Last night at Haus Mitteleuropa, a panel gathered to commemorate the 15-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and to reflect on the development of Germany.

Two members of the Haus Mitteleuropa staff — seniors Raphael Ginsberg and Kathryn Blair — spoke about the history of the Wall and on how reunification has impacted the German people. Sylke Tempel, a professor in the Stanford-in-Berlin program, and Jean-Francois Barthe, who witnessed the wall's destruction, both shared their experiences with Germany, past and present.

Since the reunification, former East Germany has been an economic burden on the country as a whole, driving unemployment rates up and sapping resources from the West, said Ginsberg. Despite this economic malaise, he described the phenomenon of “Ostalgie” nostalgia for the former socialist state. Rather than a renewed spirit of socialism,”Ostalgie” has taken the form of a longing for “cult items” that Germans associate with life in the East. The best example of this, he said, is the beloved Spreewaldgurke, a brand of pickle; mention of the brand elicited a yearning groan from all the Germans in the audience.

Ginsberg said while “Ostalgie” commonly refers to a revival of East German products, several members of the audience expressed a deeper, more political nostalgia. One attendee, who lived in West Berlin at the time of reunification, said that there are common fears that the good parts of the East would be "swallowed up" in the capitalist system. Another attendee asked whether the job security under socialism is not something to be missed.

These forms of identification with the former East testify to the continuing sense of a Germany divided, Tempel said.

“The borders are invisible, but they’re still there,” she said.

Germans still rarely relocate to the East or the West, she added, and the marks of a 40-year division still arise occasionally amid the growing sense of a shared culture, and more importantly, a common future.

“If it took 40 years to divide our identities, perhaps it will take another 40 to unite them again,” Tempel said.

Erected in August of 1961, the Berlin Wall was meant to keep the citizens of socialist East Berlin from escaping to capitalist West Berlin. In the West, U.S. aid and the market-driven “Economic Miracle” of the 1950s had led to a bustling economy and a promising future for West Berliners. Over time, the wall came to represent the oppressive nature of socialist dictatorships and, more generally, the bipolar system the Cold War created.

Tensions mounted between the two Germanys — the socialist German Democratic Republic and the democratic and capitalist Federal Republic of Germany — especially when the GDR refused to recognize the statehood of the FRG and cut off all diplomatic relations. The wall was finally opened on Nov. 9, 1989, after a misunderstanding between a GDR spokesman and the media.

At a press conference, reports were made about a minor change in travel guidelines, but reporters construed the comments as a shift in Soviet policy. Soon, rumors spread throughout Berlin that the wall would be open, and massive crowds gathered at the checkpoints. After several tense hours, the guards gave in and opened the gates without authorization. An already crumbling Soviet government conceded to the will of the German people, and on Oct. 3, 1990 the FRG and the GDR signed the German Unification Treaty.