Berlin as a metaphor for a changing Germany
by Thomas Kielinger
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The memory of 1989, when the Wall fell, is fading fast, making room for what the
Germans nowadays love doing most - - bemoaning the problems associated with the
modern world and Germany's place in it.
Part of the blame rests with the people themselves, though. Take the tremendous construction boom currently underway in Berlin. This boom does not favour the local labor market, since foreign workers flocking to Berlin work for much less than their German counterparts.
Which helps explain the most important paradox of modern Germany. More than 600 hundred billion dollars have been pumped into the Eastern half of the country so far to help with reconstruction. But this huge influx of capital has mostly been spent on the social security system, into which 16 million East Germans had to be admitted overnight to make them feel part of the prosperous German family. Too little, if anything, was set aside to rebuild the productive base of a once devastated land. Instead, the entire West German culture of saturation- level entitlements was implanted in the East, lock, stock and barrell.
Fifty years ago, money coming from the Marshall Plan, although just 2 percent of today's reconstruction aid for East Germany, was enough to help rebuild the West German economy from rack and ruin. In those days, everyone started from the lowest levels in terms of social and material possessions, and so the money spent went immediately into increasing the country's productivity.
By contrast, today's Germany, after unification, concentrated too much of its energy on equalizing wealth and too little on innovation and productivity.
Now all the king's aid and all the king's men cannot make Germany competitive again.
Thomas Kielinger is a senior German commentator and author.
