Today the first question is what the commemoration of the Wall should actually be about.
Second, whether the crises of our time require a new sense of community.
And thirdly, what memories the case of the psychiatrist Winterhoff evokes.
Unhappily united
This morning, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened the
central commemorative event for the 60th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall
with a speech in front of the Chapel of Reconciliation on Bernauer Strasse in Berlin.
The building of the wall is also being considered outside of the capital.
Tonight in Lübeck, a Greifswald science team will present the new results of the research project "Deaths during attempts to escape across the Baltic Sea".
This is the day that belongs to the victims of the wall and all those who had to live behind the wall and then had the strength to tear it down.
But in the more than three decades since the beginning of unification, a major problem seems to be that the division of Germany is seen beyond the commemorative days as something that primarily or even exclusively concerns East Germans.
Far too few West Germans have used the much more comfortable situation in which they found themselves after the fall of the Berlin Wall to arouse interest in the other side.
That has consequences.
Germany is unhappy united.
It is well known that all those involved have their share in conflicts. And very often the causes of conflicts are that one side does not feel noticed by the other. If, after the East German state elections, it is always said that specific East German problems emerged, that does not go far enough: The problems that become clear here concern both sides, because the causes can also be found on both sides.
For example, does the
skepticism about corona vaccinations
that is
particularly widespread in Saxony have
something to do with the fact that an absurdly high proportion of the federal government is West German, so that many Saxons do not feel noticed by it and for that reason alone distrust its measures?
That wouldn't be surprising.
Since the resignation of Franziska Giffey, there is only one person in the Merkel cabinet from East Germany: Angela Merkel herself.
The argument that the federal government is not solely responsible for the corona policy does not apply here.
The greatest responsibility is ascribed to the most powerful body in the country.
Construction of the wall 60 years ago: "Jump into freedom" - this escape scene went around the world
A new sense of community between the state and its citizens?
One result of the division of Germany can be seen in a telling habit of many West Germans, namely to assume, as a matter of course, that the abbreviation "Frankfurt" means the city on the Main and not the city on the Oder.
So this afternoon at 3 p.m.
in
Frankfurt
am Main
, climate activists from
Fridays for Future
will meet
.
Demonstrators from 70 cities
are expected
.
Among other things, a star march to the Alte Oper is planned.
The opera is located in the banking district, the consequences of investments in climate-damaging projects are to be discussed.
The Canadian
critic of capitalism Naomi Klein
recently gave an interview to the »SZ-Magazin«. As always, here too she is focusing above all on the market economy aspects of climate policy. Neoliberal capitalism, said Klein, emphasizes the responsibility of individuals, with the result that citizens think it is up to them to save the climate. “The first question I asked of every lecture I gave was: What kind of running shoes can I buy with a clear conscience? But we won't solve the problem in the mall.
We need political answers
. "
Klein argues further that it is also not enough to leave the solutions to politics alone. Both a committed politics, if possible cross-party, as well as responsible citizens are required. She herself has accepted a position at an American university so that she does not have to constantly fly around the world for lectures and cause emissions. She wants a new "sense of community" that includes all actors, citizens and politics.
The crises of our time also suggest
that the relationship between politics and citizens, or between the state and the individual, be re-discussed
at other levels
. Vaccination skeptics are currently hearing time and again that the state and politics have no right to determine the bodies of their citizens. This is an important indication, in fact a sensitivity for the boundaries between politics and citizens is being lost, the compulsory vaccination is being demanded too frivolously, as if it were the right thing to relieve politics of convincing people with arguments. But something else also applies: the state as an entity separate from its citizens does not exist. Responsibilities and roles are distributed differently, but ultimately we are all the state.
So would a new sense of community be useful in coping with the great crises of humanity?
It is worth a try.
By the way, communities only function if boundaries are respected, roles are adhered to and conflicts are resolved.
SPIEGEL survey: majority supports compulsory corona vaccination
Psychiatrist Winterhoff and his time
This week, key witnesses in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and WDR raised serious allegations against the well-known child and youth psychiatrist
Michael Winterhoff
.
He is said to have sedated children from homes with neuroleptics.
His diagnoses were also described as questionable.
As I read this news, I was reminded of a time when politics preferred to leave parents of young children almost completely alone.
There was almost no sense of community between the state and the citizens here.
It wasn't that long ago.
It was the
pre-Merkel era
.
And with everything that could be criticized about Merkel's term of office, which is now expiring, her first family minister Ursula von der Leyen actually achieved one thing: the state not immediately and not sufficiently, but then in a new way to take
responsibility for
To draw
childcare
.
Daycare places and all-day care were expanded.
In the early years of Merkel, when conditions were still poor, Michael Winterhoff sold a lot of books to parents who looked for the cause of their despair primarily in themselves and not in the incomplete and far too expensive care structure.
They craved educational tips.
Winterhoff advised tough measures.
A typical Winterhoff book read: "Why our children become tyrants".
The Merkel era, which is now coming to an end, has unfortunately shown that parents are still left far too much alone when it matters.
Families were the main victims of the consequences of the pandemic, and this time the government did not care enough about them to fill the responsible ministry with a full-time head after Giffey's resignation.
But I hope that my impression is not misled that today's parents of small children blame politics for the lack of care in a completely different way than was customary in the pre-Merkel era.
And Winterhoff's books have still been selling well recently, but his theses have long been exposed as populist.
Farewell to the Eternal Chancellor: I never voted for Merkel - will I still miss her?
The latest news from the night
RKI weekly report: Young people in particular are currently infected with the corona virus.
The seven-day incidence in 15- to 24-year-olds rises to just under 60. In its weekly report, the Robert Koch Institute therefore recommends laboratory tests - even with mild symptoms
Census: Number of whites in the US goes down for the first time.
The population in the United States is becoming more diverse.
According to the current census, for example, the number of people with Spanish or Latin American roots increased by 23 percent
Britney Spears' father wants to end his guardianship:
Surprising turnaround in the Britney Spears case: According to media reports, her father has agreed to step down as the singer's guardian.
A date for this has not yet been set
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Susanne Beyer