Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 4 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 20 years, 8 months ago by
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I am interested to hear views from Germans on how reunification has affected their lives and how they view their country today. I also would like to hear from others on their views on Germany. Do you see it as a ‘European super-state’ or a bridge between East and West?
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Name : Eleanor T., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 22, City : Birmingham, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I hope this will not be too much of a letdown: I lived in Germany for more than a decade before unification and am living there now, with a German passport (though I am not ethnically German). Unification has not affected my life in the least, other than adding a special subsidy tax to my income, which is supposed to benefit the East German economy to catch up to the West German (though I reckon the money ends up in darker, West German political channels). Other than that, life hasn’t changed in the least. The euro has had a far more dramatic impact on daily life.
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Name : T27548, Gender : F, Age : 32, City : Munich, State : NA, Country : Germany, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,That is a very complex question. How the individual lives were affected depends on the part people live in. Western Germans hardly noticed anything, except of a rise in taxes. Eastern Germans’ (Easty Beasties) lives were turned over completely. That resulted in an enormous loss of jobs. Many moved to West Germany, many of those who stayed have difficulties to find work (I think it’s about 25% in several regions). One major change, that I noticed (as a former West German) is the increase of general xenophobia in public. In former Eastern Germany people don’t like foreigners very much and the more foreign you are the more a noticeable part of the local population regards you as a kind of walking punchingball. It don’t have to be many people to make your life miserable. I think this is one of the reasons that it becomes more and more acceptable in all of Germany to say things like:’I don’t have anything against foreigners but..’ But East and West Germany also developed a less negative hobby together: complaining at the top of the voice. Bridge between East and West? I think Germany has to be this for I don’t have the impression that other members of the EU take an interest in the peoples east of the EU’s border. Perhaps the gouvernments do but are British people really interested in todays life in Poland or Hungarya? Well, Germany should do this but how I don’t know. Germany most definitely is no European super-state! It’s economically big (large??) but Europe is more than just a big pile of money. Super-states (as I understand) tend to think in hegemonies, something I never experienced here. The politicians here are too confused (or intelligent) to do so and the population (ie all my friends and the people I know) either don’t know this concept oder think it’s something to be avoided. For all I know, this is different in for example France or the UK. Being a European super-state is mostly a reproach from countries, that think certain parts of the world are reserved for them and their interest. All these views are of course very personal and you shouldn’t take them as an objective description, please..
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Name : Alexander, Gender : M, City : Berlin, State : NA, Country : Germany,I think (though many Germans wouldn’t agree with me) that the German reunification was our only way to regain our cultural identity after WW2. Before, there were ‘the others’ (I live in what was once West Germany), and even now, we still see how different people in former East Germany were… and often still are. Strange as it may sound, we are a country divided by a common history, and that’s what being German is about.
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Name : Taleweaver26569, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 30, City : Ludwigshafen, State : NA, Country : Germany, Occupation : storekeeper, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,
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