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Jamila Al-Yousef

(© Jamila Al-Yousef )

Every country has generations that influence the social and political trajectory more than others. In Germany the post-war generation stands for the reconstruction of a war-torn country and the ensuing West German economic miracle. The students in the 60’s are associated with the 1968 student movement while baby boomers are linked to the emergence of the peace and environmental movements. And the ’89 generation?

The generation was born in the year the Berlin Wall came down, the structure that divided Germany, and the world, into two opposing blocs. On the night the Wall was opened, some 80 babies were born in Berlin alone.

The 1989 generation, totaling 880,459, all grew up in a re-united Germany. They have never personally known the border that cut through their country for four decades. All they know about life in the GDR has been from stories recounted in their families, or in history classes at school.

In 2009 the children born in the shadows of the wall will turn 20. They will have just graduated from school, begun higher education or entered training – they’ll be starting to make their own way in life.

We meet Kim-Fabian, Jamila, Tina and Benjamin and ask them how they, as members of the 1989 generation, see themselves. The portraits of these four young Germans look at how they live, ask what is important to them, what they know about the former GDR and what German unity means to them. It might also help us look ahead and imagine what legacy this generation, born in a time of historical change, will bestow on Germany.

The Cosmopolitan: Jamila Al-Yousef

Born: 9 November 1989

@home: Güstrow (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

She’s a child of historical change: when Jamila was born on the night of 9 November 1989 in a hospital in East Berlin, the Berlin Wall was opened and thousands of GDR citizens streamed through across the border into the west. “For me the ninth of November is a special day and not just my birthday,” says Jamila. She grew up in the small town of Güstrow in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Now 19, she doesn’t differentiate between East and West. “I grew up in one whole Germany”, she says simply. Her mother and her father, a Palestinian who came to the GDR in the 1980s, have told her about the former state. “My granddad was spied on by the GDR secret police.” She describes it as depressing to imagine that people were not allowed to travel freely. Jamila is open-minded and curious about other countries and cultures. She has traveled around Europe by train, has attended a summer course at Amman University in Jordan, where part of her family lives, and her most recent journey took her to South America. Now she wants to apply for a university place in development studies in London. “Eventually I would like to work in development cooperation,” says the young woman who is particularly interested in the difficult relations between Israel and Palestine. Her dream is to bring together young people in the Middle East in a peace project focused on music, one of Jamila’s great passions.

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Kim-Fabian von Dall'Armi

(© Magazine Deutschland / Ronald Frommann )

The Traveler: Kim-Fabian von Dall’Armi

Born: 10 December 1989

@home: Hamburg

Kim-Fabian is convinced that the border is a thing of the past and matters little to his generation. The 19-year-old from Hamburg finds it difficult to imagine what growing up would have been like in a divided country. The reunited Germany is what he has come to know and he feels that his generation should assume responsibility for it. Kim-Fabian is well-acquainted with the new federal states. As a youngster he frequently accompanied his father, a journalist who wrote numerous reports about the former Eastern Bloc countries, on his trips. He also spent vacations with his parents on the Baltic island of Usedom. “I enjoy traveling in the east,” says the student who is now doing his final exams at school and lists Berlin, the Harz mountains, the Mecklenburg Lakelands and the historical cities of Weimar and Dessau among his favorite places in eastern Germany. He has discussed the former GDR state at length with friends from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern [a former east-German state]. Kim-Fabian’s aim is to examine and highlight themes about politics and society from different perspectives as editor of the Hamburg young people’s magazine “Blickwechsel”. “I want to shape things during my life,” says the young man from Hamburg. This fits in well with his career objective: to become an architect.

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Tina Oerlecke

(© Magazine Deutschland / Harald Krieg )

The Budding Journalist: Tina Oerlecke

Born: 30 June 1989

@home: Haldensleben (Saxony-Anhalt)

Nineteen-year-old Tina from Sachsen-Anhalt has found her own way of dealing with the legacy of the GDR: last summer she graduated from school with history as her specialist subject. Her studies included a close examination of the building of the Wall in 1961. In addition, since the end of 2008, she has been writing pieces as a young journalist for the Reporter ’89 project run by the Democratic Youth Foundation in Berlin. The project has young people researching particular themes or carrying out interviews on the history of the GDR and the fall of the Wall. For her first article Tina talked to a woman who had lived in the former GDR and asked her about how she had experienced the Wall. “I love history and am interested in writing about it,” but she also enjoys more conventional pursuits such as reading and playing the piano. Tina recently began studying journalism and media management in Magdeburg a few months ago. Speaking of the children born in 1989, she explains that the experiences of the GDR still play a part in their lives, for instance in the stories recounted to them by their parents. She reckons her generation are a bit special, because they stand somewhere between the former GDR and today’s united Germany. “But as far as I’m concerned there’s no longer any division between East and West. I have many opportunities in the reunited Germany.” In 2009 Tina will continue her research as a reporter for the young people’s project. But now she wants to focus on how the GDR state dealt with dissidents and regime opponents.

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Benjamin Bühring

(© Magazine Deutschland /Action Press/Bodo Schackow )

The Rooted One: Benjamin Bühring

Born: 11 September 1989

@home: Treuen (Sachsen)

“I’m very well rooted and enjoy living here.” 18-year-old Benjamin’s home is in the Vogtland region, in southwest Sachsen. He grew up in the town of Treuen which has 8,000 inhabitants. He graduated from middle school and started vocational training as a printer with a local company three years ago. “I was really happy when I heard about getting the apprenticeship,” says Benjamin who would like to carry on working with the company after he has finished his training. Alongside his training he’s preparing for his final exams in May at the vocational college in Dresden. The courses there have also awakened his interest in the former GDR and everyday life there. Up until then, all he knew about the former state was through his parent’s sporadic tales. Benjamin says he feels he’s a western child through and through, and that he grew up quite normally. Like many young people of his age he enjoys playing computer games or chatting on the Internet. Apart from this he is fascinated by technology, draws, reads books (including classic philosophers, such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer) and is interested in towns. One of his favorite towns belongs to his home area: Benjamin is especially fond of Dresden and its architecture.