politically second class -- east germans and a discrimination law suit

browsing the english website of the german spiegel magazine -- one of the most important political weekly publications in the country -- i bumped into an interesting article concerning the distinction still being made between east germans and west germans. people who know me know that this a topic i like to follow.

here's the gist of the article published by spiegel online on friday, april 16, 2010:

"A Stuttgart labor-court ruled on Thursday that former East Germans -- often disparagingly nicknamed "Ossis" -- are not an ethnic group in a case involving a woman who claims she was turned down for a job because she came from the former sate. German commentators on Friday warn about the prevalance of negative stereotypes about people from the formerly communist state."

read the entire article: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,689403,00.html

the article reminded me of an experience i had in a political science class i attended at ohio university. dividing the world into sections, the teacher insisted that still as of today, only west germans belong to the highest category of individuals in the world i.e. white western citizens. i reminded her of the twenty years that had passed since the german reunification. nevertheless, the teacher insisted. in the political hierarchy of the world east germans are not on top of the olympe but live a notch lower thanks to their communist history.

the fact that west and east germans are still paid differently working in the same jobs is a common place. one of my friends decided to become a teacher in west german rather than east germany partially because of that. higher unemployment, more troubles with right-wing groups, more exodus of young people are other topics in the catalogue of east west comparisons.

but overall, i think my generation of twenty-somethings (well, in the upper echelons of the twenties anyway) are the last generation to remember a distinction. the sister of a former acquaintances now in her early twenties once replied ten years ago already that she didn't know if she was an east or west german child.

my german friends come from east and west. traces of two different socializations still linger on. a couple of friends migrating west for jobs have told me that when they settled in their new home town they felt a more common understanding with other "ossis" or even eastern european immigrants before making friends with west germans.

in the united states there is little awareness overall between east and west germany. generally most u.s. americans i meet have visited west german towns because they were army brats, know someone stationed there or wanted to see the pretty rhine and southern regions. it remains an exception that people do know dresden or leipzig through a personal visit or a even a longer time of living there. in fact i just met one, a professor of german language, who knew what i was talking about when it came to east german culture.

so when people ask me where i come from i have developed a standard answer: from germany. so far so good. for the follow up of where exactly in germany it has boiled down to: geographically from the middle, politically from the east. whatever that means to different people.