Still-divided Germany marks end of Cold War

FIFTEEN years after it tumbled, a section of the Berlin Wall has been rebuilt to mark the momentous day the Cold War ended.

A 400-yard stretch of whitewashed concrete, 12ft high and with the distinctive rounded top of the original, has been erected beside Checkpoint Charlie to mark the 15th anniversary of the fall of the wall on 9 November, 1989.

The project has come to symbolise the country’s continuing economic, social and psychological barrier. The east-west divide that optimists hoped had been destroyed for ever still runs through Germany.

Chancellor Gerhard Schrder yesterday paid tribute to those who lived in the former East Germany, saying they should be proud of their peaceful overthrow of Communist rule.

"Fifteen years ago, people in East Germany smashed the wall and overcame an inhumane dictatorship," Mr Schrder said.

He called it "a day of the triumph of freedom and democracy".

"We have achieved a lot in Germany in the 15 years since the wall fell," Mr Schrder added. "But we must not relent in our efforts to complete German unification. A real national effort is needed to reach that goal."

But many former West Germans despise the "welfare mentality" of their eastern countrymen and the fact that they are still paying for its reconstruction with a hated "solidarity tax".

Meanwhile, former East Germans regard "westerners" as money-obsessed liars who carpetbagged their land and failed to deliver on promises of equality.

Consequently there is little on offer in the German capital today to mark the collapse of the wall.