t Germans resent that theirtaxes were raised. They are still worried that their relatively high standard of living will suffer asa result of the reunification. The Westerners also partially blame the rise on crime, violence andright-winged activities on ex-communist youths from the former East. Furthermore, the way oflife of the West Germans and that of their countrymen from the East are very different from eachother which doesn?t always provide understanding and harmony between them.First, there was nothing but euphoria. Everyone, people from the West and people fromthe East were celebrating the unthinkable. But after a cooling-down period, reality set in and theWest Germans felt cheated by the reunification process. They knew that there would be costinvolved, but were promised that their taxes would not be raised and that no major sacrificeswould have to be made. Well, they weren?t ready for reality. Therefore, it came as an unpleasantsurprise when the large bill for reunification, 150 billion Deutsch Marks a year, a third of thefederal budget, had to be paid for. The West Germans were burdened with the responsibility ofpaying for this, where most of it came as a result of the crumbling East German economy. Itsindustry was a worthless mess, a black hole into which a flood of money from the West Germantaxpayers was reallocated with little visible results [Feiwel Kupferberg] at least for the first fewyears. Only now, after more than ten years are some industries showing positive results. It willcertainly take a generation before there is an overall improvement and positive returns in themany industries situated in the East.Because of the dire economic situation in the East and its high unemployment rate-double the rate than in the West- many people from the East are streaming into the larger citiesin the West. Cities such as Frankfurt, Mnchen, Stuttgart and Berlin are becoming more andmore overpopulated as not just East Germans, but als...
