Re: what's wrong with eastern germans?

royls_at_telus.net
Date: 07/28/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:52:27 GMT

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:35:02 +0200, "Volker Hetzer"
<volker.hetzer@ieee.org> wrote:

><royls@telus.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:41068af7.2915790@news.telus.net...
>> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 16:53:41 +0200, "Volker Hetzer"
>> <volker.hetzer@ieee.org> wrote:
>> >> >Short time later most east germans were fired.
>> >>
>> >> ?? Completely false.
>> >Oh, right? I know of *NO ONE* apart from government clerks
>> >and some teachers who wasn't unemployed at least once after
>> >the unification.
>>
>> You just don't know enough people, then. The German government
>> arranged for many industrial concerns to be privatized with
>> undertakings by the new owners not to fire workers.
>Yes. Most of which were kept for at least three months.

In most cases they were also still employed years later.

>Also, you simply *can't* force an employer to keep employees.
>Because you can't force him not to close the plant. At least not
>for an infinite amount of time.

True, sometmies companies gave undertakings that they were
subsequently unable to fulfill, and went broke. That's the free
market for you.

>Synthesewerk Schwarzheide was one of the bigger examples.
>Big promise not to fire people, shortly later the factory
>was closed, unemployment rose from 10% to 80% in one go
>in that area.

Now was that merely a _promise_ not to fire, or an actual contract
with consequences?

>There were other things too going on, like in the company my
>mother worked. New boss from west germany, big mouthed
>like anything, disappeared with 5 million.

Well, it's not like similar things didn't happen in East Germany
before unification.

>> >> >Remember that literally all factories and
>> >> >industries in east germany were smashed in the first years after reunion.
>> >>
>> >> ?? False and ridiculous.
>> >Ok, it took three years. Other than that I've seen enough ruins.
>>
>> That is just false. There are ruins, of course, but also many intact
>> and still operating industrial establishments that have been and are
>> gradually upgrading their capital equipment.
>I'm not going to enter a credentials fight here, nor do I claim to have rented
>the truth. It's a free country and anyone is invited to visit
>east germany and have a look at the industrial landscape today and in what
>ways it differs from west germany.

?? It was also very different before unification.

>But even if Dresden is tempting for cultural
>reasons you should not limit your experience to the saxon state because that's
>the rich one, comparatively.

Yes, some places are better than others. East Berlin is not in bad
shape economically, although it still looks pretty awful. One of my
clients is still running some paper plants in Thuringia that date back
decades. Anything related to resource extraction, like mining or
forestry, is likely still operating.

>Maybe we have different perceptions about closure of companies?
>Maybe you go after the published numbers of insolvencies?

It's not that hard to find information on the Web about companies that
are still operating pre-unification plants.

-- Roy L

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