The fall of the Berlin wall

In the aftermath of World War 2 Germany was partitioned into East and West Germany. The East was placed under the control of the Soviet Union while West Germany was under the control of the USA and its allies. The capital city of West Germany, Berlin, was in the heart of the East. As a result of several East Germans attempting to flee into West Berlin, the East German regime, on the 13th August 1961, started to build a wire fence around the entire West Berlin. This grew into the 45 km Berlin wall and came to symbolise the cold war divide between capitalist and communist forces. The existence of the wall did not stop attempts by East Germans to reach West Berlin. There were many attempts and estimates are that almost 200 people were killed trying to cross over the wall between the period of its construction to the period when it was torn down. The election of Gorbachev as head of the Soviet Union in 1988 reflected a growing crisis in the Soviet bloc. He called for 'Perestroika' restructuring, as well as 'Glasnost', openness and reflection. Many of the acts of the previous Soviet regimes, post 1924, were repudiated. The beginnings of free political debate in the Soviet Union gathered momentum until its regime was overthrown by a mass uprising. In October 1989 many of the East Germans began forcing their way across the Berlin wall. The East German regime was forced to open the border on the 9th Nov 1989. In the hours and days that followed, crowds from both East and West Germany physically broke down the Berlin wall. Germany was re-unified the next year. In 1968 the youth in former West Germany began questioning their parents about their role in the creation of Nazism. By 2019 East German youth are questioning their parents about the process of re-unification. After 1989 about 8500 companies in the East were either privatised or liquidated. Most of the housing stock in East Germany is controlled by Westerners. East Germany has the highest unemployment and under-employment rates, from 25% to 50% higher than the average in the country. Only 7% of the top 500 German companies are in the East. There is declining population size, with 4 funerals for every live birth, in the East. On the other hand, productivity in the east has risen from about 50% of the average for the country to just over 80%. There is also an extensive social support network. There is a rise of an 'Eastern' identity, with over 50% of hate crimes against immigrants occurring in the East, despite it only having 20% of the population. Many of the youth from the East had migrated over to the West but currently the currently East-West migration is about neutral. The political implications of the fall of the Soviet bloc has reverberated around the world. In South Africa Joe Slovo penned 'Has Socialism failed' , which opened up a period of Glasnost in the ranks of the liberation movements. It formed the backdrop for the start of political negotiations in South Africa. Joe Slovo also penned 'Negotiations: What room for compromise?'. This was hotly debated with many contributions coming from Pallo Jordan, Blade Nzimande, Harry Gwala, Raymond Suttner, Jeremy Cronin, the ANC Youth League and the ANC NEC. These were contained in the special issue of the African Communist: 'Riding into the Sunset?'. Alternative views on the debate included the views of Neville Alexander in his selected works, 'Some are more equal'. Baruch Hirson also critiqued the position of Slovo.