One can easily understand that the two parts of the country have completely different expectations. The West Germans could have easily done without the East Germans: then why pay for them? Still, 150-180 billion Deutschmarks go to the other side every year. Taxes are rising, as are interest rates, various projects must be scaled back. This is indeed palpable – even if in moderation (and to varying degrees depending on income). And so people immediately say: We worked hard for our prosperity; they want it handed to them. And most recently there are even cases in which companies are closing their production facilities in the West and opening others in the East, because it is cheaper there. It is no surprise that discontent is arising. What’s more: Why should the West Germans change themselves or their system in any way on account of the East Germans? After all, their system has proven itself, and the other one collapsed. Therefore, it goes without saying – right? – that the East Germans should adopt everything from the West Germans, including their parties (and party leaders), including democracy, down to every last detail.
A reverse perspective from the East: people are suffering all kinds of things they feel are unjust – loss of work, of housing, and more. There are the Western commissions that are assessing their suitability for office, the shifting of experienced men and women to apprentice status, the dismissals (or non-rehirings) that were carried out in part under demeaning circumstances and in an unjust fashion for the benefit of junior Western employees. All manner of fraud was and is the order of the day, not to mention acts of tactlessness and lack of comprehension. Those who came over to the East voluntarily as civil servants and employees were mostly from the third and fourth tiers, most were even promoted to higher positions; the rest have to be paid large bonuses; as it is they receive higher salaries than their local colleagues, who are paid according to the Eastern wage scale. That the East German economy was so shattered is also difficult to comprehend, especially since a rudimentary GDR pride is affected here: after all, people had worked for this economy, directly or indirectly. Even if it was inadequate, it still was the life’s work of most people in the country.
Evidently, all the improvements that have already been made – and they are indeed not small in number – do not easily penetrate the awareness of the majority. Some things are already taken for granted, others are cause for suffering. When something is already working it receives little notice; when something goes wrong, people like to talk about it so much that these cases seem to multiply through the telling. And then there is also a good deal of accusatory silence. The notion that one unjust, arbitrary regime was simply exchanged for another is already creeping in all too often (even though those who consider unification with the FRG right and good continue to form a clear majority).
Why are things like this? My assumption is this: first, because the downsides for many are quite considerable, while the hopes have been dulled (here, needless to say, various unkept promises by the West also play a role). Second, these downsides are perceived as inequality vis-à-vis the West Germans and are thus felt particularly strongly. Third, the processes that are currently taking place among the Germans are bringing the GDR’s continuing identity strongly to the fore.
Herein lies the essential difference between East Germany and the other Eastern Bloc countries. While it must be admitted that East Germany is doing incomparably better economically, this doesn’t really count, because now, even more than before, people are entirely fixated on West Germany, because people no longer want to suffer the inferiority. We are doing better because we don’t have a big brother, a Czech recently said. He could be onto something. As the English specialist on German studies T. J. Reed put it: Nothing, it seems, divides people like unification.
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