How many generations do you think it will take for East and West Germany to truly consider themselves.........

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t_maia2000

I think it will be when the children that were born after the reunification have children themselves. Maybe another 10-15 years, but not much more. I'm 29, I clearly remember life in the GDR and the events in 1989. My sister who is 2 years younger doesn't, her East German identity is less strong. My brother was born in 1987, he doesn't remember anything about the GDR at all. He defines himself as East German purely due to my parents and in general couldn't care less about East or West. I doubt he will be able to give any special East German identity to his children. Regional pride, yes - but no memories of the GDR, no food recipes, no customs (except maybe the Jugendweihe).

EDIT: Rick's answer made me think about something else. One of the big differences between East and West is the accumulation of personal wealth. During the 1950's and 1960's many people in Western Germany had a chance to built houses, buy shares in the stockmarket and start saving up. This wealth is now passed on to their children, while East Germans usually have nothing to pass on. In other words: Economically the end of WW II was the Hour Zero for Western Germany, while for Eastern Germans the Hour Zero was in 1990 when the D-Mark was introduced. All the savings East Germans had made in 40 years in East German Marks became utterly worthless and due to laws passed in the GDR and during reunification a number lost the houses they had built in the GDR. It will take some time to change this basic economic inequality.
The first steps have been taken: The levels of payment are getting similar. This is especially true for the lowest income levels. It varies more between the wealthy south (Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg) and north (Ruhr area, Bremen) than between East and West. What Rick calls unemployment money II is now the same in East and in West.

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Federalism has always in our history been very strong there is no such thing as one Germany it existed only under the Kaiser and in the third Reich.
Even inside former West Germany the regional particularitys are very strong and I don t think this is going to change.
You can't compare Germany to more centralized states in Europe as France you need to view history and not just part of it since the second world war.Germany as one nation exists only since 1871 very short time compared to other nations in Europe.
Edit:
I did not forget about the Weimarer Republic neither the 'Heilige Rรถmische Reich Deutscher Nation' which was a loose federation of German Nations under the Kaiser .
And I did not tumbdown or up everybody here.
I just try to explain the German Fededralism which is much stronger than in the USA and everybody knows it even within former Westgermany .There are not only the differences between east and west they also exist between North and South which were never divided. To try to explain the differences within Germany just by the former FRG and GDR is thinking in too short terms.There is one country in Europe with comparably strong regional tendencies which is Italy and I suppose you have heared about the problems over there.In Germany if we had not made up a systhem to transfer money between north and south the 'Lรคnderfinanzausgleich' we would have the same problem as in Italy.
As for your example Irak I think they are on the way to break up the country already which is not a lucky decision.
Edit : if you just want to talk about the differences between east and west Germany that will last for a long time to go as most people of my generation in Westgermany feel they have more in common with other west european nations than with east Germany mostly the ones who have been traveling the former GDR.The only thing we have in common is the language we share with Austria and part of Switzerland definitly two different countries.
Edit:
As for the Eastern part of Germany they are not discriminated that is simply not true every German is paying an ad to his taxes the so called 'Solidaritรคtszuschlag' which makes an amount of 150 Billions of Euros each year !!!

conchobor2

I'm gonna say the process will START in ernest in about 30 more years.

So, about 2 1/2 generations total.

They say the "golden age" of things is always whatever time was 50 years ago. Farther back to be "nostalgic" but not so far back that it is not out of living memory.

In about 30 years from now I think many Germans will be looking back to the 'golden age' of when they were two seperate countries (andromanticizing the image). That's when they will have considered themselves truly unified with no going back ... after that, the future will bring them closer together (barring any serious political upheavals).

Riki3

Id say give it a generation or two, A couple of years ago I worked with a couple from their and they had a disgust for the over side of the wall they recon when the wall came down the poorer side came and brought their problems with them.

Now when i think about it, My Great Grand father fled Estonia after his family were executed by the Nazi and my New Zealand grandfather fought against them In WW2 and if I can became close friends with this German couple and my Aunt can marry a Italian with my Grand Fathers blessing I'm hope full that the two sides can come together.

CWV-Bavaria

I am no expert, just a old cold war vet in the US, that has a brother who married a girl from the Trier/Bitburg area of West Germany in the early '80s.

She told us that she thinks it will take 2 or 3 generations to get things back to the way they were prior to WW2.

I personally think it will be like 20 years from now max.

Rick

I am a Canadian living and working in the former DDR, I have worked in the West and East and I think there is a very long road ahead before the East and West will be truly united. I have first hand experience on the answer I am about to give you. Germany is and has been one country since 1989...unified....???

I partially agree with the previous answer, but I don't think there'll be any progress on the two identities of East West until the government starts treating the former DDR with the same rules as they treat the West. There is a lot of people in the East who resent the 'Wesies' for buying a up a lot of the old factories with promises of refurbishing them and making them a viable industry again. Instead, the West German companies bought up the factories and business and closed them all down to stamp out any possibility of competition from former East German industry. True, some of the companies did survive and are putting the West German companies to shame. The East German products are much better in quality and price.

One more point I'd like to make is, the government discriminates against East German citizens when it comes to pension, welfare, and other social programs. West Germans receive more pension, even though the East Germans worked harder and longer. The unemployment insurences II also discriminates the East Germans...The West Germans receive more when there is more opportunity in the West to find work. East Germans must look for work in the West. Although, there is more and more opportunity in the East for work with companies like DHL and Dow Chemical just to mention a couple. But there is a problem here too, The hourly pay rate is higher in the West than it is the East and this is what a lot of East Germans complain about. So much for the Equal pay for equal work.

Once these discriminatory policies of the government and businesses are removed, then and only then can the healing process between East and West ever start. So, to give you a quick answer to your question...it's up to the government and business.

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