h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am making an exception to my usual radio habit of listening to Radio 4 over the Internet today. The local radio stations are celebrating 30 years of German unity. Memories of the events of 1989/90 still never fail to reduce me to floods of tears, along with the corny tunes of those amazing times.

And I'm not even German

Oh, wait a minute - I am now. Nearly forgot.

Amazing memories

I remember clearly that the Berlin Wall came down, Hungarian, Romanian etc revolutions all happened during my first term at University - hence I almost missed it as I was doing what a typical new student does and partying too hard
Good job I picked up the Newspaper in our junior common room one morning and got a big wake up call.

I visited the DDR a few times in the 70s and was amazed to meet many people there who genuinely felt their identity was as East Germans first and Germans second while at the same time despising Russians. I'd lost touch with the people I knew there by 1989 so I don't know how they coped with re-unification but I suspect it must have been extremely confusing for them.

If anyone could figure out how to reunify a country, the Germans could.

I don't know if thy actually did manage it, but my money would be on them.