Talking to Young Germans

...As a result, she was forced to curtail her studies, and began to sell books by mail...

...The fall of the Berlin Wall three years ago, however, inspired a sense of liberation that has been manifesting itself in more ways than the newspaper headlines have indicated...

...With the possible exception of the Scandinavian countries, Germany is the "greenest" society on earth, requiring its citizens to adhere to a multitude of tough recycling and pollution standards...

...What I would like in 15 or 20 years is to be able to work and travel in other countries, but to have my marks," he says...

...A native of Saarland, the historic heart of German mining and industry, Gabriele is also a pacifist and a feminist...

...Of course, making an industrial giant like Germany environmentally friendly, or Umweltfreundlich, can have unpleasant side effects that create tensions...

...We need a professional Army now, with volunteers," he says...

...I don't know if that will be possible...

...Foreigners must look at the TV and think, 'Oh my God, the Nazis are all over the place,'" says Gabriele...

...I love the traditions and the countryside of Germany," she says, "but the best thing about living here is that you can easily go toother countries...

...Sure, everyone would like to clean this place up," Karstens says, "but the workers here are very angry because we can't see any way to save the factory...

...A 22-year-old single mother and former opera student in the city of Leipzig, she lost state-provided day care for her 3-year-old son when Germany was reunified...

...The majority were raised in democratic West Germany, though, where the schools forthrightly place the blame for the Holocaust where it belongs and teach other sobering lessons of German history...

...Whatever the specific topic, when discussing their country young Germans are evidently self-conscious...

...It seemed like the Russians and the Americans would be here forever, deciding the big questions...

...Yet despite the economic opportunities that EC membership holds for him, Peter believes the plans for political union and a common currency go too far...

...In the big commercial areas, particularly in the polluted East, preserving a job still takes priority over purifying a river...

...And I am upset about that, because people my age will be paying a heavy price for a very long time...

...In the eastern region of the country, meanwhile, it is German reunification that is the primary concern...

...Above all, they cringe at the insidious comparisons being made with the past...

...Another issue that has captured the attention of young Germans is the role of the military...

...That means they will lose their jobs...

...A frequent advertisement that runs in German movie houses before the scheduled film shows an old woman and her grandchildren paging through a photo album with pictures of lush mountains and abundant wildlife...

...In the world Gabriele Berg envisions, cars would be barred from central cities, where only public transportation would be available...

...We were conditioned not to think too much about it because it was out of our hands...

...I have a hard time focusing on the future," she says, "because it takes so much for me to keep things going today...

...Rolf Karstens, an official of the Treuhandanstalt, the bureau responsible for privatization in the East, is currently trying to assess the prospects for selling off Eisenbuttenstadt (literally, iron factory town), a horribly polluting Communist-era project on the Polish border...

...That was an American thing, and none of our business...

...Nearly every one of them was born after President John F. Kennedy declared in June 1963, "Ich bin ein Berliner...

...Daniela Wagner shares Pugo's disenchantment with present conditions in the East...

...Like many of his generation, he thinks the accord has been designed to restrict German selfdetermination for decades to come...

...Maybein20 years we will reach the level of income in the West...

...So far, I don't hate my country...

...He resents having been presented with fails accomplis in the case of such critical decisions as German reunification, the huge financial contributions to the Soviet Union and the Gulf War, and the Maastricht treaty, defining the terms for closer cooperation among European Community (EC) member states...

...Sylvie, the Munich University graduate student, is more resolute...

...She would also like to see a single Europe provide increased assistance to the elderly, students, the poor, and unwed mothers...

...Their concerns, they note, extend to a variety of domestic and foreign issues...

...Peter Albert, a 24-year-old hotel management student from Bad Laashpe, applauds the concept of a single Europe...

...So it is not surprising that the recent activities of neo-Nazi and Right-wing groups—the painting of swastikas on synagogues, the attacks against foreigners in Rostock, Cottbus and other German cities—have aroused widespread feelings of disgust and outrage among the young here...

...Although opinion polls revealed that most people thought the relief effort in Somalia was a proper one for the German Armed Forces to participate in, the same polls showed profound disagreement over whether Germany should get involved at all where actual fighting is taking place...

...Thus it is not uncommon these days to hear them complain about the sacrifices they see themselves being forced to make in the name of European unity...

...Because of Germany's past, she maintains, the country should never again participate in a military conflict...

...There are too many feelings to consider outside Germany," he contends...

...We can't win," argues Steffen, the student from Halle...

...Pressed about the future, she softens: "I suppose in a decade or two it will all work out, but I am young now...

...Barbel Kupfner, a 30-year-old waitress who grew up near the former border with the East in upper Bavaria, explains: "These people are from another country, a different country from us...

...They are more worried about money and jobs...

...But I also want him to have time for school, if that's what he wants...

...They argue that the economy eventually will return to its usual vigor and provide jobs for all the workers in the country who are bound to be affected by the rigorous enforcement of environmental standards...

...We had so little to say about our future during the Cold War," observes Steffen Hechler, a 29-year-old student in the eastern city of Halle...

...Pugo Schlegel, a 21-year-old construction worker in Weimar, says he wants to be treated as a full German before anyone calls him a European...

...The young Germans' preoccupation with preserving and improving the environment is not a knee-jerk liberal phenomenon or simply a case of trendiness...

...Nobody asked me about reunification...

...When they may be the ones to feel the pinch, though, regardless of how lofty the cause, the same young Germans do not hesitate to register their reservations...

...Chief among these are the state of the environment, and Germany's place in an increasingly cooperative Europe and an emergent post-Soviet world...

...Nobody asked me about the treaty, or about giving up the Deutsche mark," Peter protests...

...and Japan have shown that they don't have any real worries about the future of the environment...

...As was demonstrated last spring by its forceful advocacy of ecological measures at the Brazil Earth Summit, Germany has found that, so far, leading the global fight to preserve the environment is the least confrontational way to assert itself in foreign affairs...

...Then the silence is broken by hissing and derisive laughter...

...I want my child to have a choice of jobs and to be able to travel...

...Many in the West are having second thoughts about reunification as well, albeit for different reasons...

...But we know they are just a fringe here, and I think very few people support them...

...She has traveled extensively and has studied in Britain and Italy...

...AFTER THE COLD WAR Talking to Young Germans BY MICHAEL MORAN Munich To most of the 30 million or so Germans under the age of 30, World War II is utterly distanteven their parents were children at the time—and ever present...

...I think it is very important for Germany to begin to speak up in the world," says Gabriele Berg, a 24-year-old student pilot in Munich...

...Now, we will be paying taxes for years so they can buy televisions and video recording machines...

...I know it sounds harsh, but we should never have united with them...

...Rightly or wrongly, though, these young people will be judged by how their elders conduct themselves on the international stage and, more immediately, how they respond to the challenge of those who would turn back the clock in Germany...

...I'm glad we stayed out of the dumb Gulf War," she declares...

...Steffen, who served in East Germany's National Volunteer Army before reunification, believes that German forces should be permitted to take part only in peacekeeping missions...

...She then dresses the children in what look like space suits and sends them out to play in a desert landscape...

...Their own overall view, interestingly, may have been best expressed by the European representative of B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League, Robert B. Goldmann, in a commentary on the violence: "There is as little justification for Jews and [Germany's] neighbors to remember only what happened until 1945 as for Germans to recall only what has happened since...

...Until then, I will feel like I have no country at all...

...1 was optimistic about reunification when it happened...

...At the same time, a large segment of the country's youth is unreservedly attracted to the idea of being foremost a European, rather than a German, Italian, Spaniard—in part because of a distaste for the nationalism of Germany's past...

...In her view, unification offers the best chance for avoiding the conflicts that in the past have led Europe into war, because it would encourage the intermingling of cultures...

...Most exhibit a sophisticated knowledge of, say, ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect, Eastern Europe's flawed nuclear power plants, acid rain...

...Michael Moran, a previous contributor, is a free-lance writer based in Munich and a news editor at Radio Free Europe...

...On one question directly related to the military the young people I spoke to were virtually unanimous: They oppose continuing the year-long service requirement for men over 18...

...If personnel are going to serve in other countries on peacekeeping missions, they should be able to choose to do so...

...A united Europe, she is convinced, could ensure a high standard of living for everyone involved...

...Beneath the turmoil of reunification, the hostility toward refugees and the debate over the EC, one can see a glimmer of optimism...

...Everyone complained when we didn't send troops to the Gulf War, and then everyone was in an uproar when they found Turkey using German weapons against the Kurds...

...Currently completing a lengthy apprenticeship with one of Germany's largest hotel chains, Peter is trying to decide whether to take advantage of his Community citizenship and work in England or Spain, or to return to his hometown, where his parents own a small hotel and spa...

...But he is part of a growing group of youths concerned that German taxpayers will have to foot its costs...

...Environmental matters play a considerable role in German politics, and their appeal is strongest among the young...

...Peter Albert, who did his time in the Bundeswehr before reunification, thinks that the draft no longer makes sense...

...In fact, these young people are among the chief advocates here of a federalized United States of Europe...

...On numerous occasions I've seen the ad hush young audiences—until it becomes clear that the point is to portray Dow Chemical as a guardian of the planet...

...Much of the talk about a closer Europe is viewed by young Easterners as window dressing, put in place to obscure the government's failure to improve their lives...

...Solar, thermal and hydroelectric energy would be emphasized, to the exclusion of nuclear power...

...Especially in the West, where they face little threat of long-term unemployment, young Germans have scant patience with such problems...

...But somebody strong has to step forward and make people stop destroying the planet...

...His dilemma would be the envy of students in less developed parts of the world...

...Sylvie Nobis, a 25-year-old Munich University graduate student, is one of this group...

...No matter what they do in Brussels, Germans will still be Germans and the French and the English will still be the French and the English...

...Still, the changes since 1989 have lifted many of the fearful realities that shaped their views during the Cold War...

...Now I don't know," he told me...

...Besides being popular at home, such policies do indeed have an international dimension...

...In significant part, distress about outsiders focusing on the thuggery of the neo-Nazis, skinheads and similar rabble-rousers reflects the mainstream young Germans' annoyance that their attitudes and opinions have therefore been obscured...

...Ask about the future and you are bound to come around to the past...

...They fear that their generation will be blamed en masse for the acts of its violent fringe, and for the sluggish response of a government still dominated by older leaders who should know better...

...This year, for the first time since World War II, Luftwaffe cargo planes were dispatched on a mission outside of Europe...

...her English and Italian are excellent...

...The U.S...

...Fertilizers would be restricted or even banned, land development would be strictly controlled, and nonessential goods that contribute to pollution would be prohibited...

...Although she readily admits that her vision is a bit Utopian, she insists that "if we aim for higher goals, we could end up with a better earth...