Opposition to German Reunification

The reunification of Germany in 1990 is seen as one of the momentous events in German history, but to some at the time it was not as welcomed as one may have imagined. As we have seen in the Carstens-Wickham's article, Gender in Cartons of German Unification , some in East Germany were not particularly looking forward to reuniting with West Germany. They instead looked to reforming the Communist Government already in place in the East with one that might allow for more liberties, while still keeping the socialist ideals alive.  Looking back, such reaction should not be so surprising considering the differences between East and West Germany, both in economic and ideological terms. People in East Germany had been taught all their lives that West Germany and their western allies were the Capitalist aggressors seeking to destroy their way of life either militarily or economically. Also while in East Germany, the luxuries were many times more expensive than in West Germany, the necessary goods (i.e food) were cheaper in East Germany due to being heavily subsidized by the Government. Thus after Reunification, people in East Germany all of sudden found themselves paying more for the basic good that used to get really cheap. As mentioned by Carstens-Wickham's,  all of these factors helped to contribute to what was known ostologia(combination of east in German and nostalgia) in which some in the former DDR wished they were back in the times when the DDR actually existed.  Also opposition against reunification existed among some people in both East and West Germany, based on the point of view which stated that since West Germany was so much stronger economically that it was basically exploiting  East Germany by  reuniting as quickly as it did. West Germany thus was the only who would profit from such an arrangement since it would take over the former DDR economy and keeping much of the benefits for themselves.

     Not only were some Germans skeptical of a reunified German, outsiders too mounted some opposition against a reunified Germany. Most notably France and Great Britain were slightly weary that a unified Germany would once again rise to shake the balance of Power in Europe and it would eventually seek to regain some of its losses from both World Wars. The French, however realized their goals of eventually creating a  more united European economy with a common currency (the eventual European Union) would be better served by allowing a strong Unified Germany to prosper once more. Great Britain eventually gave in since they saw that their fears were based on more historic facts, then actual modern politics, since it seem very unlikely Germany would harbor such ambitions anymore.