하나의 민족, 두개의 과거 : 독일인의 민족의식(1945∼1994)과 내적통일의 문제들 National consciousness(1945-1994)and the problem of 'internal unity' = One nation but with two pasts

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

German reunification is of great importance for us Koreans, because we don't know what will happen after the probable reunification of Korea in the near future. Our interest in the German unity was especially related to the external forms such as the total cost of reunification. But we need now pay more attention to the problems of the "internal unity", namely the difficulties in the process of the socio-psychological and cultural integration of the East Germans since the reunification in 1990.
Willy Brandt exerted all possible efforts to get rid of the inhuman results of the national division and to shorten the steadily widening distance between the West and East Germans as much as possible. These efforts resulted in the "Grundlagenvertrag"(basetreaty) of 1972 between the two parts. The question of the national unity has lost urgency among the West Germans since then. They took up the western european political culture and developed the posttraditional and postnational identity("Verfassungspatriotismus"). But the polls show that over two thirds of West Germans regarded East Germans as belonging to the same nation and cherished the national reunification as a very important goal to achieve in the future. This explains very well the great jubilation with which the West Germans welcomed the fall of the Berlin Wall and then the German reunification.
Germany has accomplished its reunification successfully with the help of the progressive welfare policy and the strong financial power from the western part. A greater part of the Germans are satisfied with the external aspects of the reunification. But the socio-psychological conflicts between the East and West Germans became larger especially beacause of the differences of the economic interests, the experience of the dominance of the westgerman elites in the process of the social transformation after the westgerman model and the lack of understanding among the West Germans about the past of the East Germans in the GDR, East Germany. Among these, overcoming the historically formed prejudices against each other and the lack of mutual understanding will be most difficult and take the longest time. The westgerman anticommunism was formed in the period of Cold. War and connected with their pried in their own social system and life-style. Although anticommunism in West Germany took not such an extreme form as in South Korea, it forms one of the important hindrances which check the national integration. It can't be denied that the East Germans made little efforts to understand the westgerman social system because of their "repulsive identity" resulted from the reaction to the indifferent or contemptuous attitudes of the West to the East Germans and still have a strong tendency to beautify their own past. Rapidly increasing researches for the GDR and the political education about the fundamental values and functions of the westgerman democratic social system since the fall of the Berlin Wall have been very much helpful to overcome this problematic attitudes of the Esat Germans and it will also be the case in the future.
Five lessons for Korea, in particular, can be drawn from the Garman reunification : 1) Sharing "emotional national consciousness" is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for our reunification. 2) It is necessary to establish a "democratic national consciousness" based on the fundamental democratization of the society. 3) It is also urgently recommended to reform the present social welfare system in South Korea into one suitable for the preparation of our reunification in the near future. 4) Interchanges in every possible aspects between South and North Korea must be enlarged and deepened as much as possible. 5) Mutual respects and understanding of each other's experience in totally different systems for the past five decades are strongly required to promote the national integration.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. 머리말
• II. "독일문제"와 서독인들의 민족의식(1945∼1989)
• III. 통일의 위기? 독일은 어떻게 변하고 있나?
• IV. 통일과정에 대한 독일인들의 태도
• V. 내적통일의 문제들
• VI. 맺는말 : 독일통일이 우리에게 주는 교훈들