Not sure how I missed this one, but yes, on October 3rd, a bit over one week ago, Germany celebrated a quarter of a century since the two Germany's, East and West (or the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany) joined together once again as one.
West Germany was already the richest and most powerful nation in Europe economically at the time, and there were fears that adding East Germany into the mix might make the greater Germany a threat to Europe once again, being even more powerful economically and militarily.
Yet, 25 years later, to it's credit, Germany has recovered economically from the years of trying to invest to get East Germany more or less on equal footing to West Germany. Now, Germany is showing off it's economic might again, and has taken its place as the central power in Europe, in more ways than one.
I know that a lot of people viewed the prospect of a unified Germany with a strong measure of skepticism, and possibly even fear. Some people still view Germans with skepticism and fear, in fact. And there is some justification to that, given the tumultuous history.
However, following the relative miracle of the peaceful fall of the Berlin Wall, and the move towards rapid reunification that followed, it seems to me that German reunification was a success. Certainly, it could have been a lot worse than it was, and the newly united Germany still looks like a solid republic that serves, essentially, as the main leader and driving force of the European Union.
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