The address by our Federal President on the Day of German Re-Unification is something I am still trying to digest. According to there-unification contract (Einigungsvertrag), the third of October has now been a German National Holiday (Nationalfeiertag) since 1990, because that was when the German Re-Unification (Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was effective. To make up for it, Juni, 17th (which used to be called Day of German Unity), has been removed from the list of holidays. As you can see: better is the enemy of good.
This address by our (new) Federal President is something that surprises me the more the longer I have time to think about it.
Well, it said that Germany, from its roots, has been affected by Christianity and Judaism. Allegedly, this goes without saying (!). And that now the Islamic persuasion, too, has arrived in Europe. And is part of Germany.
Great! And thanks …
And I also hear how much we owe to the people who came to us from the new countries.
Wonderful …
Here is what I, unfortunately, did not hear:
- That Germany, in particular, has a great tradition of enlightenment.
- That many people living in Germany do not subscribe to any religion.
- That these people, by the standards of applied ethics, are definitely not the worst.
- And that it is these people in particular who have a special responsibility in our society, along with being hugely responsible for the added value created by the economy. They are probable the high performers of our society.
Isn’t it even true that, today, the non-denominationalist are the majority among all religious persuasions in Germany?
But if that is how our Federal President feels: welcome to Germany, Islam.
🙂 Starting now, I will be in favour of a minaret next to the church tower in all villages (in Germany, Austria and Switzerland)…
And I would like to thank all the people living in
Brandenburg
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Sachsen
Sachsen-Anhalt
Thüringen
and half of
Berlin
for their gigantic contribution towards our re-unification!
The reason I sound cynical is that I am fed up with all these pathetically idealized but frivolous and insincere words and addresses.
After all, cultures have been affected by religions mostly by suppression. Consequently, I do not feel very comfortable with our politicians constantly praising the Christian tradition or our occidental values. And I ask myself if these people know at all what they are talking about. Or are they just parroting platitudes about an alleged consensus because that is what they always did, without thinking about what they are saying?
Mind you, I feel no better when considering other religious practices or even states based on religion. And when I hear that “religion has finally arrived in a country”, I first and foremost remember the Christian crusaders who built their castles or other symbolic edifices in the “Holy Land” (the very term is an atrocity).
And as far as our re-unification is concerned: as I see it, it was basically the buy-out of a bankrupt and dying system GDR by a system FRG which apparently was not yet quite as bankrupt and dying? It was probably going to happen anyway, caused by the absolute insolvency of the GDR. Even I noticed it when I first visited the GDR in 1989 – so it must have been really obvious? So what would have been the alternative for the GDR?
Under this light, there was no alternative to joining the FRG. With which we are back with the faux-pas word that keeps being a nuisance in politics.…
(see my article on no alternative – Alternativlos).
Those in the GDR who went to demonstrate and showed civil courage and constructive disobedience in the face of even a massive threat incidentally did nothing other than what the citizens of Stuttgart (S21) and elsewhere all over the country do by way of resistance against political decisions. And we have no right to judge the motivation of the then citizens of the GDR. No matter if they wanted freedom or the Deutsche Mark, they had the right to demonstrate!
Yes, and then there were also some managers in the east and west who earned laurels by fighting for re-unification. An idle discussion in retrospect about whether or not they could have done a better or worse job, or whether they should have decided differently is totally beside the point. After all, all that matters is that everything was solved peacefully and that it helped to abolish the tricky cold-war situation and the division of a considerable part of the world into two blocks.
With the exception of those who took an active part in the demonstrations which caused and promoted the take-over and the managers who organized the insolvency and take-over, all we did was accept the course of history. Those living in eastern Germany had to get used to change and in exchange received the Deutsche Mark, more cars and doubtless more prosperity. And those living in the west had to pay the “soli” and in return got a bigger Germany. Well, that was about it!
Now, however, we should focus on seeing to it that the new FRG will not follow the old GDR into insolvency. We have to preserve democracy, work towards maintaining an enlightened and free society and keep our secularized constitutional state based on law. And we have to find some order where people of different cultures will be integrated, instead of one where social disruption prevails. In this kind of society, there should be enough space for all kinds of religious activities.
It would make me very happy to hear this kind of appeal in the next central message conveyed by an address on re-unification.
And, if necessary, the citizens will have to demonstrate and show civil disobedience. Because that will be the day when we are no longer talking Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions that have finally arrived.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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