I was a child of German separation, I was born in 1951, I knew nothing else.
I have to say, I think like almost everybody here, I was very surprised how suddenly everything happened.
We had always seen in the news the demonstrations in the former DDR - the Monday demonstrations -and you always wondered, what will happen, how long will this go well.
And then there was on the said day in the evening in the news, if I remember correctly, the message: "The wall is open".
I could not actually take that at face value until then in the late news which then I believe was the whole evening live broadcasted from Berlin on November 9.
You could see how people climbed over the wall and it was in principle the sign, the DDR is in dissolution - that was what I concluded from this and over here that came two days later.
At that time we had our law firm on the edge and that was still the central place that was still accessible to traffic.
And suddenly the whole square was full of Trabis, full of Wartburgs and it smelled accordingly, we did not know that two - stroke mixture anymore.
And there were also a lot of people who were looked at, they did not come from here,
you have to say that, two parallel societies had developed, both in the inner attitude to many things and in the whole habitus - that was recognizable -
and I've had relatively many encounters with people who have asked questions, where is something to eat here, where can you buy something, how are you here
and you were absolutely positive and I think that was true. All the citizens who lived here were surprised and overpowered.
That was a kind of situation of a fraternisation and they said, finally we can talk to each other again. That was clear.
Well, I think that was also the most drastic experience for me, what can happen, if boundaries suddenly break down.
Moderator: As already mentioned, you also traveled to the DDR or through the DDR?
Yes partly also in the DDR, because I had relatives in Leipzig, that was always a terrible circumstance with all the paperwork that had to be fulfilled.
Then there was the forced exchange. You had to exchange in Ostmark but did not know where to go for the money.
That was the problem. You could not buy anything de facto.
We also always learned from our relatives, where we were staying, that there was always a message to the person who was responsible for the block,
that the West visit was there. So you felt permanently under control.
Moderator: What is your relative's attitude? Did they want to leave the DDR?
Well, referring to 1989, I can not say anything, they were already dead, this were uncle and aunts of mine -
I had no contact with their children because they were not allowed to have contact with us.
I remember one son of my uncle - who was active in East German sport -
who was coach of the women's national team in handball.
He was not allowed to have any contact with us, because that might have been a problem.
That's why I've never met them, and later never surrendered, because it's never been a close relationship.
That was already a problem of the separation - as the family in the basic structures was clearly torn apart.
Moderator: Which personal changes caused by the fall of the Berlin Wall did affect your family in Lüneburg?
So not in the family itself, because in the immediate family actually no one had Eastern contacts.
For me, the change has clearly been professionally.
At the beginning of 1990, I guess in January or February I drove for the first time to the East.
Then I drove to Schwerin with my wife and was so horrified because it looked so bad there.
For someone who was used to everything being alright and you then come to this city where everything, every wall and plaster was dilapidated and rotten.
We came in houses, where the water dripped during rain through the ceiling down to the third floor. The whole road stank of this two-stroke fuel or brown coal with which was heated.
That was an experience. So we left after four hours in Schwerin, because I said, I can not breathe here anymore.
That were the experiences I said to myself there must be something happening.
From the end of 1990 until the beginning of 1991 I traveled relatively frequently in the DDR, because I was working with the famous West investors.
That's why I got a lot of insight into the structures of that time - I've been in combines, in LPGs
and then I realised that socialism as such was obviously very superficial.
There was a very strict hierarchy, in my estimation.
There were for example the former Combine Leaders, who were still Leaders of combination, which were now called only managing directors.
There was the driver, who drove only the Wartburg or the Polski Fiat of the leader of the combine, otherwise did nothing.
Then there were the carwashers, who had nothing else to do. That was the full employment after the DDR model.
And that was also the core problem, and it turned out that to continue a business as it was done before was not possible at all.
After all, it was not about making money, it was about keeping people in work, producing anything that could be turned into money, no matter what's the cost.
That was ultimately the culture shock that has come into the economy.
When Mr. Kohl then also stood up and said that he was “creating thriving landscapes”, he raised expectations that he could never fulfill. That did not work.
It was not enough to build roads and lay telephone networks; after all, it was all investment that benefited the economy in the West.
Of course there were then workers from the east employed. But the money went to the West.
Moderator: Is it right to have then that attitude: "We were pulled over the table"?
I do not believe that. I think it's just the lack of understanding for a different business culture.
The understanding could not be there, because one did not know that. For the DDR citizen his company was his second home,
there he was present and there he had to work and for that he got money. Nobody asked if it all made sense.
That's why I think, subjectively, that might be felt that way, but I do not see it that way objectively.
The problem that I simply see is that, from my point of view, one has failed to create new structures in such a way that something new is produced there as well.
The internal revision of these structures has been neglected, and one has thought that money can be used to settle everything.
I guess the former East German citizen thought that if you say that there are blooming landscapes, then I do not have to do much, that will all come naturally.
Because that was the system that you knew. And the realization that you have to contribute a lot to that and that you have to sow the seed yourself so that something blossoms.
This awareness has not grown for many. You can see this even today when you are with older people from the area of ​​the former DDR, then there is a great deal of incomprehension.
There comes again and again: "We've built everything here, you've broken everything."
For the younger people, that looks a lot different. We also have quite a few employees here, who come from the former DDR and this topic has long been over.
Moderator: So that's a generation question too?
Yes, of course.
Moderator: What hopes or expectations were there for Europe and are these fulfilled or are there any disappointments?
So the first expectation that personally affected me was: Now the danger of war is over.
And you only needed to continue driving 20 km, then we stood at the border and then we saw the People's Police patrol with the MP on their backs, or on the Elbe the small boats.
That was latent there.
Here in Lüneburg was from the other side a large garrison. So it was always latent here as well. And that was my expectation: "Now this will finally stop."
But this feeling, that the war could start right now - that was gone.
That's something I appreciate extremely. It also liberates your thinking.
What one urgently needs to avoid - and this is exactly what this episode of our story teaches us - is to fall back into the small state again.
That is why I can not understand, when I look at what has happened in the Balkans or in other countries of Eastern Europe, where you try to separate again and draw new power lines,
that shows that this awareness has apparently not yet arrived there.
My wish would be for our country to integrate much more in Europe than it has been the case so far.
At the moment, one always has the impression that it is important for the 27 member countries of the EU that every country gets the most from what is in the pot.
At any rate, that is the impression that is awakened.
It would be much more important to me that one finally comes to downgrade the unified state government to what is here,
for example, a regional government which is Lower Saxony or Bavaria,
- quasi Germany to a federal state of Europe - and make the actual decisions centrally,
even if they are then hit by a Frenchman or Italian, that would not bother me at all.
I'm only concerned that it is reasonable and in a right direction.
Moderator: Is there a wish to one of the EU parliamentarians who is now new to it?
Yeah, basically, what I just said - get more involved with Europe.