The German Comedy: Scenes of Life After the Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 brought its share of comic absurdities. For example, the Germans' newfound freedom, as Schneider shows, has complicated the romances of lovers who once navigated the Wall's restrictions. For the most part, though, the author ( The Wall Jumper ), who lives in Berlin, grapples with weightier issues in this ironical, witty report. He cites ``the two good reasons'' to fear a reunified Germany: resurgent anti-Semitism and the questionable stability of German democracy. He explores how people are coping with the chaos of events, with the mass influx of refugees from East Germany and of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. Whether he is exposing the exploitation of 60,000 Vietnamese slave workers in the old Democratic Republic or assessing the failure of both left and right to come to grips with socialism's demise, Schneider is a penetrating and astute critic. (Oct.)