The Party’s Over, Kohl Tells Germans

Chancellor Helmut Kohl signaled an end to the nation’s wedding celebrations today, telling Germans to expect hard work and sacrifices as they rebuild the east’s shattered economy.

During the first meeting of the new German Parliament, lawmakers from all sides urged that they work together to face the enormous tasks ahead.

Otto Lamsdorff, the head of Kohl’s junior coalition partner Free Democrats, said “the bottom has not been reached” in revamping the failed businesses in what before Wednesday was East Germany.

Labor statistics showed that 444,825 East Germans were unemployed when the two Germanys merged--up from 361,286 in August. Some predictions say East Germany’s transition to a free market economy after four decades of communism may throw 4 million people out of work within a few months.

As the leaders of former East and West Germany met in Berlin’s war-scarred Reichstag building the day after unification, nationwide celebrations were quickly fading into memory.

“The German wedding party is over,” said Wolfgang Thierse of the opposition Social Democrats. “Now, the married couple has to earn a living, set up a home in a humane way, and take care of the children.”

Chancellor Kohl said economic recovery “will call for great exertions, and we shall also have to make sacrifices. The destruction caused in the course of four decades (in East Germany) cannot be set right within a few weeks and months.”

Differences in style were immediately evident among the lawmakers.

Most of those from the West wore dark suits or appropriately reserved dresses. Some of those from the East wore more casual clothes and no ties.