Kultur 11

It was very interesting to read about post-Unification Germany. I had never read anything about people being nostalgic for life in GDR or wishing the wall was still up, so that was quite fascinating. Obviously, the issues after unification are much more complex than our history textbooks make it sound. It's sad that stereotypes still persist between the East and West, although, I guess it really hasn't be THAT long - so perhaps this makes a lot of sense. While for those of us born after 1989 this seems like a pretty historical event, for many more people, this was something in the not-so-distant past. Breaking down the Mauer im Kopf is certainly a difficult task, as is evidenced by the fact that 57% of former GDR resident answered that the GDR was "the better state."

It was also interesting to read about the North/South divide - it sounds A LOT like the United States. It was actually pretty funny to see how similar the North/South stereotypes are in Germany to those in the US. Overall, it sounds like Germany has a lot of regional issues! But then again, we have the exact same problems. Stereotypes, prejudices, etc between regional groups seem to exist everywhere. And in Germany, with a relatively fresh wound between different parts of the country, it makes perfect sense that these problems would still be quite strong.