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)

SHENGJIN, Albania (AP) — An Italian navy ship docked Friday at the Albanian port of Shengjin with eight migrants who will be processed there after they were intercepted in international waters, a month after another group was turned away for failing the vetting process.

It is only the second transfer of migrants since two migrant processing centers started operating in October.

The same ship transferred to Albania the first 16 migrants from Bangladesh and Egypt. Four were taken to Italy the same day because they were minors or had health issues. Twelve others were brought back to Italy three days later, following a ruling by Rome judges who rejected their detention because their countries of origin — Bangladesh and Egypt — were not safe enough for them to be sent back.

The naval ship Libra, which can carry 200 people besides crew, left Italy’s southernmost island of Lampedusa on Wednesday with eight men on board, according to the Italian media. Italian Interior Ministry spokesperson Francesco Kamel had confirmed the Libra was heading to Albania, but declined to give out any further information until the operation was complete. He didn't say when it would arrive, nor how many people were on board.

The Italian media reported that, out of 1,200 migrant arrivals on Lampedusa over the past two days, just eight male adults traveling without families met Albania's screening criteria, including that they come from countries deemed “safe” for repatriation.

The number of people reaching Italy along the central Mediterranean migration route — mainly from Bangladesh, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt — has fallen by 60% in 2024 compared to 2023. As of Nov. 7, according to the Italian Interior Ministry, 57,767 migrants have arrived by sea in 2024.

A court ruling out of Rome had shortened the list of countries considered “safe” by law, meaning that Rome can repatriate migrants from those countries who didn’t win asylum using a fast-track procedure. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni slammed the Rome court ruling, and said that deeming countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt unsafe means that virtually all migrants would be barred from the Albania program, making it unworkable.

On Oct. 21, Italy’s far-right government approved a new decree aimed at overcoming those judicial hurdles that risked derailing a controversial five-year migration deal with Albania, signed in 2023 by Meloni and her Albanian counterpart, Edi Rama.

Under the deal, up to 3,000 migrants intercepted by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month will be sheltered in Albania, and vetted for possible asylum in Italy or be sent back to their countries.

Italy has agreed to welcome those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.

The agreement to outsource the housing of asylum-seekers to a non-European Union member country, defended by Meloni as a new model to handle illegal migration, has been hailed by some countries that, like Italy, are experiencing a high level of migrant arrivals.

Visiting Albania in October, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen refused to give her opinion of the agreement, saying only that it was being closely monitored.

Human rights groups and non-governmental organizations that are active in the Mediterranean have slammed the agreement as a dangerous precedent that conflicts with international laws.

Semini reported from Tirana; Colleen Barry contributed from Milan.

Follow Llazar Semini at: https://x.com/lsemini

Follow AP’s global migration coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration

The Italian navy ship Libra arrives at the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, with the second group of eight migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there in a reception facility despite the failure with the first group in October.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)

The Italian navy ship Libra approaches the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, with the second group of eight migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there in a reception facility despite the failure with the first group in October.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)

The Italian navy ship Libra approaches the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, with the second group of eight migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there in a reception facility despite the failure with the first group in October.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)

The Italian navy ship Libra, left, approaches the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, with the second group of eight migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there in a reception facility despite the failure with the first group in October. (AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)

The Italian navy ship Libra arrives at the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, with the second group of eight migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there in a reception facility despite the failure with the first group in October.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)

The Italian navy ship Libra approaches the port of Shengjin, northwestern Albania, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, with the second group of eight migrants intercepted in international waters to be processed there in a reception facility despite the failure with the first group in October.(AP Photo/Vlasov Sulaj)