Very early, it became clear to me that East Germany could not function.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The only thing the East German system taught us was that we should never do it that way again.
We needed 40 years to overcome East Germany. Sometimes in history, one has to be prepared for the long haul and not ask after four months if it still makes sense to keep up our demands.
The Nazi period could have happened only in Germany because the German education of obedience to any law and order was the main problem.
It is not in the interest of the German people or in the interest of world peace that Germany should become a pawn or a partner in a military struggle for power between the East and the West.
It's not for Germany to decide for the rest of Europe.
Germany is in favor of integration precisely because we don't want dominance.
The people in East Germany have lived through so many changes in the last 15 years like never before in the country, and they did this often with great enthusiasm. But in the West we also have a high degree of transformations.
People's ability to forget what they do not want to know, to overlook what is before their eyes, was seldom put to the test better than in Germany at that time.
I think it has been a tremendous feat on the part of East Germans since 1990 to adapt to everything changing.
It is nonsense to say that Germans are unable to change.