Am I seeing the "real" East Germany?

Question

I have always heard that the former East Germany is much poorer than west. But when I did some traveling, I saw very little poverty. I have visited the cities of Eisenach, Erfurt, Weimar, Nordhausen, and eastern Berlin. I have also driven through much of Thuringia, and the Thuringian Forest. All I saw was well dressed people, and nice cars. Am I not seeing poverty because these places are well visited by tourists? Or is the situation not as bad as it used to be.

Answer 1

Many larger cities have indeed blossomed. If you visit villages you will find that many of them are being deserted by the young. And many districts on the outskirts of places like Berlin are indeed very poor, but you have to seek them out, they aren't anywhere that you would just happen to be.

Answer 2

The situation has indeed changed, but also because, as you suggested, these are tourist places, especially Eisenach, Weimar and Berlin. If you had visited the small villages, you would have seen a lot of devastation: only old people there, the young ones moving into cities, and the buildings fall apart. The overall image of the east is still grey and poor. Not in the bigger cities though.

But it will change over the next years, after all, the reunion was just 18 years ago. And things like this take their time.