| The Trabi: this was the mainstay of East German roads before unification. An odd fact: after unification statisticians noticed a sudden decrease in the life expectancy of males. They had no reason for this, thinking perhaps suicides or the stress of unification was a factor. On closer analysis they found out that car accidents had caused the dramatic statistical change. East German highways had been made for cars like this, which has even less power than size. When they tried to take Mercedes, Audis, and BMWs on the highway, they and the highways couldn't handle such powerful and fast cars. |
| This is a train station near the town of Bitterfeld, 1995. In the background you can see a factory -- this was the industrial region of old East Germany. When I went by train through here in 1989 we had to close the train windows despite 90 degree heat since the pollution was so bad it stank. Cars of people living in the region were covered with soot from the factories. Now most of the factories are closed -- they are too dirty and inefficient to operate, and it would be very expensive to renovate. Some employed over 15,000, that's how big they were. These areas often remain economically depressed with high unemployment rates. Recovery from the Communist system is taking longer and is far more costly than people had imagined. |
