Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel are standing in front of the church of St. Peter and Paul for a group photo before an ecumenical service, Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Oct.3, 2020. Potsdam, as the capital of Brandenburg, will host this year’s central celebrations of the Day of German Unity. (Christoph Soeder/dpa via AP)

Germany is marking the 30th anniversary of its reunification on Saturday, drawing a generally positive picture of the progress made in knitting together east and west amid celebrations that are low-key because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Germany was reunited on October 3, 1990, after four decades of Cold War division. East Germany joined the western federal republic less than a year after the east’s communist rulers “under pressure from growing protests” opened the Berlin Wall and the rest of the highly fortified border between the two states.

While much progress has been made since then, economic and other differences between the west and the less-prosperous east still persist. A long-lasting trend of more people leaving the east than moving there has finally halted in recent years.

“We have achieved a lot in these 30 years”, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in the east, told Germany’s parliament this week. “We have succeeded in significantly reducing the differences in living conditions between eastern and western Germany.” “But structural differences remain”, she added. “Further efforts are necessary.”

The centerpiece of Saturday’s celebrations is a ceremony in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, led by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with 230 guests – about one-fifth of the audience originally planned.

Merkel acknowledged that the celebrations “will be quieter than the occasion would actually deserve.”

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