German Unification Problems

A detailed Summary of German Unification Problems

There were a few components that led to the unification of the GDR and the Federal Republic. Most of them began in 1989. In the summer of that year, thousands of East German "vacationers" in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and other eastern bloc states escaped through holes in the iron curtain or pushed into West German embassies to demand free entry into their country. On September 10th, Hungary opened it's borders to Austria and 50,000 East Germans fled to the west. In the next 5 months, over 100,000 more fled. Millions demonstrated in Leipzig, Dresden, and East Berlin. Gorbachov refused to involve the Soviet Union. Between October and December the SED party had lost nearly one million members and Honecker was forced to resign. On November 9th, East German police unlocked checkpoints along the Berlin Wall and lacking any other orders allowed anyone through. In May 1990, President Gorbachav announced that a united Germany would be free to join any alliance it wanted.

Official Unification took place on October 3, 1990. West and East approved a unification treaty along with their four allied. The GDR ceased to exist by acceding to the Federal Republic and splitting into 5 new states. West Germany had taken over the electoral process

It is obvious that the east continues to deal with most of the problems of unification. They must also struggle to rebuild their economy, many needing to find new jobs. They have an unhealthy environment due to years of neglect. Most importantly they are in a daily struggle to identify themselves while being forced to conform to the standards of the west. Their high expectations were let down. They feel left out and not represented in government. They have withdrawn to the private sector as a result. While in the west the main burden that still exists from unification is the great financial burden they must bear. Many believe that in time everything will work itself out. But unification will always leave a mark on Germans for generations to come.

There were also differences in wages and productivity between east and west. East Germans make only 80% of what their counterparts in the west do, yet their levels of productivity aren't any higher. So workers in the east are basically being paid more for doing less work. High production costs add to the biggest economic problem of unemployment in the east. Another cause of unemployment could be contributed to the shutting down of 60% of industrial plants in 1990 alone. Before unification, there were about 9.2 million jobs in the east, that number dropped to 6.2 million by 1992. That's a loss of 3 million jobs. 1.3 million of these employees are officially unemployed. 850,000 have taken early retirement. Another 550,000 commute to jobs in the west. The remaining 300,000 are in government-subsidized retraining programs, working part time jobs, or have moved to the West. Unemployment will continue to be a problem until eastern companies can run themselves without relying on aid from the west.

There are also economic differences that persist between east and west. Unlike before unification, products in the east now needed hard currency to be purchased. Western products were preferred and once the East Germans converted their money to Duetchmarks they flooded the western markets. They bought all their products that those in the west had been enjoying, but many spent too much and with all the spending being done in the west sales in the east dropped. Rent was also something tha

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Approximate Word count = 1508
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Foreign