From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

What began amid so much optimism in June of 1990 -- the unification of Germany -- is now mired in difficulty. To find out why, Bonn bureau chief James Jackson and correspondent Daniel Benjamin traveled across the republic for several months. They spoke with economists in Munich, psychologists in Halle and Wuppertal, even frightened foreigners in a western asylum camp. They attended classes at the University of Leipzig, interviewed fledgling eastern businessmen, and met with youth workers in Berlin. From the windows of a Soviet-built helicopter, Jackson snapped photographs of military bases, an unheard-of act only two years ago.

Jim, who came to this assignment three years ago from Moscow, and Dan, who joined the bureau on the eve of economic merger after 2 1/2 years as a writer in New York City, then produced the coverage for a six-page progress report on German unification in this week's World section.

As he talked to Germans about the effects of unification, Jackson was struck by "how far they have come in so short a time -- and how discontented they are about it. A year ago, East Germany was choking on soft-coal fumes and immobilized by the clutter of failure." Now, he notes, the cities are cleaner, people are driving Volkswagens and buying VCRs, and yet "nobody is happy. Physical shabbiness has been replaced by a palpable psychic gloom." In western Germany, meanwhile, Jackson finds "crabbiness and penny pinching. It is as if achieving their dream of unity and unprecedented security were not worth the price of a third car or second annual vacation."

Benjamin points to one gratifying change among eastern Germans, despite their anxieties. "I interviewed people in Brandenburg before the first all- German election," he recalls. "Many avoided me. Almost none would give their name." These days, Benjamin discovers, "they've learned what freedom | of expression is about, and they go in for it with glee."

Still, Jackson concludes that perhaps Germans "are not meant to be a happy people. I want to tell my German friends, 'Lighten up, Mensch, count your blessings.' " But as he reports in this week's story, their feelings are complex, and the shape of the new republic will be evolving for years to come.