Prejudices on the Eastern and Western Sides of the Berlin Wall
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it wasn’t just concrete that came down but an entire era collapsed with it. Communism in Eastern Europe was crumbling, and Germany was about to become whole again. Learn more if you want to know how the West felt about the East, and vice versa.
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it wasn’t just concrete that came down but an entire era collapsed with it. The Cold War was ending, communism in Eastern Europe was crumbling, the Soviet Union would soon dissolve, and Germany was about to become whole again. On paper, it looked like the perfect historical happy ending.
Reality, of course, was more complicated
As the borders opened, East Germans headed west in large numbers. After decades of restrictions, the promise of freedom, travel, and fully stocked supermarket shelves was hard to resist. Western shops, new brands, and consumer culture flooded into the East, transforming everything from wardrobes to worldviews. For many, it felt like stepping into another universe, one where bananas were no longer a luxury item and choice itself was part of daily life.
But reunification was not just about celebration. It was also about adjustment
In the years after the Wall fell, many East Germans moved to West Berlin and other western regions. For some West Germans, the initial enthusiasm slowly turned into frustration. Housing became tighter, jobs more competitive, and taxes higher - especially the additional solidarity tax introduced to rebuild the East.
Meanwhile, the arrival of foreign workers, particularly Turkish immigrants and refugees from the wars of the 1990s, added another layer to an already tense social climate. Economic uncertainty has a way of amplifying fears, and Germany’s fragile post-reunification economy provided fertile ground for political extremism to grow.
The migration had consequences on both sides. Eastern regions struggled with the loss of workforce and economic decline, while the West faced sudden population pressure and job shortages. Each side felt it was carrying more than its fair share of the burden.
Yet the divide between East and West didn’t begin in 1989
As early as 1964, the East German government allowed pensioners to travel to the West. Some in West Germany suspected this was simply a convenient way for the East to offload its “unproductive” elderly citizens. In reality, most pensioners returned home. Those who visited often complained about high prices, flashy Western fashion, and what they perceived as subtle condescension from wealthier relatives. Still, many were deeply impressed, especially by the openness of Western society and its higher standard of living.
By the 1970s, the contrast between the two Germanys had become impossible to ignore. Western cities appeared brighter, wealthier, and more dynamic. But not everyone who visited felt comfortable there. The fast pace, consumerism, perceived individualism, and emotional distance of Western society left some East Germans feeling out of place. Life may have seemed materially better, but emotionally, it didn’t always feel like home.
When reunification officially arrived in 1990, joy was genuine on both sides. But living together again after decades apart proved challenging. East Germans, coming from a system with lower wages and different social structures, had to adapt quickly to a competitive market economy. Many lost jobs in the 1990s as industries in the former GDR collapsed. The West, once imagined as a paradise, turned out to be demanding, fast-moving, and unforgiving.
Stereotypes grew easily in this environment
Some West Germans viewed East Germans as dependent and perpetually dissatisfied. Some East Germans saw West Germans as cold, profit-obsessed workaholics. Economic disparities persisted, with eastern regions facing higher risks of unemployment and poverty. Nostalgia for the former GDR (often referred to as Ostalgie) became a quiet coping mechanism for those who felt left behind.
And yet, time does what politics sometimes cannot
A new generation grew up knowing reunification not as a personal trauma but as history. For them, the Wall is a chapter in textbooks rather than a lived experience. With distance, many of the sharpest prejudices have softened, surviving mostly in memory and family stories rather than daily life.
Conclusion
Still, the night of November 9, 1989 — when thousands crossed from East Berlin into West Berlin — remains one of the most powerful images in modern European history. It symbolized not only freedom of movement, but the rebirth of a shared national identity.
Reunification was a beginning, not an ending. It offered a second chance, for both East and West, to redefine what it means to live together as one country. The responsibility today is simple in theory, though never effortless in practice: to remain united, to resist easy stereotypes, and to remember that walls, physical or mental, are far easier to build than to dismantle.
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Sources:
Bosch, Frank, A History Shared and Divided: East and West Germany Since the 1970s, Berghahn Books, 2018
Clack, George, Friedman, Michael, Jay, The Berlin Wall: 20 Years Later, U. S. Department of State, 2009
Legge, Jerome, S., Jews, Turks, and Other Strangers: Roots of Prejudice in Modern Germany, University of Wisconsin Press, 2003
Major, Patrick, Behind the Berlin Wall, Oxford University Press, 2010