Re: Unity in Germany.

We live in the South Tom. Baden Württtemberg, In a small town right on the edge of the Black Forest. As the locals say "We only have two directions here, up and down" (Wir haben nur zwei richtungen hier, Berg hoch oder Berg runter)
It's a beautiful place. We're really lucky.

Re: Unity in Germany.

Oh thanks Kev.well you take the high road and i.ll take the low, and i.ll be in Stuttgart before you lol. I used to deliver to Mercedes there and also Opel at Kaiserslautern a bit to the north of you methinks. and yes I agree its beautiful in the Black Forest area,

Swimmy,..that's a long drive from Poland in a truck eh. I will be thinking of you tomorrow, as I am goin fishing and a swimfeeder will be about one foot above my size 12 hook.

Re: Unity in Germany.

They took it during WWII marching as our allies.

Re: Unity in Germany.

Yes, after Germany had invaded Russia. They were doing all sorts of deals pre war. Note they were also both involved in the Spanish Civil War which captured large parts of Catalonia. . ( I think I may be on the wrong topic now )

Hostilities escalated in the 1930s as the Nazis sponsored by Berlin and the Communists sponsored by Moscow fought each other across the world, most famously in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). In a stunning turnabout in August 1939, both countries came to an agreement, and divided up the previously independent nations of Eastern Europe. That détente collapsed in 1941 when Germany invaded the USSR. The Soviets survived however and formed an alliance with Britain and the U.S., and pushed the Germans back, capturing Berlin in May 1945. During the Cold War Germany was divided, with East Germany under Communist control and under the close watch of Moscow, which stationed a large military force there and repressed an uprising in 1953.

Re: Unity in Germany.

I haven't studied the history of Franco's Spain in depth or how that ended (other than the death of Franco). Are you bringing them into the discussion to indicate that they too are not experienced in democracy because they lived under a dictatorship for decades?

Eastern Germany was a strange place. I visited Berlin in the late '80s. We went through the East on the train and they woke us up at 5am when the train stopped to allow sniffer dogs to check for anyone trying to get to West Berlin. People knew what freedom looked like. They had a wall around a city that looked like a capitalist paradise compared to the grey and shabby East Berlin. There was a massive fun fair going right up to the Brandenburg gate with the biggest big-wheel visible to easterners. It wasn't long after we visited that an East German guard at the gate rushed towards the wall and was shot.

The wall was heavily guarded at the East, on the West there were viewing platforms so you could go right up and look over. They didn't guard it in the East so that people didn't come in, they were terrified that people would try to get out because everyone wanted the democracy on the other side. I'm not sure why you think people who lived there would not understand the importance and value of freedom. They understand/understood it better than we do.

Russia wasn't interested in investing in Eastern Germany. It must have been the grimmest place to live in the Eastern Bloc post WWII.

Surely having a representative from the East running the country has to be the best way to champion their issues. A huge amount of investment was sunk into the East by the West, but to catch up would take a lot more because the East wasn't a pretty place even by communist standards.

Re: Unity in Germany.

I sat next to a businessman, we were flying out to Warsawa from Berlin. He told me he had three factories making bedroom furniture - west, east and Poland. His worst of the three was by far the Ossies's laziness and poor productivity. They simply could not get over the Soviet style of working...

Re: Unity in Germany.

Hi

Good luck with your fishing.

There is method in my madness with the truck.

I bring back loads of stuff, Soplica flavoured vodka, ground bait and additives, and stuff for my Marine Aquarium, all much cheaper over there.

I am, after all, a tight fisted Northerner.

Re: Unity in Germany.

This is one of the problems, but it's also the next generation and the government has failed to educate and train them. Plus when the wall came down the talented and those that had the means moved to the west. It's true that the government pumped a lot of money into the east to make the place more attractive but over time the interest was lost. Here in the west we still pay a tax to fund the east.