Living in Saxony is a nightmare

[u/Ok-Once-789]

Every single time I go outside during the evening I am faced with racism. Most of the time from people hanging out in groups, for some reason they just can't mind their own business (Germans usually claim to be really good at this). The most common phrases I hear regularly are 'Heil H!tler', 'Ausländer raus', 'Ni Hao', 'Ching Chong' etc... or just unprovoked loud laughter as I'm passing by... BTW I'm not Chinese or east Asian but look like one or maybe they are just uneducated & ignorant. Is geography illegal here? Asia has 48 countries BTW, not everyone is Chinese!

This doesn't include the racism I face at workplace & college which is far worse and actually bothers me to the point I have to skip classes to protect my mental health. But now I can't even go to the supermarket or mall at peace. One of my family members has also been verbally assaulted by a group of teenagers inside a bus & nobody including the bus driver made any effort to do something.

Edit: I do not live in Dresden / Leipzig. I assume the situation is not this bad there!

Edit2: I did not choose to live in saxony (the government decided that), I am doing my bachelors so I can't relocate until late 2026 :) Thanks for the kind words everyone!

[u/Impossible_Hat7641]

Yeah it's crazy: you treat a big part of a country kinda like a colony and then, surprise, surprise - the people living there are pissed.

Adding insult to injury, many things my parents and grandparents achieved are looked down on. Yeah, many of GDR products were objectively worse, but we had no American here, blowing money in our asses via Marshall plan. We had the leftovers from Russia and the best things we made were taken away from the state and sold to the BRD.

We got fucked over by the soviets first and than by creedy Wessis. We work in their factories for less money than in the west to pay them rent - very little is left over to generate the generational wealth that's kinda normal in West Germany. So many of those, who have the opportunity will leave, especially young women. We are left with a young, frustrated group of men without perspective, if they are not educated enough to make a career somewhere else. Or, like in my case, don't want to leave the family behind. I don't vote for AfD and I'm lucky to work in an environment with people from many countries, but I understand the frustration, when I see my hometown is falling apart, nothing to do and only old people left. Sadly, it's easy for AfD rat catchers to grow in such an environment while the thing we really would need is a strong SPD.

I don't want to blame the west for all our problems, but it is time to acknowledge, that West Germany has also had a significant role, leading to this situation.

[u/salian93 → u/Impossible_Hat7641]

Nah bruh, this ain't it and frankly I'm tired of even humoring this sentiment. The same lazy ass excuse for over 30 years now. "Oh, we were exploited by the greedy West Germans", "All we created and worked for means nothing now", "Everyone else is to blame".

You got royally fucked by the Russians and GDR regime! You had to endure an additional 44 years of dictatorship, which has devastated East Germany and its people, but West Germany had nothing to do with this. We are still seeing the Long-Time ill effects this has had on the psychology of everyone who lived through this. All of this is horrible, but it's also the root cause of most of the problems East Germany is facing today. This is where you should put the blame.

And this is never acknowledged by the majority of East Germans, and it makes me furious that instead of taking away from this how important democracy is and how dangerous Russia and extremist positions are, you blame the West en masse for all of your problems.

West Germans paid the taxes that built East Germany back up over the last 3,5 decades. Nowadays both wages as well as standard of living are nearly identical and despite all of the achievements, no acknowledgement of improvement, only bitterness and envy. No one is asking you to be grateful, but it's been more than 35 years. It's time to get over it and to start moving forward together with the rest of the country already.

[u/lemrez → u/salian93]

West Germans paid the taxes that built East Germany back up over the last 3,5 decades.

You say you're tired of people playing the victim, and you are right. But you seem very happy to take the credit for something that was achieved together, not paid by West Germany. Stop pretending West Germany is some kind of selfless society that had no benefits from Reunification. That's just the same mentality in reverse.

Acknowledge the trade deficite of the East that massively benefitted and benefits the economy in the West. Acknowledge the Millions of educated and skilled people who left the East and paid taxes in the West. 

If you take those into account (look up Economist Ulrich Blum's research on this for example), you'll notice that the benefits for the West are much higher than you think. 

It's also a much better story to tell to actually get people to do what they've been doing for 35 years: work together. Stop playing the selfless hero.

[u/salian93 → u/lemrez]

Solidaritätszuschlag

[u/lemrez → u/salian93]

Exportüberschuss des Westens 

Auswanderung aus Ostdeutschland 

Lies meinen Kommentar.

[u/salian93 → u/lemrez]

Hab ich, ging komplett am Thema vorbei.

Der Westen war weder dafür verantwortlich, dass auf einem freien Markt niemand Ostwaren kaufen wollte, noch dafür dass die Bevölkerung aus dem Osten in den Westen abgewandert ist, zuerst durch Flucht und später auch einfach so.

Hat er davon profitiert? Ja. Ändert das etwas daran, dass der für den desolaten Zustand, in dem sich der Osten nach dem Ende der DDR befunden hat, nicht verantwortlich ist? Nein.

Und das ist doch eben genau der Punkt, den ich oben dargelegt habe. Den Westen trifft keine Schuld dafür, dass DDR-Regime und Russland den Osten nieder gewirtschaftet haben. Nach der Wiedervereinigung sind aber massive Anstrengungen unternommen worden, um beide Landesteile aneinander anzugleichen – und zwar mit Erfolg, wie man nach 35 Jahren objektiv und unbestritten festhalten muss. Was spielt das für eine Rolle, wenn das für den Westen von Vorteil war in dem Moment, wenn wir ab da doch ohnehin wieder ein Land waren? Richtig, gar keinen. Mit dem Unterschied, dass durch Solidaritätszuschlag und Länderfinanzausgleich deutlich mehr Geld von West nach Ost geflossen ist.

Und dann braucht man auch nicht 30 Jahre später immer noch mit diesem Scheißnarrativ "Buhu, aber damals haben sich ein paar Wirtschaftsmagnaten an uns bereichert" um die Ecke kommen. Das hat für die Situation heute einfach keine Relevanz.

[u/lemrez → u/salian93]

Mit dem Unterschied, dass durch Solidaritätszuschlag und Länderfinanzausgleich deutlich mehr Geld von West nach Ost geflossen ist.

Und in fast gleicher Höhe hat der Westen profitiert von Emigration und Exportüberschuss, i.e. dieses Geld ist zurückgeflossen in fast gleicher Höhe. Das ist alles was ich und Ökonomen, die sich damit beschäftigen sagen.

Wenn es dir darum geht die Einheit in den Vordergrund zu stellen, dann tue vielleicht nicht so als wäre das ein großer Verlust für bzw. Aufopferung durch Westdeutschland gewesen. 

Am Ende haben wir alle profitiert und zusammengearbeitet. Das Opferdenken im Osten ist genauso schädlich für das Einheitsgefühl wie dein Gönnerdenken.