Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Wed 10 Oct 2000Germany celebratesGermans celebrated 10 years of unification yesterday. It was an occasion to reflect on their own experiences over a momentous decade. The fact that they occurred under a European roof has determined many of these events, putting Germany at ease with its neighbours for the first time in its modern history. That is an immense achievement, as was recognised yesterday by many of the speakers at a formal ceremony in Dresden to mark the occasion. Germany was reunified as part of a wider European process of continental unification, which will continue for at least another generation. Whether seen from within Germany or from outside it, there is a clear relationship between them.The towering figure involved was Dr Helmut Kohl, chancellor right through the process, until he lost the federal elections two years ago. His fall from grace through a political funding scandal (in which he has refused to divulge details of donations to his CDU party) has been virtually complete - so much so that he was not invited yesterday. Unfortunately there has been an outburst of recrimination about his responsibility and that of the Social Democrats, then in opposition, whom he accuses of resisting unification.