History without a wall

The reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 represents a symbolic event, a point of arrival in the history of Europe and, at the same time, a tipping point in the effort to achieve the integration of the peoples and states of the continent. That’s the main message that came out of the solemn session that the European Parliament dedicated on 7 October to the twentieth anniversary of political reunification between West and East Germany, with the overcoming of the "Soviet bloc" and the "cold war" that had marked the history of the continent and of the world ever since 1945. The role of John Paul II. Not only MEPs, but also the leaders of EU institutions were present in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels. There were two official speeches: first, that of Jacques Delors, French economist and politician, minister in Paris in the time of François Mitterrand, then President of the Commission from 1985 to 1994, just in the period of "reunification" following the fall of the Berlin Wall; and second, that of Lothar de Maizière, first and last elected Premier of the German Democratic Republic, in 1990 and, since 1991, minister in the government of Helmut Kohl with special portfolio for the former DDR. Jacques Delors traced the events between 1989 and 1990, which "immediately challenged the European Community". "In celebrating the 20th anniversary of German reunification, we cannot pass over in silence the appeals of John Paul II and, in particular, his invocation" to the Poles "at a crucial time" in their history: "Don’t be afraid". The former head of the Commission, considered a "father" of the present EU, cited the "Polish Pope" among the "decisive" personalities of that historic moment. Delors then declared: "We then saw an acceleration of history which, frankly, no one had foreseen, nor could have foreseen". At the same time he recognized that, while the EEC "held out its hand" to the "peoples of Eastern Europe", "the doubts and fears about what had happened, and about the very survival of the process of European integration, were growing in Europe". A message for our time. Delors emphasized the "great achievements" of democracy and development registered since then in the former DDR and in Eastern Europe as a whole, also thanks to the economic commitment of the Western regions and the government headed by Kohl: despite that, he added, "much still remains to be done". He then posed the question whether "those values that then inspired our actions are still at the heart of the European Union", and ended with an appeal to "join together in building" the EU, so as to win "new achievements for our future". Lothar de Maizière for his part began his address by maintaining that "German reunification was not only a national achievement, but an event with a European dimension". "I venture to say that it was at this time that the nationalist reaction" that had for centuries divided the European peoples "came to its end", declared the German politician. De Maizière added: "The message we can draw from it, twenty years later, is clear: The European peoples must remain united and proceed together". He recalled that in the Europe of the Soviet bloc "freedom had no voice. Then came, in October 1978, the election of the Polish Pope, John Paul II, which changed everything". The person of Karol Wojtyla "was a first, strong message of the profound changes that would alter the course of history". De Maizière cited the creation, in Gdansk, of the free trade-union Solidarnosc: It was "an important step that implied" that it was the people who would "finally take steps to bring down Communism" and that "this people would not remain alone". "Also for this we Germans are grateful to the Poles".Peace, democracy, rights. Both Delors and de Maizière, in reconstructing the events preceding and immediately successive to the fall of the Berlin Wall, cited European "martyrs" such as the Hungarian Imre Nagj or the Czechoslovak Jan Palach. But the protagonists of the collapse of Communism and the building of a united Europe also included – in the view of both speakers – the Russian Garbaciov with his reforms ("perestrojka" and "glasnost") and the American Bush senior. They also expatiated on the "difficulties in leading East Germany towards democracy and a social market economy" ("evident" disparities still remain between the Western länder and those in former East Germany), the political role played by the European Community in supporting reunification, and the "leading role played by the peoples of the countries" emerging from the regimes of the Warsaw Pact. De Maizière ended by saying. "United Europe represents peace, democracy and the defence of human rights. This is an essential legacy" that "we can never take for granted. And if peace, rights and justice are the founding values of this Europe, today we must proceed towards the deepening of the Union" to "furnish common responses to the challenges by which we are faced".