What are some modern day cultural differences between West & East Germany?

Question

I need this for a Sr. level college paper...How have the sides merged since 1989? Is there still a vast division? I've heard people say there are many differences between northern and southern Germans, is this true? How does this relate to the former division of East & West?

Answer 1

Generally speaking, most northern Germans (and those from former East Germany) speak a cleaner dialect of German than people from the South. What I mean by clean is that it is easier to understand to non-native speakers.

Southern Germans speak a dialect known as Hoch Deutsch. One German from Hamburg said that the difference is that a person speaking Hoch Deutsch sounds as those they have marbles in their mouth while speaking.

However, Southern Germans (especially those from the state of Bavaria) seem to be in general more friendly than those from the north.

One remaining different between the old east and west is that children who attend schools in former West Germany attend school for 13 years, while those in former East Germany only go for 12 years.

Driving from East to West Germany, one difference that can be seen in the East (especially in Berlin) is the boxy, communist architecture that is very plain and boring. West Germany has some very interesting and innovative buildings. Another difference is that East Germany is very flat, while West Germany is has rolling hills with the Alps in Southern Bavaria.

Finally, in Berlin the lights that tell pedestrians whether or not to walk have men that are similar to crosswalk lights in American when in former West Berlin. However, in former East Berlin the cross walk men have hard hats and what appears to be tools in their hands, making them look like good communist workers.

Answer 2

The wages in East Germany are lower than in the western part, but also the living expenses. The unemployment rate of East Germany is bigger than that of West Germany (this is the biggest problem in Germany, therefore many people from the former GDR try to get jobs in the western part of Germany).

Also, the racism (n***s / Neo-n***s) is more a problem in East-Germany, while West-Germany is full of foreign people without (almost) any problems.

Answer 3

Well I have to say southern Germans are much more friendly.  I will never visit Berlin again.  Bavaria is wunderbar!

Answer 4

Liz gave an excellent answer.  I myself have lived in Germany for over 20 years with the US Military.  I have done patrol duty along the Iron Curtain while it exhisted.

The Old states (West) earn better wages, while the government offers those from the new states (East) financial benefits from lower taxes and higher interest rates at banks to offset their lower wages.  In the beginning the cost of living was lower in the new states.  That has pretty much evened out, but yet their wages remain a few steps behind their West coworkers.  

Those in the old states must also pay a reunification tax that Helmut told them would only be for a few years.  Well they still pay it and it has more then doubled since inception.

Due to higher unemployment and dissatisfaction n**i styled groups have persisted in the East.  There is no doubt that the new states are not as tolorant of non-caucasion foreigners, to the point of public beatings and attacks.  

The new states older generation is still not as open to strangers or new ideas due to the years of oppression and internal spying that was prevelant in the DDR.

I really enjoy joy riding on my motorcycle around the country side of the new states for multiple reasons.

-There is still virgin forests, while in the West they are almost all replanted and aligned like dominos.

-Architecture from the late 1800's and early 1900's exhists in abundance.  In the West these were torn down and replaced during the boom of the 1960's, while in the East that could not be afforded.  So they just covered or modified them.  Now many are reclaiming these structures and renovating them back to their glory.

-Their menu is slightly modified from that of the West and resturants with Russian cuisine can be found without much problem.

-There is a definite dialect difference that can be easily detected by German speakers.  Most notible is the pronounciation of K like a G.

Camparing North and South to East and West.  Northern Germans claim to speak better German and are much more uptight.  Much like in the USA between Rhode Island and Georgia.  East and West the major difference is with those who were grown up while the division exhisted.  The younger population does not seem as different.  The older (30 and older) were used to how the system worked in the DDR.  They had their special items and things they enjoyed.  Most all that changed when the wall fell and the West flooded over the border to a new market.  Very little from the Eastern commerce could compete and vanished.

Many of the over 50 crowd on both sides of the old border say they would like the wall to be put back up out of frustration with the Government.

I also find that women from the new states at better sexual partners.  I have heard many reasons for this.  It has been studied and concluded that those from the new states are better at and enjoy bedroom sports more then those from the old states.  Wierd huh?  Maybe they had nothing better to do when the wall was up.

Answer 5

Hopefully you are doing more research than just asking here ;-)

The sides have merged somehow, but there are plenty of wounds from Helmut Kohl's fast action back in 1990.

If you ride the train from Berlin to Hannover, you won't notice much what is "east German" and what is "west German". The train stations and roads have all been fixed up and have standardised signs; a lot of money has been also put into rennovating buildings, so appearances are not so starkly different.

Beyond the surface, though, the differences are very apparent: since reunification, ten per cent of the population of the former German Democratic Republic (East) has emigrated, many to western Germany if not completely out of the country, due to unemployment and a perceived lack of future in the east. As a result, numerous towns and smaller cities there have shrunk -- check out Cottbus for a good case study.

Another way to ascertain whether there is a big difference between the "east" and the "west" is to ask Germans from the northwestern part of the country if they would voluntarily move eastwards -- to Leipzig, Dresden, Erfurt, Cottbus ... I am sure many more would be OK about relocating to Berlin, but no where else in the former GDR. The other way around people would probably be more open -- if they haven't already emigrated yet.

As to the second part of your question, yes, there are differences between the Germans in the south and the Germans in the north. I am sure the fellow from Munich above would be just as keen to move to Hamburg as I, originally from New England, would be to move to Knoxville. There are different accents, although use of dialect seems to be dwindling -- probably influence of the standard German used on the TV. Up north Germans tend to be concerned about proper behaviour in public; southerners are not so "uptight". An ultra-northerner would use a fork and knife to eat a "butterbrot"; an ultra-southerner would eat pork knuckle with no utensils. And of course there is a religious difference as well, though I would say both northerners and southerners are quite moderate believers. Additional similarities include having small families with close ties through all generations, open attitutdes towards modern art and technology, an urban orientation, joint history and generally similar Weltanschauung on social issues.

And the third part of your qu: the northerners near the former GDR border were most affected by the change, obviously; many had relatives on the other side of the "wall" and the change meant the relatives could visit each other freely. This was not so much the case for residents of, say, Cologne and Munich, where the change was a little more abstract. So this is not so much a matter of North/South, but proximity to the dividing line.

I suppose good senior-paper questions to tackle would be: Should the two Germanies have reunified? If so, what should have been done differently?

Viel Spass dabei.