Hello and welcome to the Five Things Curator’s Cut for October 2024 in which you can read five great articles that didn’t make it into the weekly cut. These articles were so good, I had to save them for my most esteemed readers, the ones that pay to read Five Things. If you haven’t subscribed yet, now would be a good time!

I’m sending this email out on October 3 and as you might know, this is the German Re-Unification National Holiday. Most people would agree that German re-unification was probably one of the most important and positive events that happened in German history in the 20th century. Not quite the end of history, but surely a huge turning point. I grew up just 10 km away from the border to East Germany, so essentially the world ended there. It was weird growing up like that, also fearing that the cold war could turn into a real war and we’d live right on the battlefield. All of that didn’t happen, instead the East Germans took to the streets, the Russians didn’t intervene and on the fateful German date November 9, the borders were history. On October 3 a year later, in 1990, the Re-Unification Treaty was signed, effectly ending the separation of Germany. Apparently, people do not care that much about commemorating a treaty signing session and so October 3 doesn’t really feel like the big emotional event it should be.

Oh, and btw, when this huge event happened basically in my backyard, I was in Des Moines, Iowa and enjoyed the vast openness of the prairie and was welcomed into the hearts of my host family, which certainly influenced my personal path tremendously. And when I came back in the summer of 1990, the crazy joyful first months of a re-united Germany had already passed and people tried to figure out how it would actually be possible to become one nation again.

So, long story short: this Curator’s Cut is focused on Germany and its current issues.

Enjoy. And thank you for supporting Five Things with a paid subscription!