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The first thing that occurred when the Berlin Wall was torn down, was defection from the East to the West ceased. One of the biggest reasons the Wall was torn down, is all the people who had skills that could be marketed in the West like doctors and restaurant cooks defected to the West. (Very easy to do at the time--Hungary had opened its borders but, because Hungary was a member of the Warsaw Pact and citizens of Warsaw Pact nations could easily travel between them, the East Germans could do nothing to keep people from going to Hungary.)

Next, the wheels that led to reunification of the two Germanies were set in motion. The West German constitution contained two methods of reunifying the two nations from the time it was written: one just made the East German laender part of West Germany (this, with a few modifications, was the path ultimately taken), and the other required the two governments to sit down, throw away all their laws and create new laws written by both nations. The only two East German laws of any significance that made it into the laws of the new country were: abortion was legalized (it was illegal in West Germany, legal in East Germany, and this issue alone almost killed reunification), and it became legal to turn right on a red signal. Of course, the traffic courts in West Germany REALLY hated this--busting American soldiers for turning right on red, which is legal in the US, and fining them hundreds of marks was a long-term moneymaker for police departments anywhere there was a US base.

Then came monetary unification. To do this, the West Germans exchanged East Marks for West Marks on a 1-to-1 basis. You had to be an East German to do it, which is a good thing: before monetary unification, you could go to any bank in West Berlin and buy 100 East Marks for 18 West Marks. (Berlin-based soldiers loved this--it was possible to get a pass to go to East Berlin as long as you left before midnight; I worked for a warrant officer whose idea of a good time was to gather three other soldiers (in my unit, we had to go over in groups of four or more), exchange 100 West Marks for East Marks, go to East Berlin and have dinner in the best restaurant in the city. And to be perfectly honest, the best restaurant in East Berlin had better food than the best restaurant in West Berlin.)

Next came reunification.

And finally, came a LOT of new taxes and fees to help pay for what just happened. There's a tax called Solidarity Tax, and the Polizei started writing speeding tickets as fast as their fingers would move.

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13y ago

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