The 89ers are thus the more modern young Germans – they are once again young pioneers, only different: from the GDR period they carry forth a spirit of social togetherness, reunification gave them the ability to land on their feet, and from the experience of capitalism (less cushioned than in the West) they derive the will to succeed. The number of young East Germans is continually shrinking, however. Migration to the West has increased again in recent days, and it is mostly the best educated and the most active who go.
And this despite the fact that large parts of the new states have the most modern infrastructure in Europe – after all, many things in the East aren’t even ten years old. There is no better telecommunications network anywhere in Europe; most hospitals have the latest technology; the Ilmenau Institute for Media Technology is the best of its kind. And for all intents and purposes, democracy is functioning as well. Not perfectly, to be sure, but things didn’t run so smoothly after 1949 in the West, either.
New things are easier to implement in the East. When Gerhard Schröder speaks of the cured “German disease,” he is referring to West Germany’s Bermuda Triangle of parties, unions, and associations. East German pragmatism has long since progressed beyond this. Many East Germans are asking themselves whether (Western) society would even be capable of a similar feat of adjustment. They have reason to be self-confident: “What we have behind us awaits you.”
After the Wende, Anna finished her Abitur at the Special School. Instead of a Russian teacher she became an interpreter. Today, she works at the German Protestant Secondary School in Cairo. She would like to return to Germany in a few years, preferably to Leipzig. Does she miss the GDR and the security it offered? “No, I could have never had the experience I’ve had in the last few years in the GDR.”
The author, 28, is a political scientist and a staff member of the SPD Landtag party faction in Dresden.
Source: Thomas Kralinski, “Junge Pioniere. Den jungen Ostdeutschen gehört die Zukunft” [“Young Pioneers. The Future Belongs to the Young East Germans”], Die Zeit, October 5, 2000.
Translation: Thomas Dunlap
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