Paula Fürstenberg is furious. Like all children of the post-reunification era, she was promised flourishing landscapes and anti-fascism in the euphoria of reunification. The reality was different: unemployment, depopulation and right-wing violence. And today: a far-right party all too happy to embrace the patriotic and nationalist idea of internal unity.
On 3 October 1990, amidst all the black, red and gold, numerous Reich flags can also be seen. And whilst people shed tears of joy at the Brandenburg Gate, over a thousand neo-Nazis are rampaging through the newly united country. Fürstenberg fills in the gaps in our narrative of German reunification, which is still celebrated today as a defining moment for democracy – but which can also be seen as the birth of a new nationalism.
In her incisive, sometimes boisterous, sometimes tender interjections, she comes to the conclusion: we don’t need to grow together into a single unified people. It is far more important to do justice to Germany’s diversity.
