Gorbachev remembered fondly in Germany for enabling unity

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev was enduringly popular in Germany for enabling the country’s reunification after four decades of post-World War II division — and setting the scene for the peaceful collapse of communism that made it possible. The Cold War border that split Germany into capitalist West and communist East after World War II looked set in stone when Gorbachev came to power in the mid-1980s. But little more than five years later, the country was reunited as a member of NATO and with a pledge for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Gorbachev was remembered with fondness and gratitude in Berlin, and also with a hint of wistfulness at a time when the invasion of Ukraine has driven Russia and Germany apart.