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> When West Germany merged with East the impact upon GDP wasn't dramatic I think actual Germans cared a bit more about things like suddenly being unemployed, i

> When West Germany merged with East the impact upon GDP wasn't dramatic I think actual Germans cared a bit more about things like suddenly being unemployed, in the millions, and actual economic opportunities, than the rather abstract value of GDP. And on that end unification presented quite a dramatic change for the everyday reality of many Germans, a change that's lasting to this day and wasn't actually for the better for everybody [0] [0] https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/wirtschaft/ost-west-lohndifferenz-dreissig-jahre-nach-wiedervereinigung-100.html https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/wirtschaft/ost-we...

Barrin92 6y ago
As one of the actual Germans let me tell you many of us do indeed care about other things than GDP numbers, for example having our families reunited, half of which for many people ended up on the other side of a wall. Many things are complicated but a regime that has to cage its own citizens in, and at times shoot them when they try to leave, is rotten to the very core. Reunification was inevitable and a good thing. Sure, major historic change causes upheaval, but it's a trivial truth that this is the case every time things change.
- freeflight 6y ago
  As an actual German born and grown up in the West, by family that completely legally left the East, I'm no fan of these crass generalizations. I've crossed the allegedly "caged border" several times to visit family and vice versa. People tend to forget that back then border regimes, with often complex visa regulations, existed everywhere. It's not like Europe was the EU and everybody had freedom of movement except for people from the GDR. No, visas were still required over the place, borders were reinforced and heavily controlled from both sides, both sides treated you like a pseudo-criminal by completely and utterly taking your belongings apart to suppress any possible smuggling. Which was mostly down to the fact of the two Germany's also serving as a cold war border. But adding any nuance like that to these discussions is simply not allowed, the only thing allowed is equating the GDR, and the people who lived in it, with Nazi Germany at worst, at best as a bunch of people that had to be "liberated" economically and socially from the Soviets by their glorious Western saviors. A narrative that will continue to alienate a rather big part of the population, a problem that becomes slowly noticeable, but has yet to be acknowledged any more meaningful way than the usual Nazi-Keule of "Them East Germans are just neo-Nazis". > but it's a trivial truth that this is the case every time things change. The not so trivial truth is that not everything changes to the better for everybody, and in the case of "reunification" a whole lot of things changed for the worse for a whole lot of people, to this day. You can't just hand-wave that away with "Oh it was inevitable!", when the rushed and one-sided way "reunification" actually happened was absolutely not "inevitable", it was the result of Kohl's ambition to have reunification as his legacy, damned be the actual people and consequences for them.
- anoncake 6y ago
  The revolution in the GDR was definitely a good thing. Reunification is a different question.

Barrin92 6y ago

As one of the actual Germans let me tell you many of us do indeed care about other things than GDP numbers, for example having our families reunited, half of which for many people ended up on the other side of a wall. Many things are complicated but a regime that has to cage its own citizens in, and at times shoot them when they try to leave, is rotten to the very core. Reunification was inevitable and a good thing. Sure, major historic change causes upheaval, but it's a trivial truth that this is the case every time things change.

freeflight 6y ago
As an actual German born and grown up in the West, by family that completely legally left the East, I'm no fan of these crass generalizations. I've crossed the allegedly "caged border" several times to visit family and vice versa. People tend to forget that back then border regimes, with often complex visa regulations, existed everywhere. It's not like Europe was the EU and everybody had freedom of movement except for people from the GDR. No, visas were still required over the place, borders were reinforced and heavily controlled from both sides, both sides treated you like a pseudo-criminal by completely and utterly taking your belongings apart to suppress any possible smuggling. Which was mostly down to the fact of the two Germany's also serving as a cold war border. But adding any nuance like that to these discussions is simply not allowed, the only thing allowed is equating the GDR, and the people who lived in it, with Nazi Germany at worst, at best as a bunch of people that had to be "liberated" economically and socially from the Soviets by their glorious Western saviors. A narrative that will continue to alienate a rather big part of the population, a problem that becomes slowly noticeable, but has yet to be acknowledged any more meaningful way than the usual Nazi-Keule of "Them East Germans are just neo-Nazis". > but it's a trivial truth that this is the case every time things change. The not so trivial truth is that not everything changes to the better for everybody, and in the case of "reunification" a whole lot of things changed for the worse for a whole lot of people, to this day. You can't just hand-wave that away with "Oh it was inevitable!", when the rushed and one-sided way "reunification" actually happened was absolutely not "inevitable", it was the result of Kohl's ambition to have reunification as his legacy, damned be the actual people and consequences for them.
anoncake 6y ago
The revolution in the GDR was definitely a good thing. Reunification is a different question.