Today, Germany marks the 30th anniversary of reunification, with positive progress in East-West unity and modest celebration due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have achieved a lot in these 30 years," Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was born and raised in East Germany, said in the German parliament.
"We managed to significantly reduce the differences in living conditions between East and West Germany," Merkel said, reports AP.
She warned that "structural differences remain" and that "further efforts are needed".
The central part of today's celebrations is the ceremony in Potsdam, near Berlin, led by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with 230 guests, or about a fifth of the originally planned. Merkel admitted that the celebration would be "more modest than the occasion really befits". Germany reunified on October 3, 1990, after four decades of the Cold War. East Germany joined the West Federal Republic less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Although much progress has been made since then, economic and other differences between the West and the less prosperous East are still present, according to the AP.
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