EUROPE
Germany’s Turkish Angst
Autumn 2005
Opinion polls suggest that nearly three Germans out of four oppose Turkish membership of the European Union. Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, European Editor of Die Zeit, analyses Germany’s troubled psyche
Germany celebrated a national holiday on October 3rd to mark the country’s 1990 reunification. But this year we shared the day with the formal start of EU membership negotiations with Turkey. The coincidence is unlikely to make our national holiday more beloved, nor will it make the prospect of Turkish membership more popular. When it comes to saying No to Turkey, the Germans are among Europe’s front runners, second only to the Austrians. A Eurobarometer poll in July showed that 74% of people in Germany and 80% in Austria are opposed to Turkey joining the European Union – compared to an EU average of 52%.
The coincidence of the two events on the same day nevertheless tells us something about Germany’s present state of mind, which in essence is fearful, even resentful. What about? Everything and nothing. Angst has been making comeback in Germany.
The average German might well ask why he or she should celebrate the Tag der Deutschen Einheit, the Day of German unity, seeing as how 16 years after the Berlin Wall fell the eastern and western parts of the country seem more divided than ever. East Germans feel disappointed and let down; the freshly blooming landscape once promised by Helmut Kohl is nowhere to be seen, except for maybe a few oases around Leipzig, Dresden or Jena. Instead there is unemployment of 20% and more, with the Western part of the country recently rubbing salt in the wounds by talking about the “proletarisation” of hearts and minds in East Germany more than a decade after the GDR finally faded away.
For their part, West Germans feel more and more exploited by their eastern cousins. Nearly €1,000bn has been spent over the last 15 years on the Neue Länder, the new regions, and this has been largely financed by West German taxes and social contributions. Only 15% of East Germany’s employed labour force work in the manufacturing economy, less than in Italy’s Mezzogiorno, which has long been notorious for its under-industrialisation. East Germans, according to widespread opinion among West Germans, are productive only in terms of their high levels of low productivity.
Sounds apocalyptic, doesn’t it? Welcome then to Germany’s most famous spiritual holiday resort, the Valley of Whining and Whingeing. It is a highly popular destination among both West and East Germans, so at least they have that in common. Another thing they share is their strong opposition to Turkey’s EU candidacy. With both the past and present of German unification looking bleak, and with the future holding out the prospect of Germany being side by side with Turkey in the EU, the mood is definitely gloomy.
But might there be a common denominator between the two problem areas? The welfare state, of course. The possible cost of Turkey’s EU membership has been estimated in the German media at €40bn - plus. And here Germans are concerned about more than money. The welfare state has been a continuum in German history since Bismarck; it survived the Kaiserreich, the Weimar Republic, Hitler’s national-socialism, Honecker’s post-Stalinism, and it’s still alive and well in Bundesrepublik Deutschland. If there is a German identity, then its hard core is the long tradition of the untouchable welfare state.
Today, though it is beginning to look like an endangered species, thanks to the vehemence of globalisation, the weight of unification, the impact of the EU’s eastward enlargement and the threat of the devastatingly high costs of bringing Turkey into the EU.
Both Turkey and the burden of unification have produced similar political echoes in Germany’s 2005 election campaign.
Angela Merkel has long been opposed to Turkish membership of the EU, preferring and proposing a more nebulous “privileged partnership”, which in fact Turkey already enjoys. And even though she is an “Ossie” herself, she has played that down because she knows you can’t win an election with East German votes, only lose one.
As to Gerhard Schröder, he has undoubtedly been Turkey’s best defendant when it comes to future EU membership, but he too prudently avoided discussion about the unpopular unification process. The question on the Left has been less about “Who speaks for the East” than about who speaks for the losers in the economic reform process embarked on with mixed success by Schröder’s government.