Most all news sources in Germany today are talking over a document that popped up from the Helmut Kohl period. RTL-TV news (commercial TV news) reports the piece that I reference.
At some point around the 1999 period, in an election phase....Chancellor Kohl talk up the reference of "blooming landscapes" as he talked about the improvement background of former DDR (East Germany). In the document that popped up....he said in a blunt way that it was a serious mistake to make that comment because it just wasn't true.
Most folks who came over into eastern Germany after the wall came down.....Particularly in the 1990 to 2000 era....would say that it looked like 'crap' (my words). Yes, the appearance of a third-world country. My first trip over the Wall-area came around 1999 and I'd describe the roads as looking first rate, but virtually everything else looking like 1945.
Three years ago, I made a week-long trip into Dresden. The city itself? Looking like most of western Germany. But if you got six miles outside of the circle, it looked like the 1945 era.
I brought this whole Kohl topic up and my German wife observed that in her youth (early 80s), her class went for three days to West Berlin. One day was spent touring the eastern side and as she noted.....it looked like some third-world urban area. She was somewhat appreciative about West Germany after that trip.
As for Kohl's 'blooming landscapes' comment? I suspect if you mentioned this to East Germans....they probably started laughing, and probably half of all West Germans probably felt Kohl was nuts.
But onto the real question....here we are....approaching thirty years of unification. Is the eastern side of Germany recovered? My humble belief is that while journalists and politicians might say yes.....Germans themselves would say that it might take another thirty years. Why bring up the Kohl comment? That's probably another good question.
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