30 Years of German Unity

 

Was it only five years ago that my mother and I wandered over to Belgrave Square with an invitation to celebrate 25 years of German unity at the embassy? 

What a lovely party it was. Upon entering the building we were greeted with delicious shots of schwarz-rot-gold something. After a couple of drinks I was quite merry and able to enjoy games (I won a 3D jigsaw puzzle of the Neuschwanstein castle in a quiz/raffle), an exhibit including one of the original copies of the signed document of unification, and fantastic food. It was a bit meaty for me, but I found a pretzel as big as my head which kept me going (and helped with all the shots I'd imbibed).

My favourite part, though, was the photo ops corner. You could take a selfie with a life-size Angela Merkel cut-out. And there was a Photo Booth that put you in varied typical German tourist photo situations. As you can see, I liked that best of all.

Today Germany celebrates 30 years of unity. Look back to 1990 here. How different our world seems today. We are celebrating the festival of Succot this week, zeman simchateinu, the season of our joy. I remember German unification as a moment of joy. I hope that people can feel hopeful about the future, and that today will be a joyous day. Chag sameach!