
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990                   TAG: 9007010153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The Associated Press
DATELINE: EAST BERLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

GERMAN STATES REUNITE

The German states united their economies and erased their borders Sunday while 10,000 East Germans waited in line for Western currency on the huge square where they toppled Communism.

A treaty that went into effect at midnight transformed the nations into a single economic entity and began East Germany on its swift, difficult transition to a free market.

Fireworks exploded, toasts were drunk and the currency of the former Communist regime was flung into the air as the West German mark became the official money of a transformed East Germany.

All remaining border controls between the two nations were officially eliminated. Virtually overnight the Germanys merged their monetary, economic and social systems.

The economic unification marks the effective end of East German sovereignty and the most important step toward a single Germany. The German states now will work on a political treaty that likely will result in common elections and the creation of a single nation in December.

East Germany is expected to face widespread joblessness as its newly independent factories and businesses are forced to compete with the West.

At least 10,000 people lined up at the only bank known open at midnight, appropriately located on the Alexanderplatz, where massive protests helped bring down the former Communist government last autumn.

A deafening cheer broke out as the clock struck midnight and the doors to the West German Deutsche Bank opened and allowed people to draw on their newly converted savings accounts.

Andreas Schildberg, 16, strolled down Alexanderplatz throwing away East German coins and bills. "It's worthless anyway in a couple of minutes. It has always been worthless."

A group of West German youths shouted "Happy Birthday!" and tried to sing the forbidden first verse of the West German national anthem, "Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles," but nobody remembered the words. One intoxicated man angrily marched off, muttering to a reporter: "Just write down `This is the end.' "

Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere urged optimism among the populace and criticized those who dwell on predictions that East Germany will face massive unemployment in the coming weeks.

by CNB