Aufbau Ost

Project Canada: Fieldwork Phase Four

2008-09-07T17:34:00.003+02:00

Photographer and Biologist Arthur Sevestre, who is the author of "Project Canada" is currently in Canada, travelling through Yukon Territories and British Columbia. Check out his blog for updates and, for instance, for the story how road improvement work on Highway 37 has affected wild life behavior.

Project Canada Photo Exhibition

2008-06-19T14:12:00.000+02:00

Dutch photographer Arthur Sevestre is currently having a photo exhibition in Limburg (Lahn) Germany. The exhibition features marvelous pictures from different areas, such as the Isle of Skye and the Dutch coast. However, most of the pictures are from his field work for "Project Canada", which explores conservational and environmental issues in Canada. So if you happen to be in the area make sure to check out the exhibition.

Address:
Cafe Galerie
Brückengasse 5
65549 Limburg an der Lahn

The exhibition will be there to view till November 2008 and the venue is a really nice and cosy place to relax while having a good cup of coffee and enjoying the photographs.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-23T21:20:00.000+01:00

I would like to wish the readers of this blog happy holidays and all the best for 2008!
Thank you for stopping by this blog!

Dresden and Leipzig among the 10 most popular cities for Tourists

2007-09-23T17:38:00.000+02:00

Web.de reports that Dresden and Leipzig are among the 10 most popular citties for tourists. Last year nearly 53 million overnight stays were booked in German hotels. However, no single regions seemed to be more popular than another and the Top 10 presenting cities from North to South.
Here is the ranking (number of overnight stays booked in brackets:
1. Berlin (6.0 million)
2. Munich (4.2 million)
3. Frankfurt/ Main (2.5 million)
4. Cologne (1.6 million)
5. Hamburg (1.6 million)
6. Dusseldorf (1.2 million)
7. Stuttgart (830.000)
8. Dresden (490.000)
9. Hanover (416.000 )
10. Leipzig (307.000)

Well, in the spirit of this blog I would like to encourage tourists to travel more to the east of Germany to discover places from the Baltic Sea, Lake Müritz to Saxony Switzerland, cities like Rostock, Schwerin, Potsdam but also Weimar, Jena and Seiffen.
In this spirit I'd like to send you to a lightbox on Istock of pictures from the East found here:

Guest Blogging: Dams - beauties or beasts?

2007-08-09T11:48:00.000+02:00

Sunset can hide a lot from the eye. Here it is the complicated and laden subject of hydroelectricity. Just beyond the foot of the mountain on the right is a dam that controls the waterflow of the lake and that creates hydroelectricity that gives the town of Canmore, lying a few kilometers beyond that dam, a lot of its necessary power. It could be argued that dams provide green energy, because no burning of gas, coal or oil is needed. However, dams have huge impacts on the environment and not seldomly also on (indigenous) people. The lakes that form behind the dams flood huge areas and the plant material there will slowly rot, releasing methane. Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 is, so the CO2 emissions that dams save is at least partially nullified by that. The changes caused by the sudden appearance of a large lake takes the natural system quite a while to adapt to, especially if wildlife corridors or important habitat is suddenly lost. In the dammed river too, the changes are huge. The river itself of course is one big wildlife corridor and fish and other animals and plants are much hindered in their travels. Dams have caused dramatically reduced diversity in rivers, including the loss of breeding grounds for salmon in many parts of North America and the rest of the world.
In quite a few cases the building of dams led to the forced moving of native people (not only in North America!), not seldomly without any compensation for their losses. In some cases, where these people lived in such remote places that it was perceived to be too much trouble to seek them all out, they were not even warned and simply suddenly saw the water rising above their heads.
Such is the thirst for power (in more than one sense of the word) that dams have been built in many places thoughout the world, arguably producing green power, but at huge costs.

Read a related article here.

Written by Arthur Sevestre

In support of Project Canada this blog will feature small articles written by Arthur Sevestre about environmental and conservational issues in Canada. If you are interested in the goals of this project, please check out the website.

Guest blog: Living in bear country

2007-05-18T22:29:00.001+02:00

Living in an area where bears occur means that you need to adapt to them. The sheer size and strength of bears makes them a factor that you have to consider for many of the decisions you take in your daily life. Take going out for a walk for example. For your own safety it is a good idea to become a bit of a biologist so that you can recognize where you might encounter a bear and a bit of an animal behaviorist to know how to act to avoid an attack in case an encounter does happen. That extra knowledge is also important for decisions like where to store your trash, your dog food and if you will have a birdfeeder in your garden. Seemingly trivial things for those who do not live in 'bear country', but essential if you do and want to avoid luring bears to your house with all that potential food. Once that happens, a bear is often doomed. A food conditioned bear is not afraid of humans and will actively search them out because it knows that food is always nearby. Knowing that there are bears in the forests and mountains around you is one thing, but bumping into one when you open your backdoor is quite something else. Some very smart bears have even developed a way to scare hikers out of their backpacks in order to get to the food inside it. By chance they found out that hikers often drop their backpack to distract an aggressive bear's attention so that they had a chance to escape. From that it was only a small step for the bears to learn that a bluff charge will make the human simply drop the food right in front of your feet! Now if that isn't easy food! However, not much is needed to transform such a bluff charge, really not intended to hurt the hiker, into a full charge. So, conditioning bears to our food, be it in the garbage or in a backpack, intentional or not, can lead to extremely dangerous situations. Even if a conditioned bear has not been aggressive towards people yet, quite often the bear will be killed as a precaution because the conditioning is very hard to undo.

Negative conditioning is possible though, but is usually only successful in the very early stages. Because it can not only save human lives, but also that of bears, it is an important tool in the conservation of the animals. The method is often to shoot a bear with non-lethal rubber bullets, by making lots of noise and sometimes by letting specially trained dogs (Karelian bear dogs) harass the bear. This is done when a bear is found feeding or looking for food in or very close to a human settlement, so that it will start to associate that place with pain, irritation and other negative experiences instead of with an easy meal. This sounds easier than it really is. First of all, you have to be ready to start the negative conditioning as soon as the bear strikes. To be able to do this, some areas have specialized teams that are on the alert all the time. As you can see on this photograph of a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) in Kananaskis Country (Alberta, Canada), some bears wear transmitters (you can see an antenna hanging down from the ear tag), so that it is possible to keep an eye on their whereabouts. If the bear comes too close to a human settlement, the team can be ready on the spot, which makes the process all the more effective. The earlier a bear can be treated, the greater the chance of success and the smaller the chance that it will have to be shot.

The transmitter is not only used for this, but also for studying bears. A better understanding of the animals is also necessary for the conservation of the species, but can also help to reduce the risk of conditioning and dangerous encounters. Amongst other things, being able to monitor the places where bears hang out through the seasons has shown that they often choose different places as the year progresses. In Banff National Park for example, that has led to closures of certain areas for the public in a certain period of the year because it is very likely that bears will be there at that time. This way, a lot of trouble can be avoided and it makes it easier for humans and bears to share their living space in peace.

Written by Arthur Sevestre

In support of Project Canada this blog will feature small articles written by Arthur Sevestre about environmental and conservational issues in Canada. If you are interested in the goals of this project, please check out the website.

Little Sister

2007-05-17T07:40:00.000+02:00

Yesterday "Aufbau Ost" got a little sister blog. Since I started to earn a bit of money with my photography I created a blog promoting my work. If you are interested, you can check it out here: http://mellimage.blogspot.com

Renft Street really coming?

2007-04-25T21:58:00.000+02:00

Remember my post from last October? The one announcing the Tamara-Danz-Street? In that post I asked: "Now, I am wondering if we will see in the future a Renft-square or a Dreilich-Road? Maybe a suggestion for urban planners?"

Today the Leipziger Volkszeitung reported that Leipzig might become its Renft-Street, a street named after Klaus Renft who passed away last year after loosing a battle with cancer. Apparently city-councillor Guenther Poetzsch had the idea for a Renft-Street which is supported by the city committee for cultural affairs.

Plans so far suggest that the street to be named after Renft will be in Moeckern, near the "Anker" a cultural institution that is host to many musical guests. The naming of the street might take place on October 9th, 2007 which marks the first anniversary of Renft's passing. Naming the street after him shall recognize Renft's constant critical thinking about the totalitarian regime of the GDR and he thus had become a role model for many.

Turnout high and low

2007-04-23T11:01:00.000+02:00

It seems as if yesterday was a beautiful day all over Europe. In terms of electoral participation it had its positive and negative effects. As well noted throughout the media, electoral turnout was the highest in 25 years in the presidential race in France.
Things are quite different in Saxony-Anhalt. Electoral turnout set a new record there as well - a record low. Only 35,3 per cent (Source: Volksstimme) of those allowed to vote decided to actually cast their vote. The lowest turnout happened in the "Saalekreis" where only 32.2 percent of the voters went to vote.
Just like in the state elections last year, Saxony-Anhalt makes headlines with its low turnout numbers. The low turnout in this election may be due to the nature of the election, which became necessary because of the administrative reform in the state. With the creation of new counties elections became necessary, however, the councils are rather distant organs for voters. On the other hand, it seems as if overall dissatisfaction with politics plays another major role in the low turnout numbers. Infratest dimap (through the MDR) cites disappointment in politics as the number-one reason (51%) for the low turnout. On the other hand, 58% of the respondents of a survey said that they weren't interested in local elections.

Sarcastic Campaign

2007-04-21T23:36:00.000+02:00

There are local elections tomorrow in Saxony-Anhalt. A few weeks ago I spotted this campaign poster in Merseburg:

The printed part says (roughly translated): Saxony-Anhalt - we are moving forward
The handwritten part adds: towards disaster.

Guest blog: Wildfires in the Kootenay National Park (Canada)

2007-04-20T23:00:00.000+02:00

In support of Project Canada this blog will now from time to time feature small articles written by Arthur Sevestre about environmental and conservational issues in Canada. This is the first one. If you are interested in the goals of this project, please check out the website.

Kootenay National Park has suffered much under wildfires in the past decade or two, as this picture shows. Many square kilometers of forest have been burned, especially during the extremely hot and dry summer of 2003 and much of that area's 'cover of vegetation' still consists only of blackened dead trunks of burned trees. The ground is still barren, nothing grows there, wildlife finds nothing to eat there and that will remain so for years...

Ironically, forest fires are part of the natural processes in these forests. The species are adapted to them and for some of them regular fires are even vital for their survival. But there are roughly two kinds of fires. Under normal natural circumstances, the first kind only burns the surface and what is above it, leaving the seedbank deeper down in the soil intact. The dying of the trees and other older plants gives the seeds in the ground the space and light that they need to develop. Some seedpods that accumulate on or just underneath the surface actually only open to release their seeds when they are burned. And so, not long after the fire, there will be a whole fresh cover of young plants that will eventually grow out into a forest again. This fresh cover is a very important foodsource for many species that cannot find enough food in older forests, which typically offer less of the easy to digest and easy to reach young vegetation. These herbivores then serve as food for predators and so the circle of life runs its course. The size of these fires is usually relatively small and only occurs where enough flammable material has accumulated, which is often only in mature forests where old dry leaves, needles and bark pile up. The relatively low temperatures of this fire makes it burn slowly and when it reaches a place with less highly flammable material, like a recent burn with young vegetation, it will simply go out. In this way, only small patches here and there are rejuvenated, which helps to keep the natural system dynamic and diverse.

Unfortunately, management has suppressed these natural forest fires for many years because they were deemed destructive and harmful instead of rejuvenating and necessary (interestingly, many native people knew about the beneficial powers of wildfires long before 'the white man' even arrived in the Americas). This led to two important results and eventually to the second kind of fire. The first result was that there was no more rejuvenating. The whole area kept on developing into mature forest, and the young vegetation typical for recent burns disappeared. This disturbed the circle of life, because animals that needed the fresh greens to survive were going hungry, and their predators awaited the same fate. The second result was that the heaps of dry leaves, bark and moss that under normal circumstances would have ignited a 'rejuvenating' fire, were kept from doing so and thus only grew higher. The suppression of fires went as planned for a certain period, but with more and more flammable material it kept getting harder and harder to keep it from igniting. In the extremely hot and dry summer of 2003 especially, suppression was no longer possible and many areas of British Columbia and some in Alberta finally caught fire. But this fire had a completely different result compared to the first one. The abundance of food for the flames made them much hotter and they did not only burn the surface, but also the seedbank. Moreover, the uniformity of the forests meant that the fires found food everywhere and were not stopped by areas with less flammable material. Therefore, much larger areas burned in one time. These fires were not rejuvenating, they were sterelizing! And instead of bringing diversity and dynamics, diversity took a deep dive and the area will not be dynamic anymore for a long time. It will take many years for seeds to arrive in the area again and for nature to restore itself again.

Since the last decade of the 20th century, realisation is growing that wildfires will have to keep occuring. Fortunately, management is adapting to that knowledge and now sometimes intentionally sets fire to certain areas before there will be enough food for the flames to make them too hot. The fires are still more or less controlled in that way, so that human activities in the area are less affected by unpredicted fires. It is a step in the right direction, but much research is still needed to find the best ways to manage this phenomenon.

written by Arthur Sevestre

Before and after

2007-04-13T21:54:00.000+02:00

8 sunny days in between

Leipzig - View from the "Fockeberg"

2007-04-06T21:44:00.000+02:00

Anne Ruthmann, whose photographic work I admire, told the readers of her blog to blog something on their own blog, so she has something to see when she cannot sleep. So here we go with some views of Leipzig downtown, taken from the top of the Fockeberg (in the south of Leipzig) last week.

View to downtown showing the mdr highrise and the Messehochhaus

View to downtown showing the townhall on the right, the roof (greenish color) of the Federal administrative court and the Westin Hotel highrise

I know this all is not that spectacular, more to see and read in the next few days, promise!

Project Canada 2007

2007-03-27T18:33:00.001+02:00

Support Project Canada and get a signed print free!

This project's goal is raising awareness of natural values in the Canadian Rockies.The first period of Field research was done in 2005. The fieldwork period in 2005 was mainly intended for reconnaissance and building up a network with relevant organizations and individuals. Both have worked out well. The period resulted in several published articles and photos in magazines. Now Arthur Sevestre is back in Canada to conduct further research. If you want to help making this fieldwork period successful, if you want to help making this whole project more efficient and if you can afford it, then please consider supporting Project Canada. This project is a self-financed research project. In return for your support , you will receive Arthur's deep gratitude, a special mention on the project's website, a signed photograph of your choice and a discount on the book that this project will eventually culminate in!

For further details see: Project Canada

Natural Curtains

2007-03-22T18:14:00.000+01:00

It's snowing outside. In fact, it has snowed these past two days of spring than it snowed all winter.

First snow in Leipzig

2006-12-28T23:10:00.000+01:00

After some very warm days in Leipzig we had the first showing of winter today. For a few hours we had snow on the ground. Now it is all melting away. But here is the proof from this afternoon:

Holiday greetings

2006-12-22T16:36:00.000+01:00

Scandinavia's first astronaut

2006-12-11T00:06:00.000+01:00

Scandinavia sent its first astronaut to space this past weekend. Christer Fuglesang, a Swede with a Norwegian father, started his trip to space on board the Discovery.
More can be found here.

Potsdam

2006-11-22T18:42:00.000+01:00

Pictures from summer 2005.

Sans Souci

Downtown in the late afternoon

Window in the Alexandrovka settlement

Do not use without authorization

Tamara-Danz-Straße is reality

2006-11-17T14:38:00.000+01:00

Tuesday the Tamara-Danz-Straße in Berlin became reality.

Copyright by: ddp

More information (in German) here.

City Blogs

2006-11-05T00:46:00.000+01:00

If you wanna know more about what's going on in cities such as these:

Leipzig: http://leipzig-blog.de/
Dresden: http://dresden-blog.de/
Chemnitz: http://chemnitz-blog.de/
Bautzen: http://bautzen-blog.de/
Zwickau: http://zwickau-blog.de/
Halle (Saale): http://halle-blog.de/
Potsdam: http://potsdam-blog.de/
Erfurt: http://erfurt-blog.de/
Rostock:http://rostock-blog.de/
Berlin: http://berlin-blog.de/

I am sure there are many more.

Fall in Leipzig

2006-11-03T17:09:00.000+01:00

Do not use without authorization.

Cottbus has the library of the year

2006-10-24T14:39:00.000+02:00

The university library of the Brandenburg Technical University won the "library of the year" award, which comes with a grant of 30 000 euros. This library was chosen for the award because it is a center that combines library, multi-media center and computer lab in one building with an extra-ordinary architecture. Source: TU Cottbus

Copyright by Martin Ridder at www.fotos.sc

Since none of the East German universities could be named elite universities (no East German university placed in the top 10 even), it is comforting that an East German university has a well equipped library with an innovative concept.

Renft passes away, street to be named after Tamara Danz

2006-10-11T22:54:00.000+02:00

This passed weekend another well-known East German musician, Klaus Renft, passed away at the age of 64. He had suffered from cancer. Renft was leader of the Klaus Renft Combo, a band that was founded in 1958 in Leipzig. One of its most-well known songs was "Wer die Rose ehrt". Due to its very politically critical songs, the band was forbidden in the 1970s.
Personally, I do not have a true connection to the Renft combo, but it still saddens me that after Tamara Danz of Silly and Herbert Dreilich of Karat another great East German musician has passed away. Having grown up with a father who loved music, I listened to the radio a lot as a child and followed the East German charts religiously. Thus, such "oldies" like "Wer die Rose ehrt", "Als ich wie ein Vogel war" and "Apfeltraum" are dear to my heart and I still listen to them. Just like I still (occassionally) listen to Karat and Silly.

And speaking of Silly: TAZ reports, that a street around the new Anschutz-Arena in Berlin (in the Ostbahnhof area) will be named "Tamara-Danz-Street". Tamara Danz was the lead singer of the band Silly and died from cancer in 1996. Information as to why the city council choose Tamara Danz isn't available. However, Tamara Danz lived and worked in Berlin and aften sang about the city.

Now, I am wondering if we will see in the future a Renft-square or a Dreilich-Road? Maybe a suggestion for urban planners?

Baltic Sea II

2006-07-21T14:09:00.000+02:00

This isn't meant to be a photoblog, but since I just returned from another beautiful trip to the Baltic Sea, here some impressions.

sunrise

Full moon rise

Note: don't use these pictures without authorization!

Upcoming Exhibition in the Netherlands

2006-05-20T20:28:00.001+02:00

The church of St. Nicholas in Brouwershaven/ Netherlands will be featuring a photo exhibition of my good friend Arthur Sevestre from June 9 to June 22, 2006.
The exhibition will show two subjects in Arthur's photography - his excellent landscape photography will be showcased in the pictures of the Dutch coast. The other pictures will be from Arthur's trip to Canada in the last year. Arthur set up the "Project Canada" last year which tries to raise the awareness for the natural values of the Rocky Mountains.

Arthur is currently preparing another trip to Canada to do further work on this project. If you are interested in the project and/or wish to support him, check out his exhibition and the website of the PROJECT CANADA.

Update: Due to unexpected circumstances the exhibition will only feature prints from the Dutch coast. However, you can see the Canadian prints on Athur's side.

Copyrights of the pictures are all with Arhur Sevestre.

Mein Leipzig lob ich mir

2006-03-03T19:14:00.001+01:00

I found a link to a picture gallery with pictures of my hometown - Leipzig. I recommend a visit.

Copyright is with the owners of leipzig-picture.com

Mrs. Merkel and her cabinet

2005-10-11T16:22:00.000+02:00

Now that the decision is made that Angela Merkel will be the next German Chancellor, speculations break loose who will become a member of the cabinet. Only a few things are clear. The SPD will receive 8 posts, the CDU/ CSU will head 6 departments plus the chancellorship. Edmund Stoiber from the CSU seems to become the new minister for economics and technology.

But who will become what? Today’s LVZ has a run up of possible candidates.
Foreign Ministry (SPD):
Gunther Verheugen (currently EU commissioner), Peter Struck (current defense minister) and Otto Schily (currently minister for interior affairs; both outsiders for the position). Wolfgang Thierse (current president of the Bundestag) is the true exotic name mentioned here.

Labor and Social affairs (SPD):
Franz Müntefering, Ulla Schmidt (current minister for Health), Sigmar Gabriel and Peer Steinbrück.

Interior affairs (CDU/CSU):
Wolfgang Schäuble, Günther Beckstein (CSU), Peter Müller (Prime Minister from the Saar) and Wolfgang Bosbach.

Finance (SPD):
Peer Steinbrück, Frank Walter Steinmeier, Jochen Dieckmann and as an outsider Hans Eichel.

Defense (CDU):
Jörg Schönbohm (Minister for interior affairs Brandenburg), Michael Glos (CSU), Peter Müller and Friedbert Pflüger.

Justice (SPD):
Almost certain: current justice minister Brigitte Zypries.

Family, Women, Youth and Elderly (CDU):
Also almost certain: Ursula von der Leyen (Minister for social affairs Lower-Saxony)

Education (CDU):
Anette Schavan (ex-education minister in Stuttgart).

Health (SPD):
Ulla Schmidt (currently heading this ministry) or Andrea Nahles, who comes from the left wing of the SPD.

Consumer Protection, Food and Agrarian Affairs (CDU/ CSU)
Horst Seehofer (CSU)

Traffic and Construction (SPD):
Peer Steinbrück, Kurt Bodewig or Christoph Matschie (SPD-leader in Thuringia and former state secretary of this ministry).

Environment and nuclear safety (SPD):
Sigmar Gabriel, Heiko Maas, Ulrich Kelber

State Secretary in the Chancelor’s office (CDU):
Norbert Röttgen, Thomas de Maiziere (minister of interior affairs in Saxony), Volker Kauder.

Of course, these names are for the most part just speculation and may have changed already by tomorrow.
But where are the East German names in this list of names. The obvious ones are Merkel herself, who is not only the youngest and first female chancellor in Germany, but also the first East German. The other obvious one is Wolfgang Thierse. The other East German on this list is Christoph Matschie from the SPD. The Saxon CDU also tried to put Arnold Vaatz on the list for a cabinet spot. Even though Schönbohm is Minister for interior affairs in Brandenburg he is not an East German, he is a West German who is working in East Germany. Ironically he caused quite some uproar among East Germans with some degrading comments earlier this summer. After this incident it was said that he just destroyed his chances for a cabinet post. So to find his name on the list is maybe a surprise. Or maybe not. After all Edmund Stoiber is a pretty sure candidate for his ministry position. Regardless of the insulting comments he made toward East Germans this past summer.

We will know probably by mid-November who was selected and who wasn’t. Then we will also know how many East Germans will be part of the cabinet. Kurt Beck, prime minister from the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate, said it should be the goal that at least one East German receives a ministry post in the new cabinet. We will see.

Baltic Sea

2005-07-05T16:30:00.000+02:00

I went to the Baltic Sea (Warnemünde) last week and took a few pictures. I love the scenery up there, so I hope you enjoy this entry.

Playing the tax game

2005-05-29T18:29:00.000+02:00

Web.de cites an article of the "Bild am Sonntag" in which it is reported that after early federal elections this fall the value added tax will rise in order to balance out revenue shortcomings. According to the article leading politicians by the CDU AND the SPD agree that value added tax needs to rise, and they suggest an increase by 4%, from 16 to 20%.

I think - bad idea. Germany's economic problems are largely due to a low domestic demand. People are saving their money for a better day. With increased value added tax, prices for every day life will rise, every shopping trip will end up more expensive. This will lead people to by less than more. This means, domestic demand will decrease further. Investments will be delayed. This will of course affect then businesses more that are dependent on the domestic market, but not so much the larger "global players" who sell their products abroad as well.
If additionally CDU plans would be implemented, where workers protection is decreased, the standard citizen will feel more uncertain about their personal future. More uncertainty - less consumption. People will save the little money have for the future - they may need it as an emergency fund.
The German economy on the other hand needs domestic demand, needs consumer confidence. The growth generated based on export is not strong enough to have labor market effects. So if you kill consumer confidence, you will increase the problems for the German economy.

Furthermore, an increase of the value added tax is unsocial and more likely to widen the gap between rich and poor. As a flat tax an increase of the value added tax will affect the poor more than the rich. For someone who earns only 900 euros, an increase in food purchases from 200 to 208 euros hurts more than for someone who has twice or three times as much money.
The CDU, from the little that is known about their concepts, also plans some other measures that will cost the normal citizen (employees) more. There is the possible introduction of tuition, there is the possibility of introduction of student loans with interest rates in order to replace the current Bafoeg model. This will in the long run make it harder for poorer people to afford an education.

I also see an increase of value added tax critical for the general trust in politics. If an increased value added tax is coming anyways, it might as well come now. It shows, just like in the last federal elections that the two large parties, while pretending to be different and having the better solution, actually have very similar concepts. So what's all the finger pointing and mudslinging about?

Of course, all of these concepts and plans are just that right now: concepts and plans. Nothing is set in stone. The news may be false. So one will have to keep the eyes open of what is happening. However, so far, I don't like what I see.

An east German chancellor - successful integration of East Germans into the political elite?

2005-05-27T04:11:00.000+02:00

According to an MDR article some CDU and FDP members publicly debate whether or not the next Minister for the "Aufbau Ost" really needs to be an East German, or if the job could be done by a West German as well. It appears that many of the (east German) CDU members (Vaatz, Milbradt), but also Georg Milbradt, Saxony's prime minister and FDP member Cornelia Pieper don't seem to think this would be necessary. The key quote comes from former prime minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Christoph Bergner saying that if we had an East German chancellor, we don't need an East quota anymore.

I am concerned. No, I don't think it necessarily needs to be an East German holding that specific ministry post. What concerns me is, that this is the ONLY cabinet post currently occupied by an East German. Would Merkel be the ONLY East German in the next cabinet?

The number of cabinet posts held by East Germans has gone down over the years. While the first post-unification cabinet had 4 East German ministers, the current one has one - the one for Aufbau Ost, traffic and construction, occupied by Manfred Stolpe.

But also in other areas of the political elite, representation of East Germans is low. The number of East Germans chairing committees in the Bundestag is currently at an all time low. Only two East Germans, both FDP members, chair committees. Neither one of the two (Guttmacher and Pieper) held the post from the beginning of the current legislative period. Guttmacher got the chair position for the Petitions committe last year, two years into the legislative period. Pieper needed to trade in her post as general secreatary of the FDP in order to become chair of the Education committee in January of this year. (I doubt, that this expertise will land her in a possible CDU-FDP coalition the job as education minister, as her ideas on education policy go strongly against the FDP party line).

Another major concern I would have with Merkel being the only East German in a CDU-FDP cabinett, is that she would continue to shape the image of East Germans as competent politicians. Stolpe's popularity has declined over the years of him being minister for the Aufbau Ost. He is largely considered incompetent. And there are media reports suggesting that the only reason why he hasn't been replaced yet is that he is the ONLY East German in the cabinett.

Merkel would be shaping the image of East Germans as politicians and leaders as well. I doubt however, she has the key to solve the problems Germany is having. If she fails - will this block East Germans from getting top positions in the "nearer future" (2009, 2013)?
Many voters already seem to have concerns about Merkel's possible candidacy. Hearing reports from friends, I understand that one of the reasons not to vote for Merkel is that she is East German.

BTW, while I am disappointed that the above mentioned members of the CDU and FDP think the East German quota is fulfilled if Merkel becomes chancellor, I am not too surprised: it appears, that members of the CDU tend to identify more as Germans than as East Germans than their peers from the SPD or even the PDS.

The race for the Bundestag has begun

2005-05-24T02:14:00.000+02:00

In a “surprise attack” chancellor Schroeder announced he and his party (at least those knowing about this) will try for early federal elections in the fall. This decision followed the loss of the election in North Rhine Westphalia, a traditional SPD state, governed by the SPD for almost four decades.

If this happens, this is going to be an exciting summer for me. I get to see a new campaign. How is voter behavior shaping up? What is gonna be the outcome of a new election? Will Schroeder achieve what he wants with this move – an early third term, or will Germany see a new coalition in power in December? Will Germany have a FEMALE EAST GERMAN chancellor?

Well first of all, the whole move by the SPD may look like political hara-kiri. They are trailing way behind the CDU in the current polls and the Greens have serious problems after the visa-scandal around Joschka Fischer. Their results in the polls and Joschka Fischer’s image are way down. So why do this? Why not wait until next year, hope that the Greens recover from the scandal, hope that the economy shows some progress and maybe hope that Germany wins or at least performs well on the soccer championship in Germany in 2006 (Schroeder as a soccer fan would most likely be able to get more sympathy points for that over his most likely opponent Angela Merkel).

The situation for him isn’t that great right now. The CDU is strengthened in the Bundesrat, his own coalition not as united as it needs to be in order to push for more economic reforms. Being blocked by the opposition and being passive is not Schroeder’s style. He is the man who tries to sell himself as the one who does things. Have mud flung at him and hoping for things that may never come (after all, the economic situation may not get better, the Greens might not recover and Germany could loose out in the qualifying rounds) is a too passive and too risky move. Furthermore it may worsen the conflicts within the SPD (between the left wing and the reformist wing) and then leave the SPD defeated and divided in the opposition. This surprise attack gives Schroeder the chance to get the party behind him, get them up and running, stop the bickering.

Furthermore it gives him a bit of an advantage over the CDU/CSU. The CDU/CSU is not united. They haven’t solved the so called “K-frage” (the nomination for chancellor). They haven’t thought out a clear program, new concepts. Will they self-destruct? Will they bicker internally over who will represent them in the campaign? Will they be able to get concepts together that are clear and convincing and superior to the Agenda 2010 proposed by Schroeder? Ruettgers, the newly elected prime minister of the state of North Rhine Westphalia from the CDU surely was able to dip into the SPD voter clientele by getting workers to vote for him. Will this work on the federal level?

Another interesting question is what kind of issues will be important in the election? According to DW-TV, the SPD plans to focus on the economy and foreign policy. The economy is unavoidable. It is on the minds of the people, they need to show competence there, even though things are not going well at the moment. If they weren’t picking this issue, the CDU would force it on them. The SPD needs a way to frame this issue themselves (and catching the CDU off guard might give them that little advantage).
Choosing foreign policy is an interesting move. I have the feeling the SPD tries a similar thing that worked in the last election: feeding off the unpopularity of George Bush. Big stretch you think? George Bush is not popular among the German population. However, Angela Merkel has supported Bush’s position. It is possible that the SPD tries to feed off this move and exploit it to their advantage. Claudia Roth from the junior partner the Greens made a similar reference this morning already. Another thing: the anti-war stance of the SPD might have mobilized some PDS voters to vote for the SPD (the lesser evil) in the last election. Trying to dip into that resource again?

What else? Education? Health Care? CDU/ CSU is internally divided on the latter and blocking some reforms in the Education area (junior professorship). Another thing is that most CDU-led states support the introduction of tuition for studies. The SPD doesn’t. Another way for the SPD to mobilize the younger voters?

I am very interested to see what is happening in the East this time around. The 2002 election was won in the East. With many East Germans not being clearly aligned with one of the traditional parties, their votes are up for grabs. Will they vote SPD again (voting for the lesser evil), will Angela Merkel be able to mobilize East Germans to vote for her, because she is an East German (an argument that could totally backfire in the West in turn). East Germans are more likely to vote for Angela Merkel than West Germans are. One reason for West Germans not to vote for her could be perceived incompetence. Angela Merkel does not have a positive image. Another reason is – she is a female. Is Germany ready for a female leader? DW-TV did a few street interviews in Munich, the CSU heartland. There one guy said he’d leave Germany when Angela Merkel becomes chancellor. Another said he’d prefer a man as a leader in these hard times Germany is facing. On the other hand, others were quite open to the idea of having a female chancellor and also said someone from the new laender (East Germany) would be desirable.

How will the PDS perform? So far I haven’t heard anything from that party. Latest polls have the PDS between 4% and 5% nationally and at 22.3% in the East (they got 16.9% from East German voters in 2002, but their support had dropped to that from 23% only in the last 4 weeks before the 2002 elections). What will their strategy be? Will they try to go after unhappy left SPD voters in the West and will they be able to mobilize them? What would a PDS entry to the Bundestag mean? How does that affect coalition making? Let the CDU support drop by 4% (to 40) and the FDP stay at their 8% - we have 48% for CDU/CSU and FDP. If the SPD gets 4%(from the current 28.6) more, the Greens 10% (currently at 9.8) and the PDS 6% nationally – this camp has about 48% then too. What coalition will we see? Possibly even a grand one? Or a red-green-pink one? Red-Green and yellow?

Can the SPD get the 4% more? It is possible. In 2002 they had in May 33.2%, by September they had 38.5% However, the CDU had remained fairly stable in their poll results from May 2002 to September 2002, peaking in August at 40%. The increased SPD support came at the expense of the PDS back then. I am doubtful they can dip into that reservoir again like they did then. East Germans (or a substantial amount of the voters there) might not trust either one of the big parties this time around and vote PDS. After all the PDS is stronger in some laender governments than the SPD (Saxony, Thuringia). On the other hand, the PDS does not have a strong identification figure at the moment, like Gregor Gysi was. Not being able to actively participate on the federal level has left them with very little to show for on the national level. All they can bank on right now is how they participate in the East German laender and in some cities.

So here are a bunch of questions (and I could raise more…). I am curious to see how the answers unfold over the next months. The race has begun.

Living in America

2005-04-29T05:07:00.000+02:00

Living in America to me is a constant process of adjustment. Coming to this country meant to me that I needed to adjust to a completely new way of living. I needed to adjust to a different way of beds being made, coffee tasting different, sausages I was familiar with not being available. In the very same way it meant I needed to adjust to a new lifestyle - coming from a larger town to a smaller town in the Midwest of the United States meant being more depended on cars or people who had cars. Needing to get used for sidewalks being barely available, walking to some place making you look weird. Living in smaller town America means that going to a movie theater by public transportation can be a whole day affair, while going the same distance by car wouldn't take the long.

Living in America means adjusting to a very different sense of national pride. Coming from a nation, where saying “I am proud to be a German” still raises eyebrows in a negative way, discovering American national pride and patriotism are an adjustment. Add to this that I as an East German ain't even used to being a German, being proud of a country I barely identify with is a very hard thing to do. Living in America also means to adjust to be confronted with different ideas and mindsets. I thought everyone knew how human beings became human beings - the idea of evolution is so natural to me. Living in America, has taught me it isn't. Creationism is an idea that is still asked to be taught in school. It is also in America where I had to learn that looking at issues like homosexuality or a woman's role in the family does not necessarily mean people look at the issue the way I do. I encountered people finding it normal to say that "homosexuality is a choice, it's a sin" and that a woman's place is to serve her husband. Things I have been taught very different.

Living in America, or better, living in the US also means to adjust images of that country. For many Germans, the US is the land of dreams, the land of opportunity. Things in America are always possible and much easier to achieve. People in America are always heroes, great people, better than anything we know anyways. But America isn't that. Neither is America a country where you only have fat and stupid people that always rally around the flag, that don't know anything about other countries and cultures; that are conservative religious fanatics. The US doesn't fit that image either. The US has people I like and people I don't like. However, living in the US meant I had to adjust my personal image. Close to end of me living in the US, I'd inclined to say the US is just another country - different from what I am used to, just like any other foreign country.

Note: the idea for this entry comes from my friend and colleague Miguel. He gave the task and I will hereby pass it to my readers:
"In no more than three paragraphs (brief, please), describe "America". Be creative. A caveat, I don't mean talk about politics or foreign policy or any of that stuff. This is a specific question. Describe, essentially, what living in America is like, specifically, what living in "your" America is like (e.g. what's daily life like in your piece of America?).Of course, if you've never "lived" in America, this isn't for you."

"Zone"

2005-03-16T04:20:00.000+01:00

"Zone" is a term that came up today in a conversation. It's not the first time it came up in a conversation. What does the word refer to? The Soviet occupied zone also known as the GDR. The term has been used in conversations by West Germans only. Interestingly enough by West Germans (in my experience) of different ages. However, it bothers me. It bothers me because it does not acknowledge that the GDR was an indeed existing country. By using the word "Zone" the GDR becomes a second class territory, not a full state. And what are the citizens of that zone then. It wouldn't be the first time East Germans are called zonies, which is rather derogatory.

However in my reality it is a state and only few would deny that for the 40 years it existed it was an independent state. A country that had its own flag, its own national anthem, its own army and made largely its own policy. Of course policy making was influenced by the Soviet Union, but no one would argue Poland was a zone, so why degrade the GDR to just a "zone".So aside from it being a derogatory term there is something else that irks me about it. Because it is not just me who acknowledges the GDR as a reality, as a state. As a state that has citizens who are/were loyal to it. A part of the civil rights movement was of a generation that grew up with the GDR being a reality and a united Germany being an idea of the past. In the same sense they constructed their initial demands for reform - as reform of that state. At the very beginning of the protest movement in 1989 reform was the priority not unification, unification made the agenda much later.

Now most of the people highly identified with the movement of back then have disappeared, but what about politicians of today that are of the same generation, how has the reality of two existing states shaped their loyalties? Are they more loyal to the region now because it is their country and has that affected their ambitions of being engaged in national politics? I am asking and wondering just based on two observations, interview statements made by Matthias Berger (mayor of Grimma) and Wolfgang Tiefensee (mayor of Leipzig). Both became nationally famous, Berger when the flood of 2002 hit Grimma and destroyed large parts of it and Tiefensee when he pushed the application of Leipzig as German Olympic candidate for the Summer Games 2012. Tiefensee declined calls for serving in the German cabinet following the 2002 national election and Berger said in an interview he is more concerned with solving the local problems of his town and not interested in being involved in national politics.

This raises the question whether or not underrepresentation of East Germans in national level elite positions is (at least in part) due to a lack of interest to be involved nationally. Aside from the fact that the national parties suffer from low participation by East Germans to begin with, could be the reason why we do not see more East Germans nationally because the elite is not interested in serving nationally and feel they are more useful getting involved on the local and state level?

November 9th, 1989

2004-11-09T18:00:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I visited a colleague in his class to speak (together with another colleague) about life in a communist country. Before we started our talk the students and I watched a movie about Ceaucescu and the Rumanian revolution of 1989. In this movie we also saw coverage from November 9th, 1989 - the day the wall came down. It sent a shiver up my spine. I still remember that day and the following day well.

November 9th, 1989 I was a teenager in Leipzig/ East Germany. I was 13 years old and my parents were in the middle of their rather ugly divorce.
November 9th was a Friday (if I remember correctly). It was a friend's birthday. So we had a great party. Played and laughed, had nice food. The friend lived in the same house as we did, just a floor above us. At 9pm the party was over and my sister and I went home. We saw mom in front of the TV looking at the pictures with disbelief. The wall was open. People could freely go to West Berlin. People could travel to West Germany. We thought, this is not gonna last, this is just gonna be for the weekend, then they close the wall again.
The 10th of November was spent entirely in front of the TV. Seeing the kilometers of Trabis and Wartburgs rolling West, people dancing on the wall. It seemed surreal. We were in disbelief and excited at the same time. Would we be able to go to West Berlin or West Germany ourselves?
The wall stayed open. Not just that weekend. It stayed open the week after, and the month after and the years after. The weeks after were characterized by reports of people traveling to the West, very crowded trains. We too went to West Berlin. Must have been late November or early December that we went. Mom, Grandma, my sister and me. The train was packed. It took forever to get to Berlin. And then we arrived, crossed over to West Berlin without anyone stopping us. We drove with one of the double decker busses through West Berlin to a place where we could get the "Begruessungsgeld" - 100DM given to every East German that arrived for the first time in the West. I think we stood in line for this for hours (but then again a kid's perception of time is always different). My sister and I did not like standing in line and were running around a bit, seeing the fruits the stores sold. I remember after we got the money, we went shopping. We did not buy much. We bought some fruit and I remember we bought an umbrella for my mom. The rest we saved. We spent it the next March for a real trip to the West - not to West Germany, but to Paris. Paris for a day. For a cold and rainy day in March.
I remember I wasn't truly impressed with either of the two "Western" places we went to first: West Berlin and Paris did not impress me much. But I liked it when we traveled to Bavaria and to visit relatives in Lower Saxony in 1990.

To be given the chance to travel around was for me the most significant gain from the fall of the wall. And of course, with the opening of the wall and unification of Germany we got better produce - more fruit, a better selection of groceries. As a kid of course, I never realized any restrictions on freedom of expression. I think this is why the freedom to travel was one of the greatest accomplishments to me from that time. I really appreciated it when I went on a school exchange to Sweden in 1993 and was in disbelief when I got on a plane to "move" to the US in 1999. Who would have thought that all this would happen when we watched the wall come down November 9th, 1989?

PS: You want to read more personal accounts of this day look here and if you are able to read German definitely look here.

Lacky's retreat and East Germans in the Media

2004-10-31T17:00:00.000+01:00

East German singer and songwriter Reinhard "Lacky" Lakomy will give his last concert for an adult audience on Monday. In an article released by the MDR he criticized the low level of sophistication of current German popular culture and comedy. He furthermore criticizes that Radio and TV stations keep blocking artists and that this especially affects East German artists. Lakomy is one of the most creative artists of the former GDR not only writing for adult audiences but also creating music for children (many East Germans remember Schlapps and Schlumbo, Mimmellit or the Traumzauberbaum) and musicals as well as film music. And while he will retire from concerts for adults he will keep on writing music for children.

Now I have never been a fan of Lacky's music, even though I remember his song "Heute bin ich allein" very well. But something in his criticism strikes me: I miss East German musicians in the German music scene. Culture and Mass media are just two more areas where East Germans are under-represented according to the Potsdam elite study from 1995. This study has found that in mass media out of 281 surveyed respondents only 33 (11.8% ) were East Germans. In culture the representation e was only slightly higher (out of 101 surveyed people 13 were East Germans = 12.9%).

I myself am having a weekend of East German music playing my list of East German songs, including the new arrangements from OSTENde. I enjoy the poetry of the lyrics and the musicality of the songs . And I am wondering why aren't they more successful? I am wondering why people like Dirk Michaelis (who impressed me tremendously with his vocal ability) and IC Falkenberg (whose recent work Agony + Ekstase is lyrically superb) aren't more successful if they rank (in my opinion) at least in the same class as Groenemeyer, Pur and Xavier Naidoo. Are they too critical? Are text's like Michaelis' "Gott in not" and Falkenberg's "Osten 3.1" too tough for the German radio audience? Are their messages too complicated for easy listening TV or radio? Would a ratio for German music in radio help those artists to get more exposure?
I do not have answers to these questions, the only thing I know for sure is I'd love to see more quality in German culture and I'd especially would love to see more of the East German artists in German media.

"Und wenn ich durch die Wände sah,
da waren Blumen im Gras.
Doch wenn ich nur einen Schritt gemacht,
stiess ich schon gegen Glas."
(Glastraum/ City)

The Rhine Valley

2004-10-23T06:13:00.000+02:00

Coming back from Birmingham/ England this is what I saw when we were approaching Frankfurt Airport.

East Germans in Political Parties

2004-10-03T21:48:00.000+02:00

Please note that the data are scattered here, they are coming from different sources and from different years, but may be able to show a trend about East Germans' participation in Political Parties. If we are thinking adequate representation of East Germans in political institutions, then we need to note that parties are in control of selecting the people they assign the positions.
The data I gathered show that East Germans participation in German parties are below their share in population, party membership is mainly West German (exept for the PDS of course).

Out of 693 894 members of the SPD approximately 30 000 are East Germans (4%)
Within the FDP (liberals) 12409 members out of 67000 are coming from the East (18%).
The greens that are now an alliance of the West German Green party and the Buendnis 90 movement for Civil rights from East Germany have approximately 3000 members from East Germany. Since there are 48 600 members in total the share for East Germans is 6%. There are no reliable numbers for East Germans in the CDU/CSU. The only note that can be made is that the CDU lost 54.4% of its members in the East since 1990. The CDU was the only party that had a direct East German counterpart prior to the reunification. Most of the members of the East German CDU have left the CDU since. It should not come as a surprise that the majority of the PDS comes from East Germany (94%) as the PDS is the successor party of the Social unity Party (SED) and has established itself as an East German people's party, spanning a diverse group of the East German population.

Surprises? Well first, the representation of East Germans in the Liberal Party comes a bit as a surprise, as it almost mirrors the share of East Germans within the population of Germany. This comes even further as a surprise, because the Liberals are pretty unpopular in East Germany, only being represented in 3 of the 5 state parliaments.

The question that arises out of the data is what is adequate representation of East Germans then in elite positions? Should it be descriptive of their share within the party? Or descriptive of the share within the population?

East Germans in Elite Positions? Here's a first

2004-10-03T04:24:00.000+02:00

Ostblog (and yes that is a second mentioning of this blog and there are more likely gonna be more in the future) pointed me to this article. The article talks about that Ingolf Bettin has been appointed as leading judge for the state court of Thuringia. Why is this worth mentioning? 14 years after reunification Bettin is the first East German to assume a possition that high. Saxony had just in 2002 appointed a leading judge - a West German. All other leading judges in East German state courts are West Germans. All other leading judges in state courts in Germany, are West Germans.

This is very much in line with the finding of an elite study from 1997. That study claimed that in the judicial branch, East Germans have not been been able to reach elite positions. Atrid Segert, who reported on this study and tried to investigate the reasons in her article "Allokationsprozesse deutscher Eliten" (Allocation processes of German elites) argued that East Germans are underrepresented in Elite positions in general. Based on the survey that elite study did in 1997, Segert found that only in political positions East Germans were overrepresented (a claim I will get to later). In all other types of elite positions (administrative, economic, economic interest groups, unions, mass media, academia, military, culture and jucial) East Germans were underrepresented. The worst underrepresentation of East Germans was found in the administrative branch (East German quota: 2.5%), the economy (0.4%), the military (0%) and the juducial area (0%).

Acording to Segerts analysis the recruiting processes are largely responsible for this underrepresentation putting in entrie barriers that have unintended consequences to the disadvantage of East Germans. Those entry barriers are college degrees (many GDR college degrees were/ are not acknowledged as equal degree and were devaluated in the reunification process), a desire for long-term experience in the area one wants to work in (which is difficult for East Germans to achieve as most have just started careers in those institutions post 1990), a long time record of subordinating life to careergoals (which did not happen to that degree in the GDR) and a record of uninterupted continuity in their careers (which is impossible for East Germans as they had clear turning points caused by the reunification. Segert furthermore argues that only the generation that started their education post 1990 has a clear chance of correcting the underrepresentation of East Germans in elite positions. However, she argues, the background one needs to be from in order to have better access to elite positions - a good upper middle-class upbringing- is not the case for many East Germans at this point of time, as East German wages are only 60% of the average wage of West Germans and most members of that generation will have been socialized in a working class environment. So it is most likely that East Germans will remain under-represented in higher positions for a long time, more than one generation.

Now being interested in East German representation in political positions I found the claim very interesting that East Germans there are overrepresented. However taking a closer look at the results of the elite study from 1997 I have some serious doubts. The study results are based on a survey of 2341 people, 272 of which were East Germans. This already constitutes a bias towards West Germans in the study (a fact Segert acknowledges) East Germans make represent 11.6% of the surveyed in this study, while they occupy about 16-20% of the population. Furthermore, based on a sample of 272 it is hard to get reliable results.
The study looked at 499 elite positions in politics, 160 of them being occupied by East Germans. Hence the result of overrepresentation (quota of East Germans being 32.1%). The 499 positions do not represent all possible elite positions in politics, as even the Bundestag already has more members than 499. Therefore it puts the results in doubt for me any further. However, I need to look at the real data to make further evaluations.
On the other hand, even though I will be focusing myself on East Germans in the Bundestag, Bundesrat, Cabinets, Ministries, standing committees and parties, I consider supreme court positions and leading positions in unions and interest groups to be political positions. Even top level positions in the administrative branch are political positions. So the claim of overrepresentation of East German in political positions needs to be considered carefully. However, I will have to look at the data used and how they compare to my own data.

It is furthermore notable, that Segert tells us that studies on the distribution of elite positions among East and West Germans have been understudied, the 1997 study mentioned in this entry, was the only kind of data she could look at when she wrote the article (published in: McFalls and Probst: "After the GDR: New Perspective on the Old GDR and the Young Laender" Rodopi 2001).

Return of the wall

2004-09-30T07:05:00.001+02:00

Ostblog cites an article from the Welt the return of the wall. Within the framework of an artproject, Alexandra Hildebrandt (chief of the Wall museum in Berlin) plans to rebuild the wall with some leftover fragments of the original Berlin Wall. Purpose of this project is to recreate the scenery as it looked during the time of the wall. Her original plan is to keep the wall fragments exhibited without a time limit, however the city counsellor for city development is against that idea.

I find it a bit ironic that this project comes at a time when the mood of the Germans is that bad, that many of them wish for the return of the real wall, not just the art-project. A recent study published in the Stern shows that of all the East Germans 12% want the wall back, but even 24% of the West Germans would like the wall back. 15 years after reunification the mood in unified Germany is at a low.

The main criticism from the west comes with regards of transfer payments to the East. The nettransfer to the East is 83 billion Euro (about 100 billion US$). 45 % actually cover social cost (unemployment benefits, social benefits, pensions). Only 13% are invested in infrastructure and 9% of the money are used to attract businesses in the region. The net transfer amounts to 4% of the West German GDP. Since 1991 950 billion Euro have been net-transfered to the East.
Many West Germans feel the amount is too high (37%). On the other hand, 31% of the East Germans argue that the net-transfers have been not high enough and need to be increased.

But the division goes further. Not only are there stereotype images of the other. Many West Germans argue that it is possible for anyone who just wants to work to actually get a workplace. Statistics however defy that notion. In the East there are 52 000 open jobs - but about 1.6 million unemployed people. For 4 million unemployed people there are a total of 400,000 open jobs. 6 out of 7 are in the West. That simply means that the East is lacking an adequate amount of jobs. This furthermore increases the tendency of brain drain. More and more East Germans (especially the young ones) leave the areas they grew up in to follow careers in West Germany or abroad.
But it is not only the lack of jobs available that disprove the notion of everybody who wants a job can get one. An article by the Zeit's Wolfgang Uchatius quotes a study done by work sociologist Michael Behr. He argues that only very few East Germans are willing to accept their employment and to live by what the state provides them. He calls the East Germans "work spartans". According to his studies East Germans will keep working full time till retirement age if it is possible for them healthwise. And even though salaries for low-paying jobs are only a little bit higher than social benefits from the state, these low-paying jobs tend to be filled very soon. What about the notion of inflexibility? Would it help East Germans to be more flexible in finding a job? The Uchatius' article says no. East Germans are often willing to accept less of working rights and less of pay. In the Sparkasse Schwerin (a bank) employees from the West receive still 11% more in wages, but work 1 hours less a week than their East German colleagues. Security personell are willing to work 60 hours a week for just a little more than 4 Euro an hour and their lives on the line. Every second person in the East has lost his job at least once since the fall of the German wall and only few work in the profession they originally trained for. Every 5th East German who employs at Ranstadt (an agency for temp employment) is willing to work somewhere in Germany, in the West only 10% of the applicants are willing to do so. The economist Karl-Heinz Paque says: East Germany is the America of Germany when it comes to wages, union influence and flexibility.

So why those misunderstandings? Why those misconceptions about the others? 60% of the West Germans have never been in the East. They do not know much about East German culture. East Germans often feel they are not accepted as equals by the West Germans. Furthermore many will argue that mismanagement by 3rd class management and the deliberate destruction of competitors on the East German market have done more harm to what had been left over of the East German industry after 1989. Often they feel as if it is not even desired that the industry in the East becomes successful as they may raise their own competitors. It is hard to explain to those people why the wall should not be reconstructed again. It is hard to explain to those people why East and West Germany wouldn't be better off as seperate entities.

Der Aufbau Ost ist Chefsache

2004-09-29T03:00:00.000+02:00

The reconstruction East is the priority. A promise made by Chancellor Schroeder. A promise I make for this blog. This blog will mainly cover East German matters, but I will also write on politics and other subjects. Welcome readers.