Every country has its shaping generations. In Germany the post-war generation stands for reconstruction and the economic miracle, the young people of 1968 are associated with the student movement and baby boomers are linked with the peace and environmentalist movement. And the 1989 generation? They’re special, because they were born at a time that made history and changed the world: they were born in 1989, the year of major change when the 40 years of East-West German division came to an end and the Iron Curtain fell. On the night the Wall was opened some 80 babies were born in Berlin alone.
Born in 1989: 880,459 young Germans can say this about themselves. They all grew up in a reunited Germany. They have never personally experienced the border that cut through the country. Everything they know about life in the GDR has usually been learned from stories told in the family or at school. In 2009 the children born during the fall of the Wall will turn 20; they have just graduated from school, begun their higher education, entered training – and they’ll be starting to make their own way in life. Well-rooted, pragmatic, conscientious and ambitious, this is how the renowned specialist on children and young people Klaus Hurrelmann characterizes the generation born during this period of historical change. And how does the 1989 generation see itself? Kim-Fabian, Jamila, Tina and Benjamin talk about how they live, what is important to them, what they know about the former GDR and what German unity means to them.
The Traveller
Name: Kim-Fabian von Dall’Armi
Born: 10 December 1989
@home: Hamburg
Kim-Fabian is convinced that the border is a thing of the past for his generation. The 19-year-old from Hamburg finds it difficult to imagine what growing up would have been like in a divided Germany. He says reunited Germany is the country he knows, and his generation shoulder their responsibility for it. Kim-Fabian is well-acquainted with the new federal states. As a youngster he travelled with his father, a journalist who wrote many reports about the former Eastern Bloc countries, and he spent vacations with his parents on the Baltic island of Usedom. “I enjoy travelling in the east,” says the student who is now doing his final exams at school and lists Berlin, the Harz mountains, the Mecklenburg Lakelands and the historical cities of Weimar and Dessau among his favourite places in eastern Germany. He has talked intensely with friends from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania about the former GDR state. Kim-Fabian’s aim is to discuss and highlight themes about politics and society from different perspectives as editor of the Hamburg young people’s magazine “Blickwechsel”. “I want to shape things during my life,” says the young man from Hamburg. This fits in well with his career objective: he wants to be an architect.
The Cosmopolitan
Name: Jamila Al-Yousef
Born: 9 November 1989
@home: Güstrow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
She’s a genuine child of the historical change: when Jamila was born on the night of 9 November 1989 in an East Berlin hospital, the Berlin Wall was opened and thousands of GDR citizens streamed through the border crossing points into the west of the city. “For me the ninth of November is a special day and not just my birthday,” says Jamila. She grew up in the small town of Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Now 19, she doesn’t differentiate between East and West. She simply says: “I grew up in one whole Germany.” Her mother and father, a Palestinian who came to the GDR in the 1980s, have told her about the former state. “My granddad was spied on by the GDR secret police.” She finds it depressing to think that people were not allowed to travel freely. Jamila is open-minded, curious about other countries and cultures. She has travelled around Europe by train, has attended a summer course at Amman University in Jordan, where part of her family lives, and her most recent journey took her to South America. Now she wants to apply for a university place in development studies in London. “Eventually I would like to work in development cooperation,” says the young woman who is particularly interested in the difficult relations between Israel and Palestine. Her dream is to bring together young people in the Middle East in a peace project centring on music, one of Jamila’s great passions.
The Budding Journalist
Name: Tina Oerlecke
Born: 30 June 1989
@home: Haldensleben (Saxony-Anhalt)
19-year-old Tina from Saxony-Anhalt has found her own way of dealing with the GDR past: last summer she graduated from school with history as a special subject which included the building of the Wall in 1961. Apart from this, since the end of 2008 she has been writing as a young journalist for the Reporter ’89 project run by the Democratic Youth Foundation in Berlin. Young people research particular themes or carry out interviews on the history of the GDR and the fall of the Wall and write reports. For her first article Tina talked with a woman who had lived in the former GDR and asked her about how she had experienced the Wall. “I love history and am interested in writing about it,” says Tina, who also enjoys reading and playing the piano. She began studying journalism and media management in Magdeburg a few months ago. She says that for children born in 1989 like herself the experiences of the GDR still play a part in their lives, for instance in the tales of their parents. She reckons her generation are a bit special, because they are between the former GDR and today’s united Germany. “But as far as I’m concerned there’s no longer any division between East and West. I have many opportunities in reunited Germany.” In 2009 Tina will continue her research as a reporter for the young people’s project. But now she wants to focus especially on how the GDR state dealt with dissidents and regime opponents.
Well-Rooted
Name: Benjamin Bühring
Born: 11 September 1989
@home: Treuen (Saxony)
“I’m very well-rooted and enjoy living here.” 18-year-old Benjamin’s home is in the Vogtland region, in southwest Saxony. He grew up here in the town of Treuen which has 8,000 inhabitants. He graduated from middle school in this region and started his vocational training as a printer with a company three years ago. “I was really happy when I heard about getting the apprenticeship,” says Benjamin who would like to carry on working with the company after he has finished his training. Alongside his training he’s preparing for his final exams in May at the vocational college in Dresden. The courses there have also awakened his interest in the former GDR and everyday life there. Until then all he knew about the former state was based on his parent’s few sporadic tales. Benjamin himself says he feels he’s a western child through and through, and that he grew up quite “normally”. Like many young people of his age he enjoys playing computer games or chatting on the Internet. Apart from this he is fascinated by technology, draws, reads books (including classic philosophers, such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer) and is interested in towns. One of his favourite towns belongs to his home area: Benjamin is especially fond of Dresden and its architecture.
