History being made

We look at media comment on the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, as well as on the German government’s decision to backtrack on promised tax cuts.

A safer, freer world

When crowds tore down the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, few participants in that joyously chaotic celebration of freedom foresaw the consequences, writes the Financial Times.

... Like the concrete masonry, the 1945 division of Germany and of Europe was removed from the map. The way opened to the end of the cold war, the advance of democracy and free markets into eastern Europe, and the enlargement of the European Union. Two decades later, it is clear that the world won huge political and economic benefits from the collapse of communism. Despite today’s difficulties with global terrorism, the Middle East and economic crisis, the end of superpower rivalry has made the world safer, freer and richer. ...

Broken expectations

The collapse of the Berlin Wall did not meet the expectations of eastern Europeans, writes The Guardian.

... The wall collapsed when neoliberalism was gospel. If the wall fell on anyone, it was the Turkish gastarbeiter, many of whose jobs were taken by the Ossies. ... In retrospect, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a neutral eastern Europe, spread wealth, and create democratic and durable institutions. In reality the democratic revolution ran out of petrol on the Soviet border. Capitalism spread, but communism turned to nationalism, and in many countries of the former Soviet Union we now have something called authoritarian capitalism. ...

A sad record

Germany's new government is backtracking from its own coalition treaty promise of comprehensive tax reform after just two weeks in office.  It would have been better if the FDP’s Guido Westerwelle had chosen to head the finance ministry rather than the foreign ministry, writes The Wall Street Journal.

… Mr. Westerwelle, although head of a pro-business party, whose forte is the economy, decided to head the foreign ministry instead of the Treasury. It's a German tradition for the junior coalition partner to fill the perhaps more glamorous but in the end less consequential role of chief diplomat. ... The finance ministry would have been a better fit to push through tax cuts but it went instead to a Christian Democrat, who has already put the brakes on comprehensive tax reform. ..