Twenty Years of Stimulus for East Germany, Twenty Years Of Failure
At first glance, East Germany seems far ahead of its neighboring countries of Poland and the Czech Republic, whose economies also underwent a transformation from a socialist planned economy to a market-driven one. But a bitter truth remains, although unspoken: While the economies of Poland and the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have managed to get on their own feet, East Germany is still fed intravenously by its western half. East Germans consume more than they produce, a gap of at least 20%. The East German economy is anything but self-supporting.
This failure is taboo to speak of. The admission is especially hard to stomach as financial aid from West Germany has been more than generous: €1.3 trillion ($1.9 trillion) since 1990.