Of course there is only one subject for a Letter from Germany as this uplifting year of 1989 draws to a close. The world has followed the eclipse of Honecker and then of Krenz, has seen the opening of the Wall, has seen the jubilation of East Germans tasting freedom and exotic fruit. PNR is not a forum for political comment, and I spare the reader of this Letter further discussion of the reunification issue. Some of the attendant pros and cons are self-evident, others less so; all of the arguments are perceived differently according to whether you are left, right or very right, West German or East German or French or British or American or Russian or an altogether different nationality. For myself, of Anglo-German parentage, leading a life inseparable from the cultures of Germany and Britain alike, I can only record that I share the Germans' instinctive joy at seeing the worst of the Cold War pass but also that I share the almost universal wariness at the prospect of seeing Germany re-established as a large national unit in the heart of Europe - a wariness as characteristic of thoughtful Germans in East and West as it is of outsiders.

It happens that in October and November, when events in East Germany progressed rapidly, I had the opportunity to talk to three of Germany's important left-wing writers: Günter Kunert, Hans Joachim Schädlich, and Luise Rinser. Debates in the media in recent weeks have established, quite correctly, that ...