Editing German reunification (section)

===Social groups and figures===
An influential part of the reunification opponents were the so-called [[Anti-Germans (political current)|Anti-Germans]].<ref name=erlanger>{{cite journal|last=Erlanger|first=Simon|title=At Issue: "The Anti-Germans" – The Pro-Israel German Left|journal=Jewish Political Studies Review|year=2009|volume=21|issue=1/2|pages=95–106|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25834827|publisher=Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs|jstor=25834827|access-date=6 March 2023|archive-date=6 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306220830/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25834827|url-status=live}}</ref> Emerging from the student Left, Anti-Germans were supportive of [[Israel]] and strongly opposed [[German nationalism]], arguing that an emergence of a united German state would also result in a return of [[fascism]] ([[Nazism]]). They considered the social and political dynamics of 1980s and 1990s Germany to be comparable to those of the 1930s, denouncing the emerging [[anti-Zionism]], unification sentiments and reemergence of [[pan-Germanism]]. [[Hermann L. Gremliza]], who left the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] in 1989 because of its support for German unification, was repulsed by the universal support for unification amongst most major parties, stating that it reminded him of "[[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]] joining the [[Nazi Party|National Socialists]] (Nazis) in singing the [[German national anthem]] in 1933, following [[Hitler]]'s declaration of his foreign policy." Several thousand people joined the Anti-Germans' 1990 protests against German reunification.<ref name=erlanger/>

According to Stephen Brockmann, German reunification was feared and opposed by ethnic minorities, particularly those of East Germany.<ref name=brockmann/> He observes that "right-wing violence was on the rise throughout 1990 in the GDR, with frequent instances of beatings, rapes, and fights connected with xenophobia", which led to a police lockdown in Leipzig on the night of reunification.<ref name=brockmann/> Tensions with Poland were high, and many internal ethnic minorities such as the [[Sorbs]] feared further displacement or assimilationist policies; the Sorbs had received legal protection in the GDR and feared that the rights granted to them in East Germany would not be included in the law of an eventual united Germany. Ultimately, no provision on the protection of ethnic minorities was included in the post-unification reform of the [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany|Basic Law]] in 1994.<ref name=foy1>{{cite journal |last1=Foy |first1=Todd |last2=Thiele |first2=Carmen |title=The Legal Status of the Sorbian Minority in the Federal Republic of Germany |journal=International Journal on Minority and Group Rights |year=1996 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=41–77 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24674577 |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/15718119620907094 |jstor=24674577 |access-date=24 June 2023 |archive-date=25 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230625025124/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24674577 |url-status=live }}</ref> While politicians called for acceptance of a new multiethnic society, many were unwilling to "give up its traditional racial definition of German nationality". Feminist groups also opposed the unification, as abortion laws were less restrictive in East Germany than in West Germany, and the progress that the GDR had made in regard to women's [[welfare spending|welfare]] such as [[legal equality]], child care and financial support were "all less impressive or non-existent in the West".<ref name=brockmann/> Opposition was also prevalent amongst Jewish circles, who had special status and rights in East Germany. Some Jewish intellectuals such as [[Günter Kunert]] expressed concern of Jews being portrayed as part of the East German socialist elites, given that the Jews had unique rights, such as being allowed to travel west.<ref>{{cite journal |title=German Reunification and the Jews |first=Sander L. |last=Gilman |journal=New German Critique |year=1991 |issue=52 |department=Special Issue on German Unification |publisher=Duke University Press |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/488195 |pages=173–191|doi=10.2307/488195 |jstor=488195 }}</ref>

There was also a significant opposition to the unification in intellectual circles. [[Christa Wolf]] and [[Manfred Stolpe]] stressed the need to forge an East German identity, while "citizens' initiatives, church groups, and intellectuals of the first hour began issuing dire warnings about a possible [[Anschluss]] of the GDR by the Federal Republic".<ref name=brockmann/><ref name=augustine/> Many East German oppositionists and reformers advocated for a "third path" of an independent, democratic socialist East Germany.<ref name=brockmann/> [[Stefan Heym]] argued that the preservation of the GDR was necessary to achieve the ideal of [[democratic socialism]], urging East Germans to oppose "capitalist annexation" in favour of a democratic socialist society.<ref name=brockmann/> In an attempt to preserve possibility for an independent socialist Germany, Wolf, Heym, and a union of left-wing writers of GDR issued the appeal [https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/a-new-germany-1990-2023/appeal-for-our-country-november-26-1989 "For Our Country"] on November 28, 1989, to try to convince East Germans a possible future of socialist Germany. The appeal managed to gather over 1 million approvals by January, 1990, which is unprecedented in the history of GDR.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aufruf: Für unser Land |url=https://www.ddr89.de/texte/land.html |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=www.ddr89.de}}</ref> Writers in both East and West were concerned about the destruction of the East German or West German cultural identity respectively; in "Goodbye to the Literature of the Federal Republic", [[Frank Schirrmacher]] states that the literature of both states had been central to the consciousness and unique identity of both nations, with this newly developed culture being now endangered by looming reunification.<ref name=brockmann/> [[David Gress]] remarked that there was "an influential view found largely, but by no means only, on the German and international left" which saw "the drive for unification as either sinister, masking a revival of aggressive nationalist aspirations, or materialist".<ref name="gress">{{cite journal |title=The Politics of German Unification |first=David |last=Gress |author-link=David Gress |journal=Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science |volume=38 |issue=1 |year=1991 |pages=140–152 |publisher=The Academy of Political Science |doi=10.2307/1173819 |jstor=1173819 |department=The New Europe: Revolution in East-West Relations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1173819}}</ref>

[[Günter Grass]], who won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1999, also expressed his vehement opposition to the unification of Germany, citing his tragic memories of World War II as the reason.<ref name=brockmann/> According to Grass, the emergence of [[National Socialism]] and the Holocaust had deprived Germany of its right to exist as a unified nation state: he wrote: "Historical responsibility dictates opposition to reunification, no matter how inevitable it may seem."<ref name=brockmann/> He also claimed that "national victory threatens a cultural defeat", as "blooming of [[German culture]] and [[German philosophy|philosophy]] is possible only at times of fruitful national disunity", and also cited [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]'s opposition to the first unification of Germany in 1871:<ref name=brockmann/> Goethe wrote: "Frankfurt, Bremen, Hamburg, Lübeck are large and brilliant, and their impact on the prosperity of Germany is incalculable. Yet, would they remain what they are if they were to lose their independence and be incorporated as provincial cities into one great German Empire? I have reason to doubt this."<ref>{{cite web | url= https://mises.org/library/politics-johann-wolfgang-goethe | title= The Politics of Johann Wolfgang Goethe | publisher= Mises Institute | date= 1 February 2012 | author= Hans-Hermann Hoppe | access-date= 17 May 2019 | archive-date= 6 June 2022 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220606032214/https://mises.org/library/politics-johann-wolfgang-goethe | url-status= live }}</ref> Grass also condemned the unification as [[Philistinism|philistinist]] and purely materialist, calling it "the monetary fetish, by now devoid of all joy." [[Heiner Müller]] supported Grass' criticism of the unification process, warning East Germans: "We will be a nation without dreams, we will lose our memories, our past, and therefore also our ability to hope."<ref name=brockmann/> British historian [[Richard J. Evans]] made a similar argument, criticizing the unification as driven solely by "consumerist appetites whetted by years of watching West German television advertisements".<ref name="gress"/>