of the federal state, say the
cynics, is chronic bronchitis, the result of extreme levels of environmental
pollution.

     When for example the writer Monika Maron in her novel "Flugasche"
declares a city called "B" to be the dirtiest in Europe, readers who know the
area well are in no doubt about the fact that it is the city of Bitterfeld
which is meant. As its chemical works are largely equipped with outmoded
technology the air here can almost be cut with a knife. On some days the
inhabitants only risk going outside wearing gas masks. In Halle and in
Magdeburg, too, there is hardly anyone who does not have a dry cough,
which - in the words of a rather macabre joke told in the region - was the
only thing that even the SED regime was not able to suppress. Radical policies
led not only to environmental ruin, but also to cultural decay. The Bauhaus in
Dessau, which had a decisive influence on twentieth century architecture, was
discriminated against as a school of "formality", the nihilistic philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche was ignored and Schonhausen Palace, the house in which
Otto von Bismarck was born, was demolished.

     Yet not everything was destroyed: Magdeburg still has its magnificent
cathedral, in Halle you can visit the house where Handel was born and in
Wittenberg there is Martin Luther's house and the castle on whose gate (now
long gone) the reformer is said to have nailed his 95 revolutionary theses.

     In Stendal you can visit the house where the archaeologist Joachim
Winckelmann was born. The French novelist Henri Beyle choose the pseudonym
Stendal in his honour.

THURINGIA

     In Weimar the privy councilor and poet, Theatre Director Johann Wolfgang
Goethe, almost lived like a prince. Much later, during the nineteen twenties,
it was at his theatre that the Reichstag was to make the first attempt at
democracy with what was known as the "Weimar Republic". In Goethe's day, the
professor and poet Friedrich Schiller taught history in Jena, but lived with
his family in Weimar - not far away from Goethe. The Hungarian composer Franz
Liszt also regularly spent the summer in Weimar. In the Middle Ages many an
emperor called together spectacular Imperial Parliaments in Erfurt. The
magnificent old city centre (it is regarded as one of Europe's largest) is a
reminder of the former splendour of the city, which is also known as "the town
rich in towers". In the Middle Ages it had eighty churches; many of them
still remain today. At the Wartburg, Martin Luther, the Reformer, translated
the bible into High German from Latin.

     The composer and organist Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach. In
Greiz the contemporary writer Rainer Kunze soon began to gibe at the SED
regime in East Berlin with his short poems. The people of Thuringia also do
not really know why so much of significance has taken place in their small,
green state, 33 per cent of which is today still covered in forests. Perhaps,
believe some, it's because of the weather. North of the Thuringian Forest,
between the Werra and the Saale, a mild and equitable climate prevails.
Extreme weather conditions are rare. The people here are modest, as is the
landscape. The Thuringian Forest is a low mountain range whose highest peaks
just fall short of making the 1,000 metre mark. Peacefully the craftsmen in
quiet forest areas carve the famous Christmas pyramids, nutcrackers, stars and
angels which already made up a third of the world's total production at the
time of the Empire and are today so intensively exported that they are
practically unavailable in Thuringia itself.

     Another well-known export product is precision optical equipment made by
the Carl Zeiss company in Jena.

BOUNDLESS BERLIN

     Berlin used to be a walled-in city. Now boundless opportunities are
presenting themselves in the largest German metropolis. For business it
represents a gateway to the East, for many politicians it is the capital and
in science, sport and culture it is a centre of new ideas. It is essential
that obstacles not be put in the way of these new opportunities.

By Joachim Nawrocki

     The barrack-like building was known throughout the world from spy
thrillers and the television news, but now Checkpoint Charlie, the foreigners'
border crossing point between West and East Berlin, is no longer there. In
July it was lifted onto a transporter by an enormous crane and will soon go on
display at an American museum. What remains are the covered clearance bays on
the eastern side, which are soon to be demolished, and two red and white
barriers, which are to remain in place. An enamel plaque already marks them
out as a protected historical monument. It bears the following inscription:
"From 13 August 1961 to 30 June 1990 this barrier marked the dividing line
between East and West, between the victorious powers of the Second World War
and the two German states. On the initiative of the Institute for the
Preservation of Historical Monuments it was presented to the Museum House at
Checkpoint Charlie in recognition of its work in overcoming the division of
Germany and Europe." The museum is situated nearby in an old Berlin tenement
house in the Friedrichstrasse. Before the war this was one of Berlin's most
important shopping streets and - now that the barriers have become historical
monuments - it is gradually regaining its former position. Here firms from all
over the world are looking for plots of land and offices, whilst at Checkpoint
Charlie one finds information about the building of the Berlin Wall, the
confrontation of Soviet and American tanks which led to the brink of war, the
varied and often incredible escape attempts from the GDR and also forms of
non-violent resistance all over the world. GDR soldiers and border. guards
often told their stories here, reported about their orders to shoot at
refugees, how the border was guarded and about political oppression in the
GDR. This is why until last year this institution was regarded by the GDR
leadership as a most evil relic of the Cold War. Now, however, it is
receiving gifts and recognition from institutions in the former GDR. Nothing
makes clearer the transformation which has taken place in Germany since the
November revolution, above all in Berlin, this focal point for the division of
Germany. Today where Checkpoint Charlie once stood one will find traders
selling souvenirs, the majority of them former GDR citizens, Poles or Turks.
The tourists can buy genuine pieces of the now only partially standing and
increasingly pitted boundary wall. They bear traces of paint from the graffiti
with which it was covered. In addition to this there are also all kinds of
party decorations, awards given to the best workers, medals from the GDR and
Poland, and even complete uniforms of GDR border guards and Red Army soldiers.
Passers-by inquisitively examine the goods on sale between dismantled sections
of the Wall and rolls of barbed wire. It is almost like in Ephesus: the relics
of a past regime are subject to public examination. A lot often seems to come
close to real archaeology. Where the Wall once stood the tarmac of the old
streets and the rails of the old tram lines are being uncovered beneath the
sand, the patrol paths and the foundations of dismantled
watchtowers - reminders of the city life of the past in an area which became
a dangerous restricted military zone for 28 years. For example, there is the
Niederkirchnerstrasse, which leads off from Checkpoint Charlie. The Wall stood
here, but is now gone. All the houses on the northern side have barred
windows, which were meant to prevent escape attempts. The houses on the
southern side are in a state of decay as no one wanted to live here at a place
where there was only the pavement and then the Wall, where you looked out of
the window onto no-man's land and the tall lamps of the border installations
disturbed your sleep. The writing on the facades of the houses refers to
workshops and small firms which have long disappeared. A group of artists have
now created an example of object art on the rubble and sand which has been
pushed together in the middle of the road and a photography gallery and a
small street cafe have been established. Just opposite, a wall painting
reminds onlookers of Georg Elser, the loner who tried to assassinate Hitler.
A community is being re-created. Life is returning to the former no-man's
land - like weeds amongst ruins - life is stronger.

     A short distance away, in the same street, a section of the Wall is
still standing, but it already looks rather battered; here anyone who wants
a souvenir can simply chisel off a piece. Once if you only went near the
Wall - which naturally was also possible from the western side - the GDR
border guards growled: "Take your hands off the property of the GDR. "Behind
the Wall, on the western side, there is the Martin Gropius Building, the
former Berlin Craft Museum which was built between 1877 and 1881 in the
Schinkel style. It has been magnificently restored and is now used for
exciting exhibitions. On the eastern side, long forgotten in the shadow of
the Wall, one finds the complex of buildings built in 1901 to house the two
houses of the Prussian parliament, the House of Lords and House of Deputies.
It was damaged during the war and then used by GDR authorities so that several
million marks would now have to be invested to restore it to its former glory.
Then, however, it could - many believe - house the Bundesrat, the upper
chamber of parliament, if Berlin becomes the German capital.

     It is here that the traditional government district begins. Directly next
to it stands the House of Ministries in the former Wilhelmstrasse, which only
continues to bear this name in the western part of the city and was renamed
Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse in what used to be East Berlin. It was once Berlin's
Whitehall. Not far away one finds the Reichstag building on the western side
and the former Presidential Palace on the eastern side of the scar which the
Wall has left through the city. However, it will soon mend and heal, and in
most places it will not be long before it will be difficult to recognise the
old dividing line. Berlin is growing back together again, so naturally that
it is almost as if all this were not really a political sensation of the first
order. That is why many politicians such as Federal President Richard von
Weizsacker (CDU), Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) and the
leader of the Opposition, Hans-Jochen Vogel (SPD), believe that Berlin should
be the capital of Germany in the future. This aim is also to be found in a
large number of federal laws as well as in innumerable resolutions of the
Bundestag and even more speeches by German politicians. However, now that what
was long demanded has suddenly and unexpectedly become possible, controversy
has arisen on this question. A large number of politicians believe that the
federal system would be weakened by a very powerful capital in Berlin and that
in addition to this the move from Bonn to Berlin would be too expensive.

     In answer to this it must be said that federal structures clearly ought
not to be weakened but strengthened even further. The reunited Germany will
have sixteen rather than eleven federal states, almost all of them with large
and independent cities. And clearly not all federal institutions would be
located in Berlin; that was also not the case in the past. There are more than
enough buildings in Berlin for the Federal Government, ministries, parliament,
Bundesrat and Federal President. Naturally, some of them have to be renovated;
however, the expenditure of billions of marks has already been allocated for
new buildings in Bonn. In any event, the costs of a move are highly
overestimated by those who support Bonn.

     There are other factors which favour Berlin. It is the city whose two
parts were apportioned to the two German states and the majority of Germans
can identify with it. The most important tasks of German political
decision-making for a long time in the future will be concentrated on Berlin
and the mismanaged economy of the former GDR. They will be best solved with
energy, understanding and sensitivity if the decision-makers are on the spot.
The most important foreign policy objective will involve the bringing together
of Eastern and Western Europe and assistance in the reconstruction of Eastern
Europe. Here, Berlin can take on a function as a bridge and intermediary;
nowhere is there a greater willingness to see the East as a neighbour.