East Germans have little to celebrate in unified state
Posted : Mon, 18 May 2009 05:05:49 GMT
Author : DPA
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...--feature.html
Berlin - There won't be much to celebrate for Irmgard when Germany marks its 60th birthday on May 23. The 73-year-old native of East Berlin is finding it increasingly difficult to cope since communism gave way to capitalism nearly two decades ago.
The democratic freedoms brought about by German unity have come at a price for the former shop assistant, who prefers not to give her full name.
The apartment block she lives in was privatized a few years back and sold to a Russian businessman who jacked up the rent and began moving in young people when the old tenants moved out.
"I can barely make ends meet on my meagre pension," she said. "In the winter I'm afraid to turn on the central heating because it has become too expensive."
Her two sons, one a trained toolmaker, both lost their jobs when the market for East German goods dried up after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
"They are now on Hartz IV," she said resignedly, referring to the subsistence payments doled out each month by the government to the long-term unemployed.
Irmgand and her family are among a growing number of former East Germans, known colloquially as "Ossis," who are unhappy with their personal situation in a united Germany.
A recent survey showed only 39 per cent were content with the way life has treated since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a drop of 20 per cent from a similar study conducted 10 years ago.
The biggest gripes concerned the deteriorating economic situation, the health system and what is perceived to be "social injustice" in the new society.
"Many former East Germans regard themselves as second class citizens," says Wilhelm Heitmeyer, a professor of social studies at the University of Bielefeld in the west of Germany.
"There is not a strong feeling of integration. It is as though there are two different societies living together in one nation," he said in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa.
"The old people in the East and the younger eastern Germans feel they are at a massive disadvantage," said the professor, who recently completed a study on Germany after unification.
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, East Germans were promised a bright new future. "They compared themselves to West Germans instead of to Poles or Hungarians, which would have made more sense in economic terms. The result for them has been frustrating."
The disappointment remains despite the estimated 1.4 trillion euros (1.9 trillion dollars) the government has pumped into the East to create jobs and repair roads and buildings left in decay since the end of World War II.
Today, Germans still pay a 5.5-per-cent surcharge on their income tax as a "solidarity levy" towards financing the costs of unification.
Despite all the money, unemployment is higher and people less well off than in the more prosperous West, which continues to act as a magnet for talented young people looking for a better life.
"If the exodus continues we could encounter serious problems," said Heitmeyer. "After all it is primarily well-educated young women who are leaving, not the men."
Discontent could grow among the males who stay behind and give way to right-wing xenophobia, he said. "In the East, the hostility towards foreigners, particularly Muslims, is already more pronounced than it is in the west of Germany," he added.
"The Wall is still in the minds of the people," is one of the most common phrases heard in the discussion about the winners and loses of unification.
For many West Germans, East Germany was a police state that spied on its own people and built a wall to stop them from fleeing.
Many in the east feel the "Wessis," as those from the West are called, simply took over their society and did not honour their life- time of achievement, according to Heitmeyer.
"There is a mutual distrust," said the sociologist, pointing out that people in the West tend to look down on those from the East and rarely have friends there.
This is an unhappy state of affairs, according to Wolfgang Thierse, the Social Democrat deputy speaker of parliament who grew up in the East and has worked hard to promote better understanding.
"It was the East German system that was a failure," he said, "not the people who lived there."
Posted : Mon, 18 May 2009 05:05:49 GMT
Author : DPA
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...--feature.html
Berlin - There won't be much to celebrate for Irmgard when Germany marks its 60th birthday on May 23. The 73-year-old native of East Berlin is finding it increasingly difficult to cope since communism gave way to capitalism nearly two decades ago.
The democratic freedoms brought about by German unity have come at a price for the former shop assistant, who prefers not to give her full name.
The apartment block she lives in was privatized a few years back and sold to a Russian businessman who jacked up the rent and began moving in young people when the old tenants moved out.
"I can barely make ends meet on my meagre pension," she said. "In the winter I'm afraid to turn on the central heating because it has become too expensive."
Her two sons, one a trained toolmaker, both lost their jobs when the market for East German goods dried up after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
"They are now on Hartz IV," she said resignedly, referring to the subsistence payments doled out each month by the government to the long-term unemployed.
Irmgand and her family are among a growing number of former East Germans, known colloquially as "Ossis," who are unhappy with their personal situation in a united Germany.
A recent survey showed only 39 per cent were content with the way life has treated since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a drop of 20 per cent from a similar study conducted 10 years ago.
The biggest gripes concerned the deteriorating economic situation, the health system and what is perceived to be "social injustice" in the new society.
"Many former East Germans regard themselves as second class citizens," says Wilhelm Heitmeyer, a professor of social studies at the University of Bielefeld in the west of Germany.
"There is not a strong feeling of integration. It is as though there are two different societies living together in one nation," he said in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa.
"The old people in the East and the younger eastern Germans feel they are at a massive disadvantage," said the professor, who recently completed a study on Germany after unification.
After the fall of the Wall in 1989, East Germans were promised a bright new future. "They compared themselves to West Germans instead of to Poles or Hungarians, which would have made more sense in economic terms. The result for them has been frustrating."
The disappointment remains despite the estimated 1.4 trillion euros (1.9 trillion dollars) the government has pumped into the East to create jobs and repair roads and buildings left in decay since the end of World War II.
Today, Germans still pay a 5.5-per-cent surcharge on their income tax as a "solidarity levy" towards financing the costs of unification.
Despite all the money, unemployment is higher and people less well off than in the more prosperous West, which continues to act as a magnet for talented young people looking for a better life.
"If the exodus continues we could encounter serious problems," said Heitmeyer. "After all it is primarily well-educated young women who are leaving, not the men."
Discontent could grow among the males who stay behind and give way to right-wing xenophobia, he said. "In the East, the hostility towards foreigners, particularly Muslims, is already more pronounced than it is in the west of Germany," he added.
"The Wall is still in the minds of the people," is one of the most common phrases heard in the discussion about the winners and loses of unification.
For many West Germans, East Germany was a police state that spied on its own people and built a wall to stop them from fleeing.
Many in the east feel the "Wessis," as those from the West are called, simply took over their society and did not honour their life- time of achievement, according to Heitmeyer.
"There is a mutual distrust," said the sociologist, pointing out that people in the West tend to look down on those from the East and rarely have friends there.
This is an unhappy state of affairs, according to Wolfgang Thierse, the Social Democrat deputy speaker of parliament who grew up in the East and has worked hard to promote better understanding.
"It was the East German system that was a failure," he said, "not the people who lived there."
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