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The east has never been economically very strong, it used to be huge feudal-style farms and a bit of high-tech industry (planes, optics, trains, electronics in

The east has never been economically very strong, it used to be huge feudal-style farms and a bit of high-tech industry (planes, optics, trains, electronics in the 1930s). Not too different from now. Then there was the GDR which made things much worse. It's not really West Germany that caused the weak economy of the East Germany. The handling of reunification did suck, but you can't just will a strong industrial base into existence neither.

sajithdilshan 10d ago
I would say they never got the stability to build a strong economic foundation. During Prussian times the port cities like Danzig and Köngisberg flourished and attracted the capital of eastern Prussia and after the WWII, they had to deal with the oppression from the soviets. The Soviets took whatever they can from the Eastern Germany and they just had to build everything from the scratch, unlike the west that got help from the other western countries like US/Marshal plan. Also when the Germany was partitioned whatever industrial base remained in the east moved to west or southern Germany because they didn’t wanted to be under socialism. Even to this day the western German, especially the older ones considers the Eastern Germans as a second class citizens and there hasn’t been any significant investment in Eastern part to build an industrial base (except for in Berlin and its suburbs) by any government even though the west payed a tax (solidarity) especially for that.
- usrusr 10d ago
  > there hasn’t been any significant investment in Eastern part to build an industrial base (except for in Berlin and its suburbs) Dresden is not a Berlin suburb. When it comes to investment in semiconductor industry, Dresden has likely seen more than the entire rest of Germany together.
  - sajithdilshan 10d ago
    I remember the previous Green government giving tax relief for Intel to build a factory in Dresden, but I don’t think it worked out. Also Dresden is only one city and what about the rest of the former East German states?

sajithdilshan 10d ago

I would say they never got the stability to build a strong economic foundation. During Prussian times the port cities like Danzig and Köngisberg flourished and attracted the capital of eastern Prussia and after the WWII, they had to deal with the oppression from the soviets. The Soviets took whatever they can from the Eastern Germany and they just had to build everything from the scratch, unlike the west that got help from the other western countries like US/Marshal plan. Also when the Germany was partitioned whatever industrial base remained in the east moved to west or southern Germany because they didn’t wanted to be under socialism. Even to this day the western German, especially the older ones considers the Eastern Germans as a second class citizens and there hasn’t been any significant investment in Eastern part to build an industrial base (except for in Berlin and its suburbs) by any government even though the west payed a tax (solidarity) especially for that.

usrusr 10d ago
> there hasn’t been any significant investment in Eastern part to build an industrial base (except for in Berlin and its suburbs) Dresden is not a Berlin suburb. When it comes to investment in semiconductor industry, Dresden has likely seen more than the entire rest of Germany together.
- sajithdilshan 10d ago
  I remember the previous Green government giving tax relief for Intel to build a factory in Dresden, but I don’t think it worked out. Also Dresden is only one city and what about the rest of the former East German states?