Life After the Berlin Wall: Unemployment and Nostalgia in East Germany

Manfred Gerbot and Christoph Begrich recall the sense of hope they felt when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

They themselves had actively opposed the communist regime.

There are enough people today who blame us for unemployment and so on.

They ask us why we just didn't keep quiet, and that makes you sad, of course.

The world of work has changed completely.

There used to be this camaraderie. Now it's a competitive struggle and every man for himself.

The town of Artern has suffered massive unemployment since reunification.

It has had the highest rate in the state of Thuringen.

Surveys show that nostalgia for the old days is growing here and elsewhere in the east. Some people even go further than that.

I'd have nothing against them rebuilding the wall and making it 10 meters higher.

We'd at least have our job security and wouldn't have to watch every penny.

The unemployment agency is making life hell for us, especially when you're a single parent. We don't need the West.

Disillusionment has left people longing for the past, security, solidarity, and communist-style social cohesion.

They also recall the fair share of partying they did back then.

It was a system that not everyone believed in, but which had its benefits.

Some unemployed people meet at the People's Solidarity charity organization, which has survived reunification.

Nobody here misses the wall, but they have all experienced disappointments with the free market system and its unexpected downsides.

They failed to say what would happen to us.

It was like being thrown into cold water, all the unemployment and so forth.

What about freedom? I didn't have freedom.

We used to say, "I'd like to travel to A or B," but I can't do that today either.