DATE=11/7/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BERLIN WALL ANNIVERSARY (L-O) CQ
NUMBER=2-255913
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=BERLIN
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Germany begins its official celebration of the 
10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by 
giving honorary Berlin citizenships Monday to former American 
President George Bush and former Soviet leader Mikhail 
Gorbachev.  Correspondent Ron Pemstein reports from 
Berlin.

Text:  Ten-years ago at this time, thousands of East 
Berliners gathered in the central Alexander Platz to 
demand their human rights.  Ten-years later, thousands 
of Berliners came back to Alexander Platz for a 
different reason.  They crowded into the Kaufhof 
department store to take advantage of the pre-
Christmas shopping hours.

There are seven weekends before Christmas when stores 
are permitted to sell their normal products late on 
Saturday and for seven-hours on Sunday.  Church and 
Union leaders oppose it, but Sunday shopping is 
endorsed by thousands of German shoppers voting with 
their credit cards.

Ten-years ago, when the Berlin Wall fell on November 
ninth, Joachim Gauck was leading a human rights march 
in the northeast town of Rostock.  Now, Mr. Gauck 
supervises the files of the former East German secret 
police. 

The German government decided at the last minute to 
let Mr. Gauck speak as the single representative of 
East German human rights campaigners at the 10th 
anniversary of the wall's demise.

In an interview with the newspaper "Tagespiegel", Mr. 
Gauck says all the human rights goals he marched for 
10-years ago have been achieved in today's reunified 
Germany. 

But a contrary view was expressed by one of this 
week's honored guests, former Soviet leader, Mikhail 
Gorbachev.  He told German television that the 
resulting 18-percent unemployment rate in eastern 
Germany is one of the failures of a united Germany.

Mr. Gorbachev's view is supported by British historian 
Timothy Garten-Ash who says West Germans bear some of 
the responsibility for the lingering resentments of 
many East Germans. 

            /// GARTEN-ASH ACT ///

      I think the East Germans feel that the whole 
      system of the West was simply imposed on them 
      after reunification and, although they obviously 
      wanted reunification, they resent that and they 
      resent the way they have been treated by many 
      West Germans.  There is something like 
      colonialism in one country, and so I think much 
      of the responsibility does lie with the 
      attitudes of the West Germans.

            /// END ACT ///.

Harold Jager has another perspective on the 10-year 
anniversary.  Ten-years ago on the evening of November 
ninth, he was guarding the Wall's Bornholmer Strasse 
border crossing when he was besieged by thousands of 
East Germans demanding their right to travel to West 
Berlin.

            /// JAGER ACT IN GERMAN, FADE UNDER /// 

      There were thousands of East German citizens 
      overwhelming us here, he says, people carrying 
      children, with baggage, going slowly past us.  
      This was a significant moment that so many 
      people were leaving the D-D-R (East Germany) but 
      that this meant the end of East Germany on the 
      ninth of November.  That was by no means clear.

            /// END ACT ///

Ten years later, the former border guard runs a 
newsstand and says he does not feel better off. 

Mr. Gauck notes that many East Germans have better 
living standards than other post-communist societies, 
but at the same time psychologically they feel worse 
off.  The former human rights campaigner dismisses 
today's complaints as growing pains that will 
disappear in future generations.   (SIGNED)

NEB/RP/DW/RAE



07-Nov-1999 14:23 PM EDT (07-Nov-1999 1923 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.