Map of Germany
During the Cold War, Germany became the center for the conflict between Communism and Democracy. Germany was the site where all the tensions between the two ideals was played out. Because of its location as the farthest western city to the east, Berlin was torn in half by the struggling parties. The repercussions of this are what is shaping the problems in modern day Germany. The neglect that East Germany suffered at the hands of the Communists would cause not only economic problems but also social problems as the Western and Eastern Germans grew apart as a people. The scars that the Communist Party left on the East Germans are still being repaired. The reconstruction of East Germany would almost bankrupt the West. Not only had much of East Germany not been rebuilt, most of what was produced had been shipped back to the Soviet Union as "war reparations".
Divided Germany had also caused a social split to occur between the Eastern and Western Germans. The Western German's lives had greatly improved since the end of World War Two but the Eastern German's lives were still mired in the destruction wrought by the war that could not be fixed under the Communist regime. These differences caused East Germans to view their western relatives as pampered and privileged. These social and economic issues are still being repaired in Germany and the end of the social schism does not appear yet to be in sight.