Why Germany is still divided

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My aunt was born and grew up in what became East Berlin. She had a friend who worked in the government office, and he told her, "Grab your son and leave and join your husband. I can't tell you why but leave now." A few days after she left, the wall started going up.

It would be interesting to look into the economic and political differences between the ex Yugoslav states

As a citizen of South Korea which is one of the only countries still divided, Germany is the prime model of how unification of the south and north would look like in the future. It pains me to learn that even 30 years after the unification, Germany suffers from its decisions. Unification between North and South Korea would likely be worse, as the economic disparity between the two is far more profound than east and west Germany 30 years ago.

I was an American soldier stationed up by the Czech/East German border and was there for the "reunification" celebration , but to me, it seemed the joy was short lived. The West Germans were very critical of the East Germans saying "they are lazy sheep". I did notice the stark differences between East and West infrastructure as many of the building and bridges still had bullet marks and nothing was really tended to as far as cosmetics. This was a great video highlighting many of the realities of the reunification. I pray someday all will level out and come together.

I think an important point to explain the economic disparity between West and East Germany is how reunification was handled. Basically, almost all of the GDR's state property was privatized and sold off at horribly low prices. This made it possible for West German companies to essentially buy out the competition and simply dissolve them. This was partly intended by the conservative government in order not to endanger the West German economy, and it was successful. Within a few years, almost all companies in the East were either dissolved or integrated into West German companies. Basically overnight, the entire East German economy went down the drain and most East Germans have not forgotten that to this day.

The biggest gap was always a mental one. West germans expected integration in the west german society. East Germans never wanted this, they wanted of course a free and democratic, unified Germany, but with some of the socialist achievements, a right to have a say in the development of East Germany. All of this achievements were wiped out within a year. Angela Merkel really made a point when she said "It was like the life before 1990 didn't count". That was the west german mentality, east germans were confronted with. There was no appreciation, no recognition. Mostly it was a lack of interest or sometimes even arrogance and capitalist chauvinism in a way like "You achieved nothing in 40 years". Which wasn't that wrong, many East Germans didn't had any savings or assets. But it was this downgrading mentality by the West Germans for 30 years, why we have a distant relationship. We live in a Germany, where East Germans are underrepresented and mostly are seen as a loud, grumpy and radical group, which is only relevant for german society as objects for sociologic and political research. Our history, our social achievements, the usual ife of East Germans in the GDR were irrelevant for the unified Germany, it should be quickly forgotten after 1990. It never was and never will be, at least for us East Germans.

my grandma lived in east german, she flew with my dad, they were allowed to go to a "holliday in west german" but they never came back

It's crazy, how our feeling of time changes as we grow older (and wiser haha). I was born in 1981 (in the GDR btw) and as a teenager, WW2 seemed to me a long time ago. But actually, I was born only 36 years after WW2. The fall of the Berlin Wall seems like not a very long time ago to me now, but it is over 34 years ago, almost 36 years! It's nice and honorable that you present our history so well-researched and for an international audience. Well done! Next time I talk about my home country in English, I can just refer to your video.

As a child of German immigrants, these videos always hit close to my heart. I was born just two months before the Berlin wall fell. Thanks for making these.

As someone who can remember when East Germany still existed, it's weird to think that now I have lived longer than East Germany did!

Ok so, my grandpa was born in 1957 in East Germany. He lived in a small town in Thuringia, he complained many times, how the economy was so bad or that he didn't had the opportunity to tell his opinion freely. Anyways, despite all that, he liked it, there was unity, respect, discipline. Everyone was working for everyone, nearly no one was homeless and the prices were really affordable, so at the fall of the Berlin Wall, he was so happy, at that time he overtook a very large company which was becoming richer and richer, anyway, after the west came, many factories and companies needed to close down since the westerners were much more advanced. A year later, his company was closed, because the state wanted to replace it. Since then, my grandpa hates west Germany. We wanted to go to the Netherlands but he had some feeling of guilt, because he just let all his workers down. Still, many in west Germany see us Easterners as stupid and racist villagers.

In the early 80's I worked on a project for a company that was founded by two men from Germany. Their first names were Bertholdt and Wolfgang. Both were originally from East Berlin. Bertholdt decided one night to stay in the west, hearing rumors of the border being closed. He never went back. Wolfgang however was still in East Berlin. Wolfgang however was one of the first to scale the original wall making it over alive. He was shot though in one of his ankles. He even showed me the wound. He said he was never particularly athletic and was never able to scale a wall that high after he made it to the west. He said what helped him over was being shot at.

We, who lived east of the Iron Curtain, had a somewhat romantic view of the free, rich world on the other side. When the barriers fell and we started living "the new way", we realized that reality is not so black and white. The people were freer, but not as free as we thought and the life was richer, but not as rich as we imagined. Many people were disappointed. Especially those who did not find their place in the new conditions. It is a natural, human reaction to blame the system, even if the reasons lie in their own inability to adjust.

I worked in Frankfurt for a year as an engineer. People were amazing and friendly, unlike the typical German stereotypes. But I always felt that it was all surface level affection. Then I visited East Berlin one weekend with some co-workers and spent most of the time at bars. It was cold as s**t that weekend, but I can't forget how authentic and real the people were there. No fake BS friendliness, but raw, human emotions. This was early 2000's.

Ironic that your mobile phone is now an electronic stasi tracking device to where people go.

Small correction - monument of the soviet soldier in Berlin isn't "crushing nazis" with its sword - it is symbolically lowering the sword on foreign land. It's a memorial to the fact that the war has ended, not the glorification of its results.

My mother escaped in 1957 by swimming the Elbe. We visited in 1986 and I am so grateful I saw it before unification. A great documentary.

When the Berlin Wall was built, it wasn't just the wall that separated West Berlin from East Berlin, but also the trains. Ending freedom of movement didn't just mean building the wall, it also meant making changes to the U-Bahn and S-Bahn. There were three lines, the U-Bahn lines now designated U6 and U8, and the Nord–Süd Tunnel on the S-Bahn, that ran for the most part through West Berlin but passed for a short distance through the borough of Mitte (the historic city center), which was East Berlin territory. These lines continued to be open to West Berliners, but they did not stop at East Berlin stations, though they still had to slow down and these stations were heavily guarded. Thus, these became ghost stations Trains on the U8 line had six stations in East Berlin before crossing from one part of West Berlin to the other. The U6 had to skip five stations as well as the S-Bahn having to skip four. Friedrichstraße on the other hand was an exception as it was a transfer point between U6 and S-Bahn lines. Wollankstraße as well because it had a West Berlin exit right on the border. At the closed stations, barbed wire fences were installed to prevent any would-be escapees from East Berlin from accessing the track bed, and the electrically live third rail served as an additional and potentially lethal deterrent.

No wonder AfD is more popular in East Germany.