Germany: 35 years after reunification, disparities remain

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00:00Johannes Rauwe was born in 1990, the year of German reunification.

00:05Today he runs a rare success story, a company that managed to survive the de-industrialisation

00:11of the former GDR.

00:14The blue crane dates back to before the fall of the wall and the yellow one is a modern

00:18version.

00:19Before 1990, this railway crane factory in Leipzig employed 3,000 people.

00:25Today only 150 remain.

00:28In the East, companies are significantly smaller than those in the West.

00:32That means East German businesses don't have much influence in politics.

00:39And very often, when a company grows in the East, it's a branch of a firm whose headquarters

00:43are in West Germany.

00:4435 years on, the economic border between East and West persists.

00:49It shows up in wages and in wealth.

00:53Back then, East Germany's housing stock was bought up by private buyers and corporations

00:58from the West.

00:59The result?

01:00Today only 13% in Leipzig own their own homes.

01:05Roman Grabule and his friends set up a housing cooperative to reclaim their city.

01:10The rent Leipzig residents pay doesn't stay in the city.

01:15It flows out, making the city poorer.

01:17The money isn't reinvested.

01:19These profits are spent in Munich's fancy restaurants.

01:22A gap between East and West that exists at every level of society.

01:28In Leipzig, the radical left party, Die Linke, is pushing for stronger representation in both

01:34business and politics.

01:35In the federal ministries, very few top officials are East German.

01:42This is a structural deficit and one we need to address.

01:46And we'll only succeed if there's genuine political will.

01:49Thirty-five years after reunification, unity between East and West remains unfinished business.

01:56Only 23% of East Germans feel they belong to one nation.

02:00That is, finally, one nation in the country, peace of mind against the government of European

02:03being uniquely infected by one nation.

02:26interesting.

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