East and West Germans increasingly linked

The Germans' joy over regaining their unity on Oct. 3, 1990, has since been joined by the realization that it will still be several years before living conditions in the Eastern part of the country will reach Western standards. Forty years of division and of living in radically different political and social systems have not only resulted in very divergent social and economic structures, but have also had a far-reaching impact on the lives and the mentalities of the people living in them. For the people in Germany's new federal states, the restructuring process they initiated with the dissolution of the GDR was particularly difficult because it went hand-in-hand with major changes in all spheres of their lives and with the loss of their traditional European markets.

The business sector, the entire administration and the welfare system in Germany's new federal states had to be restructured. Eastern Germany adopted the Federal Republic's long proven social security system which focuses on autonomous wage bargaining, works constitutions, unemployment/health/accident insurance and supplementary welfare benefits.

Reconstruction in Eastern Germany necessitated enormous financial transfers, extensive kick-start initiatives and intensive guidance. A major problem has been the elimination of a large number of jobs that were no longer financially viable and the consequent rise in unemployment. The process of restructuring the business sector generated an enormous need for basic and advanced training which further compounded the task of reorganizing the country. Since 1991, more than DM 160 billion have been invested for active employment measures alone.

This trend has, however, taken a turn for the better for the first time in recent months. Although the unemployment rate in Eastern Germany is still considerably higher than in the Western part of the country -- 13.9 percent compared to 8.3 percent -- the number of new productive jobs has outstripped the number of old jobs being eliminated, and the gap is growing.

Rise in living standards

Since Oct. 3, 1990, both wage and pension levels have been adjusted upward several times to meet West German levels. A person working in Eastern Germany at the time of German reunification had an average gross income of DM 1,350 a month -- 35 percent of the West German level. According to the federal statistical office, this figure reached DM 3,100 this year, or 74 percent of the West German average.

The basic monthly pension (i.e. the pension an average wage- earner receives following 45 years of coverage) was only DM 672, or 40 percent of the West German level, on July 1, 1990, before the economic, monetary and social union went into effect. This figure has risen to DM 1,522 by July 1, 1995 -- 79 percent of the basic pension being paid in Western Germany.

The rise in wage and pension levels has had an obvious impact, for example, on the amount of durable consumer goods to be found in East German households. Toward the end of the GDR era, 59 percent of all households owned a car. This figure increased to 97 percent by 1994. In 1989, only 17 percent of the households in the former GDR had a telephone. By 1994, 67 percent of the households in Germany's new federal states had one. The portion of households with a freezer rose from 54 to 95 percent during the same period. This trend is also reflected by color television sets -- 97 percent of the households owned one in 994 compared to 61 percent in 1989.

Approval of unification

Recent surveys conducted in both Eastern and Western Germany indicate that Germans are glad about their country's unification. Approximately 75 percent of the East Germans surveyed by the election research group (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen) in April this year said they made the right decision at the first free election held in the former GDR in the spring of 1990 when they voted to establish a political system patterned on western systems. Only about a quarter of the respondents felt that the decision was wrong.

Asked whether personal freedom had increased or decreased since reunification, 71 percent of those surveyed by the election research group in September 1994 said they enjoyed greater personal freedom. Only 6 percent said there was less personal freedom and 22 percent felt there had been no change.

The entire nation is clear on its choice of economic system as indicated by a survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute for public opinion research in 1994: given the choice between a market economy and socialism, a resounding majority of 78.8 percent favored the market economy. Only 3.3 percent preferred socialism, while 16.9 percent had no preference. Interestingly, the market economy had significantly fewer proponents in the new federal states than in Western Germany.

Asked by the Election Research Group, "When you recall life in the GDR prior to unification, would you say that overall you are doing better or worse today than back then, or would you say there has been no change?" 57 percent of the East Germans surveyed in March this year said things were better for them. Some 24 percent could tell no difference and 18 percent stated they were worse. In March 1991, just six months following unification, only 36 percent of the East Germans surveyed said that their expectations of unification had "been pretty much fulfilled to date" while 62 percent felt that they had "not really been fulfilled to date." Presented with the same question in June this year, 51 percent of the East Germans asked said their expectations had been fulfilled, while 48 percent replied negatively.

A distinct difference in opinion between Eastern and Western Germans was apparent when asked whether the federal government did enough, too little or too much to raise living standards in the new states to meet West German levels. Some 24 percent of the West Germans surveyed said the government does too much, compared to only 1 percent of the respondents in the eastern part of the country. In the East, 72 percent felt that the government is doing too little, an opinion they share with only 25 percent of those surveyed in Western Germany. Approximately 57 percent if those surveyed in Western Germany but only 27 percent in Eastern Germany felt the government has been putting forth the right amount of effort.

A study on the "Unification Generation" -- East Germans between the ages 16 and 29 today -- published by the Cologne- based Institute of German Industry (IW, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft) in August 1993 found widespread approval of the country's current political and social system among members of the younger generation in the new federal states. Some 89 percent of those surveyed avow democracy and 67 percent feel there is more freedom in united Germany than there was in the former GDR. Approximately half of the respondents described themselves as unreservedly "pro-free market".

Today, five years after reunification, it is increasingly clear that these enormous joint efforts are producing positive results and that East and West Germans are increasingly linked by a common appreciation of their free and democratic system.

-- Deutsche Botschaft