Syt, is there a cultural diference between West and East Germany?

[Siege]

I was reading the other german thread, the one about poverty, and I wonder if there is any noticeable cultural diference between the two.

By cultural diferences I specially refer to their visions of life, of how it should be, their expectations, their concepts of what's good or bad, the function of the State, sense of community, from local to nation level, perception of national and global politics, inmigration and emigration (are there any germans leaving germany?), etc, etc, etc.

[Zanza]

That's a pretty broad question and I'll leave it to Syt to answer it. I'd say that there are cultural differences in most of the points you describe, but then there is also a quite pronounced north-south difference in most of these points.

One more detailed answer: last year was the first time in decades that more Germans emigrated than immigrated (before that we had a steady influx of Germans from East and Central Europe). However, the by far most popular emigration destination was Switzerland so they don't go far.

[The Brain]

East Germany is described in Top Secret. AFAIK it's still valid.

[Syt]

I'll leave it to Syt to answer it.

And I can't answer it, really, because I never spent much time in the east or with easterners, so I can't formulate an opinion in this case.

[katmai]

Pfft syt is a bavarian, he don't know diddly.

[Syt]

Pfft syt is a bavarian, he don't know diddly.

Whaddaya want, nanook?

[Razgovory]

Pfft syt is a bavarian, he don't know diddly.

I thought he was from Hamburg or something.

[katmai]

Pfft syt is a bavarian, he don't know diddly.

I thought he was from Hamburg or something.

He says that to hide his shame.

[Syt]

To answer the original post: I could give a decent comparison between Holsteinian rural life and Austrian city life, but that's about it. Everything else would be shallow, superficial and based on clichés and misconceptions. And we don't do that on Languish.

[Razgovory]

To answer the original post: I could give a decent comparison between Holsteinian rural life and Austrian city life, but that's about it. Everything else would be shallow, superficial and based on clichés and misconceptions. And we don't do that on Languish.

God forbid!

[CountDeMoney]

I remember when my mother's cousins came to visit us less than a year after The Wall fell.
As Wessies, they said the biggest problem at the time was apparently how shitty the Ossie roads were.

[Threviel]

I was in the east around '90 or so. They still drove around in Trabants and a relative of us was so happy and proud of his new VW Golf. I was 10 years old so I wasn't as impressed as him.

They told us of Stasi, and of the fear that the neighbours would tell on them for watching western TV, of how happy they were to be free. The joy of being able to travel freely and so on.

Now they tell us that it was better then, that Stasi wasn't so bad, that everyone was friendlier and so on...

[Syt]

Small anecdote from a former colleague in Germany.

They had relatives in the GDR and would send "care packages" with west goods (esp. coffee, cigarettes, ...) for Xmas, Easter etc.

He was at the time pretty pissed that they would only ask for the brand name products until he realized that it wasn't arrogance but ignorance - watching west tv they only knew the brand name stuff from the commercials, not the no name stuff you'd get at the discounters.

[Josquius]

Small anecdote from a former colleague in Germany.

They had relatives in the GDR and would send "care packages" with west goods (esp. coffee, cigarettes, ...) for Xmas, Easter etc.

He was at the time pretty pissed that they would only ask for the brand name products until he realized that it wasn't arrogance but ignorance - watching west tv they only knew the brand name stuff from the commercials, not the no name stuff you'd get at the discounters.

This was allowed by the government?

[Caliga]

Is East Germany the: Dixie of Germany?