Table of Contents View the Bibliography online Useful links to related sites 9 November 1989. The fall of the Berlin Wall A symbol of the Cold War, its collapse heralded a new era in European history and launched a journey full of immeasurable challenges for the people of east and west Germany. In the ten years that have followed, much has changed in Germany, from the rise of Helmut Kohl as Europe's leading statesman to the return of the government to Berlin, the city that symbolises the nation's greatest triumphs and defeats. The Germans first met with scepticism and mistrust abroad as they hurtled towards reunification, then concern as they struggled to adjust to their new state. But they came through the difficult decade as a stable democracy and reliable ally, one that shed the shackles of the post-war period without breaking its bonds to the European Union, NATO and its Western partners. Unchained Eagle is the story of Germany, from events leading up to the unification of east and west to the government's move to Berlin and Kohl's disgrace over his illegal slush funds.It looks at the challenges that have faced the nation - defining its military role, integrating eastern Germany, fighting neo-Nazis and establishing a German stamp on the European Union - and assesses how it has met them. It reflects on the concerns and controversies over economic reform, European monetary union, remembering the Holocaust and shaping the new Germany. More importantly, it is the story of a country and its people, the events that have moulded a new European power and the faces that have rewritten history. All this is portrayed with insight and understanding by Tom Heneghan, a long-time observer of German politics. He was in Berlin as the Wall fell and spent the next decade reporting at first hand on the changes that event brought about and the way the Germans - from Helmut Kohl to average citizens - responded to them. Unchained Eagle is an authoritative account of the unification of two countries, the challenges they faced and the new and more confident Germany that emerged from the upheaval. About the Author Tom Heneghan took up his posting as Reuters Chief Correspondent for Germany in the spring of 1989 and was on the spot when the Berlin Wall fell that autumn.Over the next eight years, he travelled around the country covering the events and issues that make this book including following Helmut Kohl on foreign trips as far afield as Moscow, Tokyo and Denver. At the end of the NATO bombing campaign in 1999, he entered Kosovo with the Bundeswehr to report on the first German combat troops deployed abroad since World War Two. Reviews "A fine book rich in information and solid judgement. Tom Heneghan's description and analysis reflect the reality of post-reunification Germany. The 'Berlin Republic' is a normal state, with its strengths and its scandals. This book challenges non-German readers to put aside their suspicions and see the country as it is."- Alfred Grosser, French political science professor and author of Germany in Our Time and Deutschland in Europa "Tom Heneghan is a consummate professional, a reporter's reporter. He writes lucidly and with forensic accuracy, lighting a path through the minefield of contradictions and prejudices that greeted the Germans' bid to re-unite as a nation and its stormy aftermath...Unchained Eagle is both an accomplished piece of detective work, and a gripping account of the greatest story of our time." - William Horsely, BBC European Affairs Correspondent "Tom Heneghan has succeeded in giving a fair and thorough analysis of an epochal change that has led to a new perception of Germany's role in the decade since the fall of the Berlin Wall. His first-hand account and brilliant interpretation of events up to Helmut Kohl's fall from grace contribute to a better understanding of what makes Germany tick today." - Christian Muller, Neue Zurcher Zeitung correspondent and author of Helmut Kohl, A Man of His Times and Colonel Stauffenberg - a biography "In the clear, direct style of the foreign journalist and observer, Heneghan demonstrates a differentiated, perceptive view of divided, united and disunited Germany as well as compassion for the emergence of the new Germany - from its 'brooding past' to its becoming 'a normal country'. - Angelika Volle, Executive Editor, Internationale Politik "Tom Heneghan brings an open mind to the complex and often enigmatic country called Germany...For English-speaking readers, there is no better guide to the politics of Germany in the 1990s." - Joachim Fritz-Vannahme, Europe Correspondent, Die Zeit "Heneghan's book provides important insights into the origins of the euro and the reasons for its existence. The same applies to the secret accounts scandals which have badly damaged Kohl's image and prompted embarrassing questions around Europe."- Pilar Bonet, Berlin Correspondent, El Pais "Tom Heneghan has a journalist's eye for detail and the voice for telling a story. This history book by someone who lived the history is a pleasure to read." - Marjorie Miller, London Bureau Chief, Los Angeles Times "...a highly informative and very readable chapter in the history of contemporary Europe. [Heneghan] is uniquely qualified for the task, bringing to his subject just the right balance between familiarity and distance, sympathy and critical judgement." - Michael Mertes, Deputy Editor-in-chief, Rheinischer Merkur
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
At he end of a tumultuous century, Germany's government has moved back to Berlin, the city that symbolizes the nation' s greatest triumphs and defeats. Government, business and society have all been forced to confront challenges and redefine their roles.
Unchained Eagle examines the strengths and weaknesses of the new Germany that has emerged in the past decade. Including photographs from the Reuters Picture Archive, it shows how Germany has moved ahead aggressively on strategic economic issues, dictating the terms of the Euro and making Frankfurt the money capital of Europe.
Author Tom Heneghan was Reuters Chief correspondent for Germany from 1989 to 1997. From this front row seat, he was "overwhelmed by the feeling that anything could happen. The end of communism, the reunification of Germany, the dissolution of the Warsaw pact and NATO—in a flash, it all seemed possible. The fact that all but the last option actually did come about shows how much depended on the ugly wall that fell that night."
After the fall of the wall, Heneghan's main focus was on the political, economic, and social effects of reunification.
Questions examined include:
- Can Germany become a military power again?
- Are neo-Nazis and the new right a threat to democracy?
- How will East Germany catch up with the West in prosperity and political stability?
- Is Germany set to profit more than its partners from Europe's economic and monetary union?
About the Author
Tom Heneghan took up his posting as Reuters Chief Correspondent for Germany in the spring of 1989 and was on the spot when the Berlin Wall fell that autumn. Over the next eight years, he travelled around the country covering the events and issues that make this book, including following Helmut Kohl on foreign trips as far afield as Moscow, Tokyo and Denver. At the end of the NATO bombing campaign in 1999, he entered Kosovo with th eBundeswehr to report on the first German combat troops deployed abroad since World War II.
Born in New York in 1951, Heneghan studied languages and international relations in New York, Boston and Gottingen, West Germany. Since joining Reuters as a trainee in 1977, he has held postings in London, Vienna, Geneva, Istamabad, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Bonn and Paris. As well as his reporting for Reuters, his previously published work includes contributions to Eastern Europe's Uncertain Future Prager, 1977), and articles in The World Today, Europa-Archiv, Commoweal and other US and German publications.
Heneghan is currently Reuters Senior Correspondent for france and lives in Paris with his wife and their three sons.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Germany unified,
By
This review is from: Unchained Eagle: Germany after the Wall (Paperback)
This is one of the best books I have encountered in some time when it comes to explaining what has happened in Germany since unification. The author avoids polemics and writes with the kind of fluidity and clarity that one expects from a long-time journalist. I am especially interested in the east and how it has succeeded in integrating (or non-integrating) with the west. In this regard, the authors discussion in chapter 10 and 12 of how the Ossis (and Wessis) have reacted to Germany's unification is excellent. He explains the economic problems with a clarity that I have seldom seen by specialists writing on what can be one of the most tedious subjects around. Heneghan's discussion of the Euro as it impacted on Germany is also outstanding. Again, in a few words, he explains a very complicated subject from the German perspective. All in all, this book is a welcome addition to anyone's library. It could be used in the classroom, but more importantly it provides an incisive introduction to the nature of German politics during the last ten years. My only complaint is that he didn't say more about the east. But this is an unfair criticism, one I hate as a writer -- "Why didn't you write a different book." My only reason for saying this that his insights to the East are so good and so to the point, that I would have liked more on the subject. In any case, any one who claims to be a specialist or an expert on Germany must read this book and keep it handy as a reference book. Dale R. Herspring Professor of Political Science Kansas State University
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timely account of a tumultuous period in History,
By
This review is from: Unchained Eagle: Germany after the Wall (Paperback)
In pure journalistic style, Tom Heneghan has put together a thoroughly readable and insightful account of the events leading towards, and then away from the moment of German Reunification. For the lay person, which I claim to be, it will open eyes and minds. The resolution of these issues, with all the political intrigue surrounding them, is frankly, the stuff of a thriller, not a history book or political commentary. Heneghan does a great job of sticking to the facts: economic, political, etc., yet one comes away with an appreciation for how these facts fit together into the larger picture. It is the work of a skilled craftsman. I think the book also is an important one for Germany. Although it respectfully addresses the issues of Nazism, the Holocaust and the totalitarian past of the country, it most successfully points the reader towards seeing Germany as a "normal" country. This is an important issue for all Germans, and for a new generation with little first-hand knowledge of the saddest period in human history. One can now point to the Reunification process as a time when Germany said yes, openly, strongly, to the world community. It certainly has taken its place responsibly and with dignity. This is a great book, and I highly recommend it to students, teachers and to anyone who wants to see and understand where Germany is headed in the 21st Century. Pat Bianculli New York
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent summary of Germany's reunification decade.,
By Douglas Sutton (Hamburg, Germany) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Unchained Eagle: Germany after the Wall (Paperback)
In the years and decades ahead, scholars from various disciplines will be writing many heavyweight histories about the huge complexity of issues involved during Germany's reunification process in the last decade of the 20th Century. For those readers who don't want to wait, then Tom Heneghan's book is an outstanding short-cut toward grasping what a turbulent decade this turned out to be, with all the challenges and changes it demanded of German leaders and society as a whole. Heneghan is a first-rate observer. He is concise and accurate in giving the larger picture of the social, economic and political - both internal and foreign - issues during and after reunification. But he also has an eye for the small telling details about how average Germans, east and west, had to scramble to try to understand how their country - and its role in Europe and beyond - was so rapidly changing before their own eyes. One might not agree with every point in Mr. Heneghan's book, but I think that he was right on-target with the underlying theme: that modern Germany has fully grasped the lessons of its recent dark history - Hitler and the Holocaust, the communist dictatorship in the east, the Cold War division - to become, finally, a normal country. In the future, the academics and historians writing about Germany's reunification decade will most likely find themselves referring again and again to Mr. Heneghan's book for pointers.
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