Yes, any two countries that merge will have a lot of frictional aspects. That is what made "Goodbye Lenin" such an interesting story line. And not just culturally, it seems like a lot of movement of peoples also. ------------------------------ Rutherfordian RDRutherford
To imply that job security, an ok living standard and free education and health care is not benefits for the population is a bit of a stretch. DDR was a repressive communist dictatorship, but the East German people were better off (especially materially) than the majority of the people in the world today.
But no matter what one might feel about the specific case of the DDR, it is nevertheless outside of the scope of what I was talking about in my diary. That part of Germany has been industrialised since the Bismarck era.
