Keep Cebu as one, urges Berlin mayor

CEBU — The mayor of Germany’s City of Berlin, whose son is married to a Cebuana, urged Cebuanos to unite and keep their province as one, recalling the financial difficulties her city encountered when the infamous Berlin Wall divided it into East and West Berlin for 28 years.

Berlin Mayor Karin Schubert, who has visited the country several times, attended Friday’s launch of the Balik Mandaue program as guest of honor of Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano and Gov. Gwen Garcia, both staunch opponents of the divide-Cebu proposals.

Saying she knows a lot about Cebu, Schubert urged Cebuanos to band together for a united Cebu.

"I think division will not be the best way to get stronger, and to have a better future," she said.

"In every part of Europe, we know very well to stay together makes us strong..," she said.

Berlin is the capital and biggest city of Germany. It has a population of about 3.5 million and a land area of over 889 square kilometers.

Berlin was the capital of Prussia in l845, and of Germany from 1871 to 1945. It became the seat of the reunified Germany from Oct. 3, l990 up to the present.

Between l949 and l990, it was divided into East Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic, and West Berlin. The Berlin Wall that divided the two German states was built on Aug. 13, l961 and was torn down on Nov. 9, 1989. Before this, the capital was Bonn.

Schubert said that several years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and despite drastic cuts in spending, the city had to struggle considerably due to the effects of that division.

"We finance one-fifth of the budget with new debts. And we, perhaps, in contrast to most other European capital cities, are very dependent on the solidarity of the other German states and the federation; one-fourth of Berlin’s budget comes from Germany’s complex state revenue equalization scheme," she said. — Freeman News Service