Alles gute zum Geburtstag

Germany today celebrates 20 years of East and West being united. Of course they were united between 1871 and 1945 so you could say the country was only separated for 45 years.


But in those 45 years the Wirtschaftswunder, or economic miracle made the West rich and the East poor. When monetary reunification was achieved the then Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, insisted that it should be at 1 Deutsche Mark = 1 Ostmark, many times the black market rate, but despite this nominal transfer of wealth the East remains poor, with high unemployment and low investment. Not as bad as it was, but still poor.

Despite Angela Merkel having grown up in the East, none of her ministers has and no one of any importance in the business world has either.

Still, the Germans are to be congratulated on making a good fist of a near impossible task. It may just be that it takes 20 years longer than they expected.