Why the Iron Curtain Still Keeps Germany Divided

Select video clips courtesy of Getty Images

Select video clips courtesy of the AP Archive

Special thanks to MapTiler / OpenStreetMap Contributors and GEOlayers 3

[vottekmaxle]

The people in the east were more or less dispossessed after the fall of communism. The state-owned apartment they lived in and the company they worked for were sold to investors in the West. Key positions were filled by people from the West. Many of these companies were subsequently closed because they were not efficient enough. Result: 20% of the population left the East. High unemployment figures. Your degree was worth less. Your salary and pension were lower. Your life's work was not recognized. In return, people in the West called you lazy and whiny. That led to a lot of frustration among people in the East. People still feel like second-class citizens today.

[funakfunak]

"Why is East Germany so different from West Germany? It's been over 30 years since unification!"
Okay, why is South USA so different from North USA? It's been over 150 years since reunification?

[j.muller]

18:26 As a German with family that used to live and also still lives in east germany, I find the way the cruel nature of this oppressive regime is downplayed in this part of the video truly abhorrent. My grandmother was imprisoned in the Stasi Prison in Bautzen, her crime: wanting to leave the country to marry my grandfather. My grandmother was „only“ imprisoned for 6 months before being sold to the West german government, while other spend years in these prisons. The abuse that prisoners had to endure in these prisons was horrific, and similar to Gestapo practices in the third reich. The policies mentioned in this part of the video weren’t instituted to make society more equal but had other motives. For example the state run child care facilities were used to indoctrinate the population as early as possible. Also the state of took away children of regime critics as a form of punishment. The reason that the state had an interest in women being part of the workforce was due to the appalling state of the economy. The one good thing that the east german regime achieved was that because of their policies the west german state often instituted similar social policies in an effort to be more attractive to the whole population.

PS: I do apologize for my english mistakes. As well as my use of subjective language, this is a topic thats very personal to me.

[historylover]

But the AfD placed 2nd in the youth vote. To essentially claim they only have support because of old people is inaccurate. They also grew more support in urban areas than in rural areas.

[MissDatherinePierce]

I was born after reunification to a West German dad and an East German mum. So I feel neither West nor East German but just German, however throughout my entire youth I felt like I sat between two chairs. My East German family was constantly starting fights about how great the East was and how evil the West. Today I can say that mistakes were made as is explained in the video but no one had done this before and everything is more clearly in hindsight. I have met people my age from the East and West, and the division in the head is definitely something that is still more prevelant in the East due to the passed down disappointment and hardships. My East German grandmother once said that she had hoped that my generation would be the first who didn't think like this anymore but honestly, I think it will be my grandchildren's generation who might. They won't have grandparents anymore that lived through the reunification and previous states but only those who themselves were only told about it. And only this generation will be able to objectively take a look at the times and judge them without an emotional involvement of direct oral history.

[sertorius]

It’s also important to note that Prussia’s Junker Aristocracy had their estates in the East before the occupation and partition, while the major manufacturing centers had been in the West as well, so there was already a divide between a more industrial west and agrarian east before Germany itself was split.

[Madlyjp]

original title "Why Germany is Still So Divided Between East & West"

2nd Title: How Germany Still Remains Divided 35 Years Later

3rd Title: Why the Iron Curtain Still Keeps Germany Divided

[rirr]

I come from East Germany. More precisely, from Thuringia. I didn't experience the GDR myself, as I was born in 2002. But to this day, I experience, almost daily, the effects of what I consider a failed reunification and the aftermath of the GDR system. In my opinion, I can agree with the video that the "reunification" was more of a takeover. Germany was divided for 45 years. We have now been one country again for 35 years. But the gaps in all areas are still far too great for the time that has already passed. And I believe that even after 45 years of German unity, there will still be strong differences. And the generations who experienced the division firsthand and can report on it will dwindle more and more.

I just want to briefly note that I really liked your video. It is very well researched and objective. It not only revealed the bad side of the GDR but also highlighted what worked better in the East than in the West back then. Thank you for that.

Greetings from the united Germany.

[Austin_Schulz]

17:30 These policies were not as positive as you make it out to be. Mothers pretty much had no choice but to work horrible jobs and join the military, and having children next to factories is not good for their health.

[Szabolcs]

As for the "more of the East was left intact" was because the USSR annexed (or gave to Poland in exchange for annexing their lands) like half of East Germany, and the areas left were closer to Berlin, and when the war ended soon after they reached Berlin. Königsberg was nearly completely leveled for example.

[tongatapu]

The religion map used here is 15 years old. Newer maps make it much more difficut to make out the old borders.

[bartolomeestebanmurillo]

Given that they lived under the influence of the USSR for half a century, I am not surprised there's cultural differences between East and West.

[araxiel]

The video: Interesting facts and data and information
Me: Obsessing about the pub called the *Glory Whole* at 33:35

[GracieSi]

My mother and I went on a bike tour through eastern Germany (from Munich to the island of Usedom). It was my first visit to the former GDR territories, and I was surprised by how sparsely populated the area was, with many towns in disrepair and numerous empty houses.

However, it remains a very beautiful area, particularly Thuringia.

[wimderoos]

the problem with current rhetoric in north america is that when someone describes a party as being associated with "far left" or "far right, " I don't know if that means the party actually is, or its just media incorrectly describing it that way for the sake of creating biased opinions and outrage in their viewers

[MsZeeZed]

12:25 - As a comparison the East German Stasi (political police) had 90, 000 full-time officers for 17 million people. The wartime Gestapo had 30, 000 officers to manage about 109 million people. East Germany was literally one order of magnitude (one decimal point) more of a police state than the Nazi state it succeeded.

[thanos_.]

Me and my mom went on a bike tour through east germany (starting from Munich to the Island of Usedom) last summer. It was my first time in the former territories of GDR, and I was surprised how sparsely populated the area was, with many towns run down and plenty of houses that were completely empty.

However, it still is a very beautiful area, especially Thuringia.

[antonmarc]

I'm a West German living in former East Germany and some of the claims in the video were just wrong.
First of all, the support the far-right recieves (in both east and west) is strongest in age groups between 30 and 60, so it's not just old people with a romanticized view of the GDR. However, the main problem with how reunification was handled was the incredibly short timeframe. There were about 11 months between the fall ot the Berlin wall and reunification. That simply isn't enough time for a country to transform itself from a socialist to an open-market economy, set up a functioning local administration and so on. It plunged a lot of uncompetitive companies, not all of course, into a market where they were simply not competitive, due to Germany as a whole being in the predecessor of the EU. Most other former socialist states were integrated into this very community over a timeframe of about 15 years, giving them time to reform and prepare themselves. East Germany did not get that time, having to compete with not only the richer, more educated and also experienced West Germans, but also most of former capitalist Europe. That made it much more attractive to leave or just live of social security for older citizens, not wanting to work anymore. There are also more very rural areas in the east than in the west. Rural areas in most of Germany have seen slower growth than metropolitan counterparts. There are many good universities in the east, that was also the reason I moved here. But those have a lot of focus on humanities and social studies, while those programs attract a lot of people from all over the country, jobs in those fields tend to be more specialized. And where do you find those jobs? In large, wealthy cities, of which there are realistically two in the east; so a lot of highly-educated people leave after getting their degrees. Also another problem is that there a lot of disdain for the east has grown among West Germans, percieving them as ungrateful for the support they recieved over decades.

I am happy to live in a united Germany, however the way we went about it a way that didn't give the east a fighting chance, something they are still recovering from today and will continue to do so.

[Nohanson]

I'm 25 years old and from Eastern Germany's region of Mecklenburg Vorpommern. You have no idea how thankful I am to you for making this video. I've been following your content for a year now and every time you post a video I just wish you could explain to me every topic that I'm interested in. This specific video is made about the one topic I care about the most and I can tell you from my perspective and the perspective of most of my family and large parts of my friends that the perceptions and opinions of easteners presented by you are accurate. I hope many people from my country watch this video and learn more about this topic's history, because it's usually only discussed in a contemporary perspective leaving out the factors that lead to the current situation.

You've also presented facts and ideas that I've never considered myself before, which makes the video even more appealing.

Once again, thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

[juschku]

As a German (born in the "west"), this truly and deeply hurts my soul. Even though i was born after the reunification, I still consider it the greatest event in our history. Our country must never be divided ever again. The west failed our brothers in the east