Matthias Bauer’s Post

View profile for Matthias Bauer, graphic

Urban Design, Planning & TOD Expert; LEED AP ND, ISOCARP

More than 30 years after German re-unification, the differences between East and West are still clearly discernible in the maps shown below. This, however, is not merely a legacy of the cold war, but a combination of: high reparation payments and factories being dismantled and sent to the Soviet Union immediately after the war (only from the East), 40 years of desastrous Communist economic policies, and last but not least the botched economic transformation after re-unification (in particular the ill-conceived currency reform and the hastened privatizations). Have a look at the map about "young people". This is because hundreds of thousands of well-educated young people moved to Western Germany to find a job. From my high-school class of 15 students, only two are still in the region, but twelve live and work in Western Germany - and one in Dubai :-) Contrary to general assumptions large parts of Eastern Germany - particularly the southern half - were highly industialized before WWII and even before WWI. Saxony (e.g. Chemnitz aka "the German Manchester") was one of the regions to kick-start early industrialisation with textile industries and machinery/ engineering. The original Horch/ Audi cars came from Zwickau/Saxony, and BMWs from Eisenach/Thuringia. Leipzig used to be a major trade center (insurance, publishing, trade fairs) on par with Frankfurt/ Main. The Halle-Dessau region excelled in advanced chemical industries (the world's first colour photographic film) and aviation (Junker). I could go on. This is really not a case of "the east has always been underdeveloped compared with Rhine/ Ruhr or Bavaria". The maps show clearly what persistent legacies such radical shifts in politics and economics create and how difficult it is to turn the fortunes of an entire large region around.

View profile for Ian Bremmer, graphic
Ian Bremmer Ian Bremmer is an Influencer

President at Eurasia Group

can’t stop watching this living legacy of the cold war in germany:

Tim Williams

Cities Practice Lead for Grimshaw; free speech advocate

8mo

Fascinating - bearing in mind that by UK standards of inequality between the former industrial regions, the reabsorption of the East into a united Germany - a project over decades involving massive transfers from government - has been a success.....

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Jens-Peter Schulz

CEO | Top Voice CRE | Investor in Real Estate & Startups | 1OX Advisor | 240K+ LinkedInLiveVOICE | Honorary President | Mentor | Founder | Speaker | Innovator in Digital Twin Innovation in Due Diligence 3.0

8mo

Thanks for sharing 🤩

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