Why is eastern Germany taking so long to catch up?
After Germany reunified in 1990, it didnt take long for the much-missed brothers and sisters from the East to lose most of the sympathy they once enjoyed from the western side. Stop complaining! went an early caricature portraying a father lecturing his son. Everyone will think youre an Ossi! East Germanys former citizens (Ossis) soon had a reputation in their new country. They preferred whining and blaming others to taking their future into their own hands, it was said. It was a prejudice, of course as unfair as the inclination of some eastern Germans to see unification as mostly negative. Its true that many lost their jobs along with the states guaranteed employment. Today, though, plenty of eastern Germans are working, and all of them, whether employed or not, live incomparably better in material terms than before 1989. Average gross income in the new federal states, as theyre known in Germany, has doubled. On the other hand, theyre still far removed from the levels in the West. Cer
