The Truehand agency, set up to privatize the east, drew a line and stopped working after only five years. Kopf and resentment from both sides are only increasing. Culture and accomplishments of the east are being overlooked and replaced, as in the case of the Ampelmannchen , a street light icon of the east. And women lost a lot of opportunity in the mix of events. The east is plagued by a brain drain of young intellects moving westward, and by continuing anti-Semitic and xenophobic sentiments.
Identities are central to the German dilemma, and are affected directly by politics and economics.
A character in the Diestel cabaret in eastern Berlin in 1991 testifies, Unity was better when we were divided. And the widely spread joke recounts an Ossie telling a Wessie , Wir sind ein Volk . The Wessie replies, Uns auch . It is easy to see why the east feels second-class as the west personifies a righteous teacher in the development of unification. This feeling explains the coveting of western goods in the GDR, despite ideals.