evelinoz
2022-03-01 13:28:58
- #1
Regarding pagoni's comments about Wessi and Ossi, I can contribute my personal experience.
My parents had to leave their homeland, the Sudetenland, after World War II. My father was still in captivity in Alsace at that time, and my mother foolishly and against her wishes "escaped" northwards. Some relatives went to Bavaria. In the end, my family ended up in Köthen until February 1957. My brother and I were born in Köthen.
After the Stasi ransacked my father's workplace for the second time, my mother had enough. Within a month, everything was sold/given away; my mother, brother, and I ended up in a refugee camp in West Berlin for six weeks. In the meantime, my father had taken the train to Ludwigshafen because my mother's brother had worked there as a miller after the war but had emigrated to Canada shortly before. My father soon found work there as well; a former colleague took him in. In the refugee camp, we were left to ourselves; my mother tried to earn some money. Her uncle in the West sent money for plane tickets, Tegel-FRA.
We then ended up again for a few days in a refugee camp in Giessen, where we got a refugee ID, I think "only" Category C, I don't remember why. Category A was probably the ID with more benefits.
We then landed in LU with the family where my father lived. After two weeks they kicked us out (I was six), and then we were back in a refugee camp, which was an old school (four families shared one classroom). In June, we got a newly built apartment that was subsidized by the government at that time.
Yes, and then things got less pleasant. Next door there were two apartment blocks for the employees of the large chemical company. At first, we were harassed, beaten, bitten, and hit because we didn't speak "Palatinate dialect." Eventually, that stopped because we integrated, and everything was fine. My father was insulted and pelted at work because he was different; as an Ossi, he was not welcome.
One of my later colleagues, an electrical engineer, was from Leipzig and came from the East a few years before the fall of the wall. Because of his background in the said large company, he never received the same salary as the others, nor was he ever offered a permanent position (always through a temp agency). Later, at another employer, he handled projects for the large corporation for years.
When the Wende (reunification) came, he and I worked via a large corporation on the "rebuilding of the East." That was the golden era for the Wessis, where the East was taken apart and exploited like a Christmas goose by the KfW. In the West, people enriched themselves wherever and however they could; it was only money from the state, but in the end, a lot of money did not flow into the East. During my career, I worked with some Ossis, now all retired or deceased, and we had to silently watch it. It hurt me deeply. Some had everything in abundance and yet cheated those who had little. The Ossis came to the West and took jobs away (in the early 80s there was short-time work in the West), that was the perception.
Although I am not really an Ossi, only born there by chance, I only have positive memories of the East but many negative memories from the West that have shaped me. My parents and I never became Palatines. For this reason, as a young person, I lived in other countries and always had the desire to permanently leave Germany. In January 2001, I gave up my last German passport because at least back then Germany did not allow dual citizenship. Since 1997, I have felt indescribably free in Australia.
I can very well understand how one feels on either side. I find it interesting that the disliked East is now okay with the Wessis because building there is cheaper. This step would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.
My parents had to leave their homeland, the Sudetenland, after World War II. My father was still in captivity in Alsace at that time, and my mother foolishly and against her wishes "escaped" northwards. Some relatives went to Bavaria. In the end, my family ended up in Köthen until February 1957. My brother and I were born in Köthen.
After the Stasi ransacked my father's workplace for the second time, my mother had enough. Within a month, everything was sold/given away; my mother, brother, and I ended up in a refugee camp in West Berlin for six weeks. In the meantime, my father had taken the train to Ludwigshafen because my mother's brother had worked there as a miller after the war but had emigrated to Canada shortly before. My father soon found work there as well; a former colleague took him in. In the refugee camp, we were left to ourselves; my mother tried to earn some money. Her uncle in the West sent money for plane tickets, Tegel-FRA.
We then ended up again for a few days in a refugee camp in Giessen, where we got a refugee ID, I think "only" Category C, I don't remember why. Category A was probably the ID with more benefits.
We then landed in LU with the family where my father lived. After two weeks they kicked us out (I was six), and then we were back in a refugee camp, which was an old school (four families shared one classroom). In June, we got a newly built apartment that was subsidized by the government at that time.
Yes, and then things got less pleasant. Next door there were two apartment blocks for the employees of the large chemical company. At first, we were harassed, beaten, bitten, and hit because we didn't speak "Palatinate dialect." Eventually, that stopped because we integrated, and everything was fine. My father was insulted and pelted at work because he was different; as an Ossi, he was not welcome.
One of my later colleagues, an electrical engineer, was from Leipzig and came from the East a few years before the fall of the wall. Because of his background in the said large company, he never received the same salary as the others, nor was he ever offered a permanent position (always through a temp agency). Later, at another employer, he handled projects for the large corporation for years.
When the Wende (reunification) came, he and I worked via a large corporation on the "rebuilding of the East." That was the golden era for the Wessis, where the East was taken apart and exploited like a Christmas goose by the KfW. In the West, people enriched themselves wherever and however they could; it was only money from the state, but in the end, a lot of money did not flow into the East. During my career, I worked with some Ossis, now all retired or deceased, and we had to silently watch it. It hurt me deeply. Some had everything in abundance and yet cheated those who had little. The Ossis came to the West and took jobs away (in the early 80s there was short-time work in the West), that was the perception.
Although I am not really an Ossi, only born there by chance, I only have positive memories of the East but many negative memories from the West that have shaped me. My parents and I never became Palatines. For this reason, as a young person, I lived in other countries and always had the desire to permanently leave Germany. In January 2001, I gave up my last German passport because at least back then Germany did not allow dual citizenship. Since 1997, I have felt indescribably free in Australia.
I can very well understand how one feels on either side. I find it interesting that the disliked East is now okay with the Wessis because building there is cheaper. This step would have been unthinkable 20 years ago.