What were the social effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall?

[parkse33]

Please help me I have an essay due tomorrow. I need to explain the Social changes that have occured following the fall of the Berlin Wall. So basically, Europe turning into a democracy. What social freedoms/changes were allowed to the people of Europe. I have a very hard time trying to find information on the web. Please help!!!

[Celeste]

Well, I suppose about 95% of the information you are looking for is in German.

Anyway, I live in Germany, and remember the night they let the wall come down in Berlin. I saw it live on television, and was dumbstruck, like about 70 million other people.

20 years later, when I think about, as I live on the former German/German border, and live in "West" Germany, and work in "East" Germany, nobody could have imagined what it would be like today. The first thing we thought was, "Wow! They're finally free!". But then, only later, much later, we found out about the drawbacks.

I remember visiting East Berlin in 1983, and they had a seminar for students about East Berlin. One guy asked, "Hey I suppose there are two battallions of U.S. Army here. Why can't they just mow down the wall?".

The answer: "It's because West Germany can't afford it." He was telling the truth. At the time, there was this struggle with unemployment, and no German politician had ever taken time to come up with a contigency plan of what to do when your population suddenly increases by 20%.

Sure enough, 6 years later, the wall came down, and West Germany still had no contigency plan. All those years since the 60's where they whined about the basic need to be re-united, and not a single one of them had a clue of what to do when it became reality.

It became reality, because East Germany was broke. And all of the money the East Germans had invested in pension plans and life insurance policies (yes they had things like that!) was presumably locked away in a Swiss Bank Account, and only Erich Honecker knew the number. There were millions of senior citizens that suddenly had no social security, retirement plan, or medical insurance. And in many cases there were too many people who needed money and too few people to evaluate their needs to correctly adjust them to fit West German standards.

The next problem was their money. On the regular exchange rate it was 285 East Marks = 1 West Mark. And the foreign minister at the time, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, decided it wasn't fair, so he made a blanket exchange rate of 3 East Mark = 1 West Mark, which upset both the East Germans (who wanted 1 to 1) and the West Germans, who thought it shouldn't be so generous.

The next problem was their factories. Many factories were operated like collectives, and after the wall fell, they were all more or less declared bankrupt by West German politicians, because they were either partially or entirely state-run and the state was broke. The West Germans sent an army of Chapter 13 administrators, not all of which had morals, sympathy or scrupples, and they proceeded to sell of East German businesses without really investigating or talking with the workers about how they might salvage their businesses. The East Germans still think of this as "West German Predator Capitalism".

In the meantime the 40-year+ generation of 1990 was left clueless as how life was suppose to continue, and was abandoned like a child on the Autobahn when it came to coming to terms with the new society. For the 40+ generation there was no re-education system, no introduction of how to take advantage of this new political system. They had always been told what to do, believed it was right, and now there was no one their to tell them what to do. It left them wide open for every get-rich-quick and con game imaginable. An entire wave of con artists attacked the GDR like flies landing on a carcass, and sold them unnecessary insurance policies, without explaing the small print, time-share condos on the Canary Islands, phoney stocks and bonds, and even fell prey to Aimway, Tupperware, Avon and every multi-level marketing scheme that wouldn't fool your grandmother.

Other psychological shocks were the sudden increase of rent for their apparentments. Many had been paying the same rent rate since the house had been built in the 50's. Or the fact that many of these ugly cardboardbox high-risers were suddenly condemned by West German building inspectors, and torn down. New apartment buildings were built to replace them, but now the rent was un-affordable for many.

One of the greatest dis-services they did to the East Germans, that is still intact today, which I never understood, is that people in East Germany were paid lower wages than in West Germany. The argument then was that they were not as well-trained as West Germans, and employer's had to compensate somehow. But for all trades? How are East German bakers inferior to West German bakers? And now it's 20 years later, and they still don't pay East Germans as much as West Germans. West Germans, also resent this in a round-about why now, because in construction, temporary agencies prefer East Germans, because they don't have to pay them as much as West Germans.

The most shocking social effect for many East Germans, was the order from the West German government after the annexation, that the Stasi (East German Intelligen