The Berlin Wall: A divide that once shaped German women's lives still echoes today

BERLIN (AP) — Like many other young women living in communist East Germany, Solveig Leo thought nothing about juggling work and motherhood. The mother of two was able to preside over a large state-owned farm in the northeastern village of Banzkow because childcare was widely available.

Contrast that with Claudia Huth, a mother of five, who grew up in capitalist West Germany. Huth quit her job as a bank clerk when she was pregnant with her first child and led a life as a traditional housewife in the village of Egelsbach in Hesse, raising the kids and tending to her husband, who worked as a chemist.

Both Leo and Huth fulfilled roles that in many ways were typical for women in the vastly different political systems that governed Germany during its decades of division following the country’s defeat in World War II in 1945.

As Germany celebrates the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989 — and the country’s reunification less than a year later on Oct. 3, 1990 — many in Germany are reflecting on how women’s lives that have diverged so starkly under communism and capitalism have become much more similar again — though some differences remain even today.

“In West Germany, women — not all, but many — had to fight for their right to have a career,” said Clara Marz, the curator of an exhibition about women in divided Germany for the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany.

Women in East Germany, meanwhile, often had jobs — though that was something that “they had been ordered from above to do,” she added.

Built in 1961, the Wall stood for 28 years at the front line of the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets. It was built by the communist regime to cut off East Germans from the supposed ideological contamination of the West and to stem the tide of people fleeing East Germany.

Today only a few stretches of the 156.4-kilometer (97.2-mile) barrier around the capitalist exclave of West Berlin remain, mostly as a tourist attraction.

“All the heavy industry was in the west, there was nothing here,” Leo, who is now 81 years old, said during a recent interview looking back at her life as a woman under communism. “East Germany had to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union. Women needed to work our own way out of that misery.”

By contrast, Leo said, women in the West didn't need to work because they were “spoiled by the Marshall Plan” — the United States’ generous reconstruction plan that poured billions of dollars into West Germany and other European countries after the war.

In capitalist West Germany, the economy recovered so quickly after the total devastation of WWII that people soon started talking of a Wirtschaftswunder, or “economic miracle,” that brought them affluence and stability less than 10 years after the war.

That economic success, however, indirectly hampered women’s quest for equal rights. Most West German women stayed at home and were expected to take care of their household while their husbands worked. Religion, too, played a much bigger role than in atheist East Germany, confining women to traditional roles as caregivers of the family.

Mothers who tried to break out of these conventions and took on jobs were infamously decried as Rabenmütter, or uncaring moms who put work over family.

Not all West German women perceived their traditional roles as restrictive.

“I always had this idea to be with my children, because I loved being with them," said Huth, now 69. “It never really occurred to me to go to work.”

More than three decades after Germany’s unification, a new generation of women is barely aware of the different lives their mothers and grandmothers led depending on which part of the country they lived in. For most, combining work and motherhood has also become the normal way of life.

Hannah Fiedler, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Berlin, said the fact that her family lived in East Germany during the decades of the country's division has no impact on her life today.

“East or West — it's not even a topic in our family anymore,” she said, as she sat on a bench near a thin, cobble-stoned path in the capital's Mitte neighborhood, which marks the former course of the Berlin Wall in the then-divided city.

She also said that growing up, she had not experienced any disadvantages because she's female.

“I'm white and privileged — for good or worse — I don't expect any problems when I enter the working world in the future,” she said.

Some small differences between the formerly divided parts of Germany linger on. In the former East, 74% of women are working, compared to 71.5% in the West, according to a 2023 study by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung foundation.

Childcare is also still more available in the former East than in the West.

In 2018, 57% of children under the age of 3 were looked after in a childcare facility in the eastern state of Saxony. That compares with 27% in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and 44% in Hamburg and Bremen, according to Germany's Federal Statistical Office.

Germany as a whole trails behind some other European countries when it comes to gender equality.

Only 31.4% lawmakers in Germany's national parliament are female, compared to 41% in Belgium's parliament, 43.6% in Denmark, 45% in Norway and 45.6% in Sweden.

Nonetheless, Leo, the 81-year-old farmer from former East Germany, is optimistic that eventually women all over the country will have the same opportunities.

“I can’t imagine that there are any women who don’t like to be independent,” she said.

Jan M. Olsen contributed from Copenhagen.

Seamstresses work th the VEB clothing factory "Fortschritt",1987 in Berlin. (Zentralbild/DPA via AP)

Women work in the former East German Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft (LPG) an 'Agricultural Production Cooperative' in Golzow on April 13, 1981. (Heinrich Sanden/DPA via AP)

Mealtime at the kindergarten on Wieckerstrasse in the Berlin district of Hohenschönhausen, in November 1987. (Zentralbid/DPA via AP)

Clara Marz an Organizer of an exhibition about women works on the photos in her office in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Clara Marz an Organizer of an exhibition about women attends an interview with the Associated Press in her office in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Solveig Leo, 81, former head of a large state-owned farm shows an old photo of herself from her youth during her interview with the Associated Press in the northeastern village of Banzkow, Germany, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Solveig Leo, 81, former head of a large state-owned farm attends an interview with the Associated Press in the northeastern village of Banzkow, Germany, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Solveig Leo, 81, former head of a large state-owned farm feeds her horse after the interview with the Associated Press in the northeastern village of Banzkow, Germany, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Solveig Leo, 81, former head of a large state-owned farm looks at her old photos album during her interview with the Associated Press in the northeastern village of Banzkow, Germany, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Claudia Huth walks in front of her house in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Claudia Huth shows old photos of her children and herself in her house in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

A repro of a photo pictured in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024 shows Claudia Huth and her children. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Claudia Huth poses next to a painting showing herself and painted by her son in her house in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Claudia Huth shows an old photo of her family and herself in her house in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Repro of a photo pictured in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024 shows Claudia Huth and her children. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Claudia Huth poses next to a painting showing herself and painted by her son in her house in Egelsbach, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron came out fighting Thursday in his first comments following the resignation of ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier, a day after a historic no-confidence vote at the National Assembly left France without a functioning government.

Macron said he will serve as president “until the end” of his five-year term scheduled in 2027. He also said he would name a new prime minister within days, but gave no hints who that might be.

Macron laid blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down the government of Michel Barnier. He said they chose “Not to do but to undo.”

“They chose disorder,” he said. The president said the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front” and stressed: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.”

The National Assembly ousted Barnier by 331 votes, making him the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history. Macron faces pressure to quickly name a new leader capable of navigating a fractured parliament, where no party holds a majority.

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In his address, Macron came out fighting, laying blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down the government of Michel Barnier. He said they chose “Not to do but to undo.” “They chose disorder,” he said.

The president said the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front” and stressed: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.”

He said he’d name a new prime minister within days but gave no hints who that might be.

Macron, in his address Thursday, vowed to stay in office until his term expires in 2027.

French President Emmanuel Macron faces the challenge to pick a prime minister capable of leading a minority government in a parliament where no party holds a majority.

The prime minister is accountable to the parliament, leads the government and introduces bills – to the risk of being ousted via a no-confidence motion.

Macron previously ruled out choosing the nominee of the left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, because it includes the hard-left France Unbowed party. French media have reported a shortlist of centrist candidates who might appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.

With no majority in parliament, the president is weakened at home, but still holds some extensive powers over foreign policy, European affairs and defense and is in charge of negotiating and ratifying international treaties. The president is also the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces and holds the nuclear codes.

French President Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017, before being reelected in 2022 for a five-year term.

A planned protest by teachers against education budget cuts took on a new tone Thursday, as demonstrators in Paris linked their demands to the political crisis sparked by the collapse of Barnier.

“Macron démission!” (“Quit Macron!”) read a sign held by Dylan Quenon, 28, a PE teacher at a middle school in Aubervilliers, just north of Paris. Quenon said President Emmanuel Macron bears responsibility for what he described as the dismantling of public services.

“He is the one responsible for our dismay, after all he is the one in charge,” Quenon said. “The only way for this to change is to have him out of office.”

Quenon cited examples of budget constraints in his school, where teachers are limited in making photocopies to save paper and wait months for basic sports equipment like pinnies and balls.

The protest, which drew thousands of people, featured chants targeting Macron, Barnier, and their now-defunct budget bill. Demonstrators sang: “Macron, Barnier et leur budget, et hop tout ça à la poubelle” (“Macron, Barnier, and their budget, throw it all in the trash”).

Protesters also expressed little optimism that Macron’s next appointee would reverse course.

“I’m glad this government is falling, but it could possibly lead to something even worse,” said Élise De La Gorce, a 33-year-old philosophy teacher in Stains, north of Paris. “Given the way the previous government was appointed, I don’t have an ounce of hope that Macron could make the right choice for me.”

France is at no risk of a government shutdown that in the United States would disrupt many services and squeeze federal employees.

An outgoing government could present a special law to levy taxes from Jan. 1, based on this year’s rules. It would also be able to decide on renewing spending by decree in order to pay civil servants, pensions and other key government expenses.

However, this would suspend any potential tax hike — like one initially expected on big companies — and freeze any new spending.

In particular, an additional 3.3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) package for the French military was planned as the country supports Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Later, a new government could present its own budget proposals at parliament.

Macron faces the critical task of naming a replacement capable of leading a minority government in a parliament where no party holds a majority. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and a member of Macron’s party, urged the president to move quickly.

“I recommend he decide rapidly on a new prime minister,” Braun-Pivet said Thursday on France Inter radio. “There must not be any political hesitation. We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill.”

The process may prove challenging. Macron’s administration has yet to confirm any names, though French media have reported a shortlist of centrist candidates who might appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.

Following the June-July parliamentary elections, the National Assembly, France’s powerful lower house of parliament, is divided into three major blocs: a left-wing coalition known as the New Popular Front, Macron’s centrist allies, and the far-right National Rally party. None won an outright majority.

In September, Macron asked Barnier, a conservative, to form a government dominated by Republicans and centrists — implicitly relying on the far right’s goodwill to be able to stay in power.

However, in the days before his ousting, far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused Barnier of ignoring her demands and the left-wing coalition denounced an “austerity budget” and criticized “the absence of dialogue and disregard for parliamentary work.”

“I can tell you that it will remain an honor for me to have served France and the French with dignity,” Barnier said in his final speech before the vote.

“This no-confidence motion … will make everything more serious and more difficult. That’s what I’m sure of,” he said.

France’s far-right and left-wing lawmakers joined together Wednesday in a historic no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes. It was the first successful no-confidence vote since 1962.

The National Assembly, the lower house of France’s parliament, approved the motion by 331 votes. A minimum of 288 were needed.

Barnier, 73, was the oldest of the 26 prime ministers who have served modern France’s Fifth Republic. He replaced the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed.

He is a career politician with humble roots in France’s Alpine region of Haute-Savoie. He was the European Union’s chief negotiator in the difficult talks with Britain over its departure from the bloc.

He also has the shortest tenure of any prime minister.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech is scheduled to address the nation in less than an hour and a half. He is expected to address France’s economic challenges while setting a course for the future government.

FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Prime Minister Michel Barnier stand at attention during commemorations marking the 106th anniversary of the November 11, 1918, Armistice, ending World War I, at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. ( Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP, File)