All of a sudden, they were exposed to capitalism, and they weren’t used to it. Norbert Walter, chief economist at the Deutsche Bank Group until the end of 2009, said that 15 million East Germans had to accept a complicated bureaucratic system with which they were not familiar and for which they did not have the necessary advisers. These frustrations were especially felt in the financial sector. Some East Germans felt that their opinions and desires weren’t really considered it was just assumed that they would want to be like the West. They had hoped for a more collaborative effort in reunification. Many East Germans were frustrated by the fact that once reunification began, the West essentially took over. Another former East German police officer, identified by the alias Raymond, said that police administration became more bureaucratic after reunification, which East Germans found difficult to navigate. We had no drugs in East Germany.” The police force in East Germany was taken over by the West after the fall of the Berlin Wall. “And it was completely new dealing with drugs …. They said they missed certain aspects of their lives in East Germany before the wall fell. The social background for the young people was better-we had the youth clubs-all that has gone.”Ī few others who were interviewed had similar sentiments. “The social structures that we had-the care for children and so on-they were wonderful.
Hilton asked former East German police officer Frank Thomas: If you had a magic wand and could go back to the fall of the Berlin Wall, what would you do with the wand? In fact, many of them felt that some things were actually better under Soviet rule than they are today under the German republic. The majority of those interviewed had the attitude that things weren’t that bad in East Germany.
How do East Germans really feel about their history behind the wall and their reunification with West Germany? You might be surprised by the answer.Īuthor Christopher Hilton interviewed a number of East Germans for his 2008 book After the Berlin Wall: Putting Two Germanys Back Together Again. Of all people, shouldn’t East Germans despise dictatorial rule? Wouldn’t their history under Soviet oppression make them abhor dictators? East Germany was under the control of the former Soviet Union from the end of World War ii until the Berlin Wall came down. A Leipzig University study published in November shows that an astonishing 40 percent of East Germans think a dictator would be acceptable in certain circumstances. Intriguingly, however, many East Germans don’t view this event as entirely positive. This event was viewed by the West as a victory for freedom and democracy. 9, 1989, after more than 20 years of separation. The division between West Germany and Soviet-occupied East Germany came to an end on Nov. It has been 29 years since the Berlin Wall came down.
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