After Hamburg (2023) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (2024), this year's numismatic journey to the sights and regional features of the sixteen federal states will take us to the Saarland and the famous Saarschleife. The motif by artist Thomas Serres from Hattingen focuses effectively on a typographic composition: the lettering WIR SIND DAS VOLK and 35 JAHRE DEUTSCHE EINHEIT (35 YEARS OF GERMAN UNITY) face each other like blocks and are slightly shifted along the central axis, each held by a horizontal line at the top and bottom. The two blocks are connected by the slightly enlarged D in the middle. The clear message: German reunification is inconceivable without the outstanding role played by the East German population. Despite its simple conciseness, the motif allows for various associations. For example, the shifted blocks indicate that the Germans in East and West have been united by the D for 35 years. The separate horizontal lines could symbolize the opening of the Wall.homas Serres aus Hattingen konzentriert sich wirkungsvoll auf eine typografische Komposition: Die Schriftzüge WIR SIND DAS VOLK und 35 JAHRE DEUTSCHE EINHEIT stehen sich blockartig gegenüber und sind entlang der Mittelachse leicht verschoben, jeweils gehalten durch eine horizontale Linie oben und unten. Verbunden sind die beiden Blöcke durch das leicht vergrößerte D in der Mitte. Die klare Botschaft: Die deutsche Wiedervereinigung ist ohne die herausragende Rolle der ostdeutschen Bevölkerung nicht denkbar. Das Motiv lässt trotz seiner schlichten Prägnanz verschiedene Assoziationen zu. So deuten die verschobenen Blöcke darauf hin, dass die Deutschen in Ost und West seit 35 Jahren durch das D vereint werden. Die getrennten horizontalen Linien könnten symbolisch für die Öffnung der Mauer stehen.
After the Second World War, Germany was divided into four zones by the four Allied occupying powers. In 1949, the democratic Federal Republic of Germany was founded in the West and the socialist German Democratic Republic in the East - a consolidation of the bipolar world order of the incipient Cold War. In 1961, the separation of the two German states was finally cemented with the construction of the Wall. At the end of the 1980s a policy of détente began between the USA and the USSR, and the protest and peace movements in East Central Europe and the GDR intensified. There, courageous women and men demanded a democratization process and rebelled against the ruling SED regime. The peaceful revolution also succeeded because the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev did not intervene militarily. In 1989, the dynamic of events led to the quite surprising opening of the Wall on November 9. A stroke of luck in German history, German unity was within reach. After the first free elections in the GDR on March 18, 1990, it became clear that a large majority of East Germans wanted rapid reunification. Just 328 days after the fall of the Wall, the time had come: on October 3, 1990, Germans in East and West celebrated the Day of German Unity. The path to external and, above all, internal unity was in many moments more difficult than expected. While East Germans had to make major adjustments and efforts, the rhythm of life in West Germany hardly changed. The different experiences of this period still have an impact today, but the vast majority of Germans regard the unification of the nation as a happy matter of course. For 35 years now, citizens have filled the preamble to the Basic Law, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2024 and was commemorated with a 20-euro silver coin, with life: Unity and freedom cannot be taken for granted, but must be reaffirmed time and again.
