How East Germany Found Its Feet

It has just about been twenty years since the Berlin Wall came down. It was erected in 1961 and for almost thirty years divided East Germany from West Germany. Although it was more than that, it cut off East Germany from the Western world. For generations, East Germans were made to swallow the Red doctrine while the remainder of the world moved forward.

Obviously there had been a big cultural shock for East Germans when integration first occurred. There were several things they now had to become used to. Now about twenty years after, there's no East Germany but instead only one Germany and folks who once lived in East Germany are now adjusted to modern life.

You have some issues for Germans who were in their 20s and 30's when the wall come down. Things like drug and booze problems were tricky. They found today's world too silly and could not become used to things. They reacted poorly and as a consequence had social issues.

Youngsters are lots more malleable and people who were 5-10 at the time had no problem adjusting. They went to school and then school and now have roles. You have children who once lived in East Germany and now own their own hitech companies. They have truly had no issues getting use to the net age.

Some previous East Germans realized they could put their abilities to some good use and earn money from it Principally from going to the casino and then the net casino. Some of the finest players in the world are from behind what was the Iron Curtain. They can use their mathematical and deductive talents to some use.

In terms of sport, the former East Germans were in a different league and people were worried that they would be left behind once the wall came down but this hasn't been the case. Athletes from the former East Germany have been successful although not as successful as they were during the doped filled era of the 1960s and 1970s.

There wasn't any doubt that during this time methodical doping by the East German authorities were ready. Ladies did not look like ladies and as a consequence the East German groups achieved the most spectacular results. At the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games they won forty gold gongs and this was 47 4 years after in Moscow. They won 37 gold gongs at the 1988 Seoul Games which were the last Olympic Games they took part in.

Most of their medals came in the sports of athletics, swimming and rowing. It turned out that former Hitler Youth and Nazi Party member, Manfred Ewald was behind it all. He did it with Manfrd Hoeppner and these medals came at a price. Those who won paid the price with their bodies being affected by the side-affects of the doping. Many of them still require counseling and therapy.