Germans were riding the wave of reunification.

Germans were experiencing the rush of reunification.

Assuming this is a positive thing.

Oh, Pipper is back. Where have you been?

Germans were high on unification.

Germans were on a unification high.

True. On the other hand, the OP uses “Einheits-Rausch” and not “Wiedervereinigungs-Rausch,“ and one might want to preserve the distinction.

Of the options so far I’d go for “fever.”

#4: Just busy and prioritising my time more strictly :-D

@7: Aber in dem Falle sollte es "unity" (Einheit) und nicht "unification" (Vereinigung) sein, oder?

#8: very laudable, but don't go away again.

I don't think "unity fever" works here. It doesn't really trigger the images that "Einheit" in "Einheits-Rausch" does. I can't explain why.

Seh ich auch so; wenn es um die "Wiedervereinigung" geht, würde ich daher immer "REunification" sagen.

#10: I should be flying the ENS flag more fervently, it's true.

#12

I’d still argue for the occasional appropriateness in E. (depending on context) of “unification,” and if only to avoid repetition (as maybe in the first example above).

To me "Rausch" has that sense of loss of control, being carried away by emotion, which "caught up in" captures well. I like "exhilaration" for the emotion in question, but "rush" is not bad either.

I vote against "frenzy" or "fever" because to me they connote fads, and maybe an implication that the emotion is irrational or dangerous ("a fever pitch"). I also think of frenzy specifically as often active ("a frenzy of activity"), while "Rausch" is really just about the international emotional state as I understand it.

Danke für die Antworten. Entschuldigung, dass ich jetzt erst antworte, ich war die letzten Tage verhindert.