Today, October 3rd, Germany is celebrating its National Day. 35 years ago – after 41 years of separation – East and West Germany were reunited. East Germany was a communist dictatorship with a state-run economy and part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Defence Pact. West Germany was a liberal democracy with a free market economy and part of the Western Defence Alliance, Nato. It seemed completely unimaginable that they would ever be one country again. In 1987, US President Reagan visited Berlin and appealed to the Soviets: ‘Mr Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!’ Germans in East and West very much welcomed his strong words – but nobody believed that this would actually happen.
It was not Mr Gorbatchev, the new Soviet leader since 1985, who tore down the wall, but it was his new policy of restructuring and opening (known as Perestroika and Glasnost) that encouraged and allowed the people of East Germany to demonstrate peacefully in 1989, claiming their right to determine their future by chanting ‘We are the people!’ This finally led to the heavily guarded Berlin Wall being opened in November 1989, and the two countries became one again, without a single shot being fired. Nobody would have thought this was possible even a few months before it happened. To me, this is still a true miracle for which I am immensely grateful.
What led up to these events? After Nazi-Germany had lost World War II, the Allied Powers divided it into four sectors. The US, the British, and the French became West Germany, and the Soviet Russian sector became East Germany in 1949. People in the East were not happy with the political and economic conditions they lived in. On June 17, 1953, about one million citizens took to the streets all over East Germany, but the demonstrations were brutally crushed by Soviet tanks. When the economic and political situation did not improve and more and more people left the East to go to the West, the East German leadership reacted on August 13, 1961 by putting up a wall with barbed and electrical wire, and thousands of mines. In the following 28 years, several hundred East Germans were killed by their own border patrols while trying to flee to the West.
Looking back, it seems to me that it was the ignorance of the Communist party claiming to know what is best for the people that led to its downfall. It was considered criticism of government policy as a hostile act that threatened the stability of the system. Therefore, the opposition went underground. It is actually this lack of dialogue, this disconnect between a government and its citizens, that was the threat to stability. Who knows, maybe East Germany would still exist if the party leadership had been willing to listen to critical citizens and enable real participation from civil society.
This year, we are happily looking back on 61 years of development cooperation between Germany and Uganda. For two generations now, Germany has been supporting the Ugandan people in many different ways. It is Uganda’s ambitious strategies and objectives that guide our cooperation. Without the ownership of the Ugandan Government and the Ugandan people, our cooperation would not only be a bad partnership, but it also simply wouldn’t work. We can support and contribute to Uganda’s programmes, but they will only be successful with the mobilisation of its own funds for development, reform-oriented policies, and political decision-making.
In societies like Uganda’s, with its huge share of young people, the opportunity to participate freely and with equal opportunity in the political and economic realm is a fundamental element of future stability and prosperity. That is why we provide solid and transparent cooperation on good governance, civil society, and human rights, because they are the basis for social stability and development. Just to avoid a common misunderstanding: Good governance is not about telling somebody else how to run their show! Germany wants to help more Ugandans to access services, e.g. in the education, water and sanitation, energy, and health sectors. For this reason, we are here to support Ugandan efforts to help ensure that resources are correctly used, corruption is reduced and citizens are involved in decision making. To this end, we support both government institutions like the Office of the Auditor General and national and local civil society organisations.
A lot has been achieved, and a lot remains to be done. Germany is looking forward to many more years of trustful and efficient cooperation.