Luckily (?) I Am (Or Was) A Wessie

Now this is really weird. I found this article from a former East German photographer.
There were places where both could go on holidays back then, like Bulgaria.

East Germans were not allowed to make contact to West Germans. And had to witness that the staff cared a lot more about the West Germans, too.
Can you believe this? Sure, “we” had money, we could tip with D-Mark. Still.

Same in Budapest – East Germans were allowed to exchange money – 40 DDR-Mark, which is nothing, not even enough for a hotel.
Common question was: Are you German? East or West?

At Lake Balaton in 1983 they did meet, East and West. West Germans offered rides in their Mercedeses, Holdens or whatever, handled West-German newspapers over. At the end of the day, East Germans crawled into their tents, whereas West Germans checked into their hotel rooms.

Some managed to sneak in West German calendars and got “rich”, selling them. Just… there was nothing to buy from the money.

I dunno.
At school in history all we seemed to learn about was that Austrian little man who caused such horror in the world.

Did we learn anything about East Germany and it´s people? No!
These days I work mainly with former East Germans and often find it hard to believe what the older ones tell me about how living was like "over there".
Especially when it comes to plants – I still have to ask where, when and how to plant my Gallipoli-Poppy-seeds, thanks again, Grace, East Germans learned that at school, we did not.
They did because… they needed to grow their own food, can you believe that.
Often I “joke”, hey, I´m West German, how am I supposed to know this? And yes, we joke, without hard feelings. We are colleagues, we like each other. It´s no one´s fault or influence.

I know that one of you just set off in a plane from Frankfurt when the wall finally fell – I wonder, though: What went out into the world, how did others think about Germany being reunited?
Was it a matter at all?
Did you think, hey, they go way too fast, it won´t work that way?
Or, hey, dangerous! Not them again?

We in West Germany sure thought, hey, too fast!
For 40 years they lived in socialism, they just don´t know what hard work was – and many failed, like… leaving work “shortly”, like they did in the East, to see a doc, go get a hair cut or such – and got fired.
Many complained, too.
In the East they didn´t have had much – but apartments were cheap, heated and with water, there was “work”, there was a “plan”.
Now they had to make their own decisions, get active.
You can really say those who wanted to be successful came over into the West – the others stayed in the East.
And even today – though everything is newer in the East… they are still poorer, there is still less work, fewer good jobs in general.

Universities are better over there, though.

I dunno. I guess I really am some lucky gal. I grew up in “the golden West”.
It sure was another world over there, weird, what 40 years can do!

Nice to see that some of their stuff survived, like the Spreewald Gherkin, Hallorenkugeln, Rotkäppchen-sparkling wine and such.
Hmmm, guess I need to ask Ingo to make a Soljanka :-) Just give it a go – super-yummy! I had it three times - due to getting to know it only last year, when we indeed were in East Germany!

Did you witness the wall falling, what did you think?