The Legend of Rita
When Germany reunified after the fall of the Berlin Wall it wasn’t so much a merger as a hostile takeover – the Federal Republic swallowed the German Democratic Republic whole and set about digesting it. One way of doing things had lost and the other had won. You might have expected a certain amount of crowing from the winning side. And there probably was some, but overall the notable thing about post-unification Germany has been the lack of it. Again and again, if it’s made in Germany for German consumption, there’s an eagerness to demonstrate – to insist, almost – that the GDR wasn’t all bad. In fact, the new consensus seems to … Read more