I am not quite sure where you got your figures that nearly all University Staff was being fired comes from. When I studied in Leipzig starting in 1991, that was not an issue? Most (9/10) of my Profs were still the old guard. Yes, there were redundancies, but such a sweeping statement is wrong. Some faculties certainly had to be completely restructured and took on a lot of new staff, but they tried to keep most - if they were not completely intolerable. Also redundancies due to a higher Prof - Student ratio had to be made. As with most things about Germany - the situation is very different from Land to Land - different people and parties were/are responsible.
Apart from that - I completely agree and can give you an example of one of my professors who was 45 and said:"The Reunification has taken away my future"
That generation are the big loosers. What is often not realized is the complete destruction of the social "you help, I help" attitude with scare resources. And the social bond that created. Now you can buy everything, you don;t need to trade anymore, you don;t need to be friendly, social kit crumbles quickly
plus the care that was in existence from the cradle to the grave. Everything was catered for if one wanted.
Wall comes down and suddenly you learn your wife, father and grandchild betrayed you to the Stasi, or you suspect they did, but you cannot access you record till 2007 because there are so many others. You loose you job. Your security, your money and you are supposed to be grateful to those that come and tell you how it is all been done from now on.
I still don't agree. But then I only lived with the people that went through this - I am not one of them.