Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
goods. [124] For a decade and a half after the war, meat, butter, and sugar were rationed.
Criticism was “construed as treason, minor errors as sabotage.” [125]
On November 9, 1989, as the Soviet dictatorship collapsed, the East German govern-
ment lifted restrictions on travel to West Berlin. Thousands crossed on a visit to the West,
returning with souvenirs of “forbidden fruit”: bananas, oranges, and chocolate. The Wall
collapsed as thousands climbed on it and literally tore it down.
On July 1, 1990, the union of two currencies, the West German and East German
marks, went into effect. On October 3 of that year, the two Germanies were united. The
phoenix had risen once again.
GERMANY TODAY
German memory is selective. Like most people, Germans remember the good days and
suppress the bad. Weapons and memorabilia of the Nazi era are banned, as is membership
in any revived Nazi organization. Strict laws control disparaging remarks about non-Ger-
man ethnic groups. Concentration camps are preserved as memorials to their dead, and a
mainstay of German foreign policy is protecting Israel. For half a century after the Se-
cond World War, government policy kept German troops out of armed combat. Since then,
Germany has served as a mainstay of the United Nations' peacekeeping efforts around the
globe.
 
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