Quickly establishing wage parity between east and west made industrial assets valued at hundreds of billions worthless over night. The strong winds of international competition have bent decrepit eastern firms like blades of grass. In contrast with the west, where the withered economy soaked up the rather modest amount of the Marshall Plan aid like a sponge, the greatest financial transfer in history is, forty years later in the east, washing away the soil for profitable investment. The money is being distributed too unimaginatively. One can t really wish for a natural catastrophe like the Oder flood every day to mobilize overall German solidarity.
Unity takes patience.
It takes reciprocal gestures. It has taken centuries for Bavarians and Prussians to stop thinking of one another as virtual barbarians. The eastern Germans have learned quickly, at least more quickly than the western Germans, who persist with the feeling of economic superiority and shirk before necessary changes. The new states are, out of necessity, going down the difficult path to economic renewal and joining world markets, something the other socialist countries have yet to do. The eastern Germans are making smarter laws and more sweeping educational reforms, they are showing themselves to be more flexible on wage and pay levels and are serving people with such friendliness in restaurants and inns that it actually gives the feeling of being welcome.