An Italian newspaper La Repubblica recently published an article marking the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and discussing the ongoing discourse surrounding German reunification.
In the article, Alexandra Spitz-Oener reflects on the economic transformation that followed the reunification of East and West Germany. She observes that “from an economic point of view, reunification was a great success.” She highlights that the East German economy at the time was not competitive, and the adoption of the West German Deutsche Mark—strongly desired by East German citizens—rendered products from the former German Democratic Republic even less competitive. However, she notes that without the unification of the currency, “the exodus of East Germans to the Federal Republic would have been unstoppable.”
